Category: coal

China’s October Coal Imports Doubled Year on Year as Winter Approaches

China’s October coal imports nearly doubled its year-on-year for October, according to a report from the General Administration of Customs published on Nov. 7. The import increase comes as concerns escalate about power shortages, due to the approaching winter. China bought 26.9 million tons of coal in October, which amounts to a 96.2% increase in…


‘No Chance’ of Net Zero by 2050: Oil Exec Chris Wright Weighs in on COP26

Chris Wright, CEO of the frac firm Liberty Oilfield Services, dislikes the term “climate denier.” The label is both pejorative and, in Wright’s case, inaccurate. “Climate change is a real thing,” Wright told The Epoch Times in a conversation at the National Conservatism Conference II. “Humans have increased greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.” Much of…


China’s Push for Carbon Neutrality Appears to Be a Lie

Commentary Mother Nature, we’re told, is incredibly sick. According to one China expert, Chinese leader Xi Jinping is the man to “save the planet.” However, Xi is not an environmentalist; moreover, as this short piece demonstrates, Beijing’s climate-based pledges are heavy on promises, but devoid of genuine progress. In many ways, China’s climate-centered promises contradict…


China Power Generators’ Profits Tumble on Record Coal Prices

BEIJING—Earnings for China’s power utilities during the first three quarters of 2021 have plunged as the companies were squeezed by surging coal costs that they could not pass on to consumers. Huadian Power International, a subsidiary of China Huadian Corp., on Tuesday reported profits for the January-September period dropped 58 percent from a year earlier…


Rising Price of Imported Coal Sparks India’s Biggest Electricity Crisis

India, the second-most populous country in the world, is facing an unprecedented electricity crisis due to a shortage of coal, which is disrupting the production in thermal power plants. India’s coal-fired, thermal-power plants account for nearly 54 percent of the country’s electricity generation capacity. The disruptions have caused some states to resort to limited daily power…


Power Squeeze Curbs Chinese Growth, Leaves Europe in a Gas Bind

BEIJING/MOSCOW/PRAGUE—China’s power shortages hit growth in the world’s second-biggest economy, threatening more pain for global supply chains, while Europe’s gas squeeze looked set to continue as Russia’s Gazprom showed no sign of hiking exports to the region in October. Coal, oil, and gas prices have all rocketed higher in recent weeks hammering utilities and consumers…


China Coal Hits Record High Amid Tight Supplies

BEIJING—China coal prices hit a record high on Tuesday buoyed by a widening power crunch and cold weather despite Beijing’s efforts to bolster supply. Thermal coal for January delivery, the most actively traded contract on the Zhengzhou Commodity Exchange, hit a record high of 1,982 yuan per ton. Prices are up more than 260 percent…


China’s Factory Gate Inflation Index Reaches Record High

China’s factory-gate inflation index, the PPI, rose 10.7 percent from a year earlier in September—the highest level on record—driven in part by soaring energy prices, and potentially adding to global inflation pressure. The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Thursday released the figure that measures price fluctuations of goods at the factory gate. China’s producer price index…


Ideology, Not Market, Driving Coal Decisions: Australia Resources Minister

MELBOURNE—Global regulators, banks, and investors are making ideological rather than market-based investment decisions around coal, which will still have solid demand in the coming decades, Australia’s Resources Minister Keith Pitt told Reuters on Thursday. Pitt’s National Party, a junior member of Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s governing coalition that represents many Australians in coal-producing districts, has…


China’s Coal Price Hits Record High Amid Growing Power Crisis

The price of thermal coal used to generate electricity in China surged to a fresh high on Oct. 13, adding more pressure on Beijing as it attempts to tackle an ongoing power crisis. More than half of the country has recently experienced power rationing, which has disrupted the daily lives of tens of millions of…