China's breakneck economic growth is causing a dangerous shortage of its most important energy source, coal, with potential consequences for the entire world, state media warned yesterday.
Scarcity is so severe officials even worry aloud that it could cause social instability among the 1.3 billion Chinese, the China Business Weekly reported.
PHOTO: AFP
"The imbalance between coal demand and supply will become more acute this year," the National Development and Reform Commission said, according to the paper.
"Easing the tightened coal supply will be the first priority for us," said the commission, the nation's top planning agency.
China is the world's largest consumer and producer of coal, which accounts for about two thirds of its energy needs.
The impact of the coal shortage could be global since soaring domestic demand could force the government to cut off export quotas and push up global prices, the paper said.
Last year, when China's economy expanded by 9.5 percent, its voracious demand was a key factor in causing international prices of coal to double.
One of the first sectors to be affected when coal supplies are under pressure is the power industry, which consumes about half of China's coal output.
The paper said the government was concerned a disruption in the power supply during the Lunar New Year earlier this month could have sparked social instability.
To prevent this from happening, it ordered state-owned coal mines to operate throughout the week-long festival, while railroads were told to use the extra holiday runs to transport more coal.
The nation's coal consumption this year is expected to rise by 120 million tonnes, or six percent, to 2.1 billion tonnes, according to estimates by the China Coal Industry Association.
The problem is that the opening of new mines is likely to result in no more than an additional 100 million tonnes of coal in the course of this year, the paper said.
"New coal mines cannot meet the faster demand. There is little room for additional production," the National Development and Reform Commission said.
"All kinds of coal mines are almost operating at full capacity, or beyond capacity, and the pressure on safety is huge," it said.
The safety issue was highlighted most recently in the Sunjiawan coal mine in northeastern Liaoning province, which was among the operations that carried on extraction throughout the Lunar New Year festival.
The mine's workers only had one day off and towards the end of the festival it was struck by tragedy when a gas explosion erupted, killing up to 215 in China's worst recorded coal-industry disaster for over 60 years.
Even if overtaxed mines can produce the amount of coal needed to keep fueling the economy, there is no guarantee that it will reach power plants and factories.
Rail is the preferred method of transporting it from the mines in the north to the industrial centers in the east and south.
But the railway system is also overburdened by the hyperactive economy and last year more than 65 percent of all transportation requests had to be turned down.
WAITING GAME: The US has so far only offered a ‘best rate tariff,’ which officials assume is about 15 percent, the same as Japan, a person familiar with the matter said Taiwan and the US have completed “technical consultations” regarding tariffs and a finalized rate is expected to be released soon, Executive Yuan spokeswoman Michelle Lee (李慧芝) told a news conference yesterday, as a 90-day pause on US President Donald Trump’s “reciprocal” tariffs is set to expire today. The two countries have reached a “certain degree of consensus” on issues such as tariffs, nontariff trade barriers, trade facilitation, supply chain resilience and economic security, Lee said. They also discussed opportunities for cooperation, investment and procurement, she said. A joint statement is still being negotiated and would be released once the US government has made
NEW GEAR: On top of the new Tien Kung IV air defense missiles, the military is expected to place orders for a new combat vehicle next year for delivery in 2028 Mass production of Tien Kung IV (Sky Bow IV) missiles is expected to start next year, with plans to order 122 pods, the Ministry of National Defense’s (MND) latest list of regulated military material showed. The document said that the armed forces would obtain 46 pods of the air defense missiles next year and 76 pods the year after that. The Tien Kung IV is designed to intercept cruise missiles and ballistic missiles to an altitude of 70km, compared with the 60km maximum altitude achieved by the Missile Segment Enhancement variant of PAC-3 systems. A defense source said yesterday that the number of
‘CRUDE’: The potential countermeasure is in response to South Africa renaming Taiwan’s representative offices and the insistence that it move out of Pretoria Taiwan is considering banning exports of semiconductors to South Africa after the latter unilaterally downgraded and changed the names of Taiwan’s two representative offices, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said yesterday. On Monday last week, the South African Department of International Relations and Cooperation unilaterally released a statement saying that, as of April 1, the Taipei Liaison Offices in Pretoria and Cape Town had been renamed the “Taipei Commercial Office in Johannesburg” and the “Taipei Commercial Office in Cape Town.” Citing UN General Assembly Resolution 2758, it said that South Africa “recognizes the People’s Republic of China (PRC) as the sole
Taiwanese exports to the US are to be subject to a 20 percent tariff starting on Thursday next week, according to an executive order signed by US President Donald Trump yesterday. The 20 percent levy was the same as the tariffs imposed on Vietnam, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh by Trump. It was higher than the tariffs imposed on Japan, South Korea and the EU (15 percent), as well as those on the Philippines (19 percent). A Taiwan official with knowledge of the matter said it is a "phased" tariff rate, and negotiations would continue. "Once negotiations conclude, Taiwan will obtain a better