Coal prices surge; power squeeze hits China’s economy, global supply

Power shortages helped drive China’s economic growth to its slowest pace in a year, while a hike in coal prices on Monday caused further damage to the Chinese industry and global supply chains. There is a risk of pain.
The Czech Republic’s energy regulator took the extraordinary step of asking suppliers to provide assurances that they could supply electricity to homes and companies after one of the country’s electricity and gas conglomerates stopped the supply.
Suppliers in other European markets, including the UK, have also been bent on rising energy prices in recent weeks.
In Asia, electricity provider Om Energy said on its website that it pulled out of the retail electricity market in Singapore on Friday, the third company to do so in recent weeks.
To ease China’s woes, Beijing has taken several steps to boost production of coal, which fuels about 60% of its power plants. But Monday’s data showed that those steps were taking time to complete, even as power demand continued to rise.
Official data showed China’s coal production stood at 334.1 million tonnes last month, down from 335.24 million tonnes in August and 0.9% lower than a year ago.
That means September production averaged 11.14 million tonnes a day, a Businesshala calculation showed, compared with figures released last week that China said daily output was more than 11.2 million tonnes, in line with Beijing’s efforts.
Power shortages helped drive China’s economic growth to its slowest pace in a year, while a hike in coal prices on Monday caused further damage to the Chinese industry and global supply chains. There is a risk of pain.
The Czech Republic’s energy regulator took the extraordinary step of asking suppliers to provide assurances that they could supply electricity to homes and companies after one of the country’s electricity and gas conglomerates stopped the supply.
Suppliers in other European markets, including the UK, have also been bent on rising energy prices in recent weeks.
In Asia, electricity provider Om Energy said on its website that it pulled out of the retail electricity market in Singapore on Friday, the third company to do so in recent weeks.
To ease China’s woes, Beijing has taken several steps to boost production of coal, which fuels about 60% of its power plants. But Monday’s data showed that those steps were taking time to complete, even as power demand continued to rise.
Official data showed China’s coal production stood at 334.1 million tonnes last month, down from 335.24 million tonnes in August and 0.9% lower than a year ago.
That means September production averaged 11.14 million tonnes a day, a Businesshala calculation showed, compared with figures released last week that China said daily output was more than 11.2 million tonnes, in line with Beijing’s efforts.
Power shortages helped drive China’s economic growth to its slowest pace in a year, while a hike in coal prices on Monday caused further damage to the Chinese industry and global supply chains. There is a risk of pain.
The Czech Republic’s energy regulator took the extraordinary step of asking suppliers to provide assurances that they could supply electricity to homes and companies after one of the country’s electricity and gas conglomerates stopped the supply.
Suppliers in other European markets, including the UK, have also been bent on rising energy prices in recent weeks.
In Asia, electricity provider Om Energy said on its website that it pulled out of the retail electricity market in Singapore on Friday, the third company to do so in recent weeks.
To ease China’s woes, Beijing has taken several steps to boost production of coal, which fuels about 60% of its power plants. But Monday’s data showed that those steps were taking time to complete, even as power demand continued to rise.
Official data showed China’s coal production stood at 334.1 million tonnes last month, down from 335.24 million tonnes in August and 0.9% lower than a year ago.
That means September production averaged 11.14 million tonnes a day, a Businesshala calculation showed, compared with figures released last week that China said daily output was more than 11.2 million tonnes, in line with Beijing’s efforts.
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