This year, China's coastal areas along the Yangtze Coal Demand continued to grow, January-September, the country's coastal ports completed coal shipments 565 million tons, an increase of 15.92 million tons compared with the same period; of which, the northern seven ports shipped 537 million tons of coal, an increase of 23.16 million tons. In the first half of this year, the overall coal market maintained a strong supply and demand trend, due to Sino-US trade friction and the completion of a higher throughput base in the second half of last year; in the second half of this year, the northern port coal shipment situation is less than the first half.

This year, the fundamentals of domestic economic development have not changed for a long time. From January to September, the national thermal power generation increased by 3.7%, and the coal throughput of the northern ports could increase by 15.92 million tons even with the import of 15.2 million tons of coal in January to September. This shows that the coal demand in coastal areas along the Yangtze River is still growing.

From January to early August this year, the domestic coal market maintained a double high supply and demand. In early August, the daily consumption of the six coastal power plants rose to a high of 830,000 tons. Beginning in mid August, the demand for coal market slowed down as civil electricity load declined. Influenced by peak-shifting production of high-energy-consuming enterprises, industrial power consumption is weakening; coupled with the good operation of hydropower, fuel voltage power is reduced, and the coal market remains flat. Influenced by Sino-US trade frictions, the industrial power consumption in Zhejiang and Shanghai, where the majority of foreign trade processing enterprises are located, has been low. In addition, the increase of purchased electricity in Zhejiang has brought impact on thermal power plants in this province, resulting in reduced thermal voltage and low coal consumption. With the increase of the storage of coal in winter, the driving enthusiasm of power plants has been restored, and the number of coal drawn ships has increased. It is the arrival of the peak of coal consumption in winter that obscures the slump of downstream demand.

In September and October, although the daily consumption of power plants recovered slowly, the rebound in winter storage demand led to the replenishment of some power plants, resulting in a marked improvement in the coal market. November is approaching, due to the increased demand for winter coal in the north, coupled with the increase in civil electricity load in central and Eastern China, pulling the market better, driving the coal market to continue to improve, coal demand increased. In December, the coldest month of the year, civil electricity load increased, led to a substantial increase in the number of coal-fired power plants, the market continued to improve, demand remained strong.

This year, China is expected to import 295 million tons of coal, an increase of 20 million tons over the previous year, while the total shipment of coal from coastal ports will reach 760 million tons, an increase of 20 million tons over the same period.