Coal stocks up in China

Large drop in electricity consumption leads to large coal inventories.

Combined coal stocks held by six Chinese power generators rose 2.5% in eastern and southern China, the country’s booming economic hubs, averaged 14.9 million tons last week.

Stocks held by Zhejiang Power, Shanghai Power, Guangdong Power (Yudean), Guodian, Datang and Huaneng represent 26.2 days of consumption, up 4.2 days week on week, said industry reports.

The six utilities used a combined 3.99 million metric tons of coal, or an average 570,400 metric tons per/day until mid-week last week, 13.6% lower week-on-week. Plummeting electricity consumption is to blame for the sizable drop in coal consumption by the six power generators, the report said.