China has mobilized all its railway container trucks to ensure
power coal transport. Their only other use is to be for moving
relief materials so as to ease the power constraints plaguing the
country's snow-ravaged central, southern and eastern regions,
Xinhua learned Sunday from the Ministry of Railway.
The latest ministry figures revealed more than 42,200 container
trucks loaded with power coal on Friday, a rise of 12,000 from the
previous day, a new record.
The line between Datong in coal producing province of Shanxi and
Qinhuangdao, a port city in Hebei Province, a railway which is
exclusively used for heavily-loaded coal transport trains, also set
a new daily freight record of 1 million tons.
The unprecedented rush for coal power transport came after
China's cabinet installed an emergency command center on Friday
morning to coordinate contingency measures for coal, oil and power
supply, and transport and disaster relief in the country's snow-hit
regions.
About half the country's cargo trains, some 300,000 in all, are
railway container trucks for the transport of such staple goods as
minerals, building materials, timber and steel products.
The Railway Ministry didn't say when the order would be stopped.
Sources close to the command center, however, said what ensues over
the next 14 days will be "a tense national encounter" against power
coal shortage.
By Jan. 31, the aggregate inventory of domestic coal producers
stood at 34.74 million tons, down 11.3 percent or 4.43 million tons
from the end of last year and a drop of 630,000 tons or 1.8 percent
from the same period of last year, according to the figures
released by the State Administration of Working Safety (SAWS) on
Sunday.
Nearly 90 power plants, which accounted for more than 10 percent
of the national gross installed capacity, had less than three days
of coal reserve. Many regions had suffered blackouts for hours.
Recognizing coal supply as a crucial part in fighting against
snow disaster, Chinese President Hu Jintao entered a mine more than
400 meters underground in Datong on Thursday, giving a pep talk to
local workers and administrators. "Disaster-hit areas need coal and
the power plants need coal," he said.
To remedy the severe situation, the Railway Ministry has started
a daily video-telephone meeting on Friday to adjust transport
arrangements in a timely fashion to send power coal to where it is
needed most.
The worst-hit Hunan, Hubei, Jiangxi, Sichuan and Guizhou
provinces have been put under close scrutiny. Hunan's Chenzhou, for
instance, has been cut off from power and water over the past eight
days, leaving thousands of households dark and cold. The cities of
Hengyang and Yongzhou have also experienced periodic blackouts.
As the Beijing-Guangzhou Railway is currently under pressure
from passenger transport, the Railway Ministry urged cargo trains
to take roundabout routes to deliver the coal as quickly as
possible.
All railway bureaus are required to submit daily reports
upgrading their power coal transport volume, local power coal
stockpiles and consumption, ministry sources said.
At an overnight emergency meeting held within the command
center, delegates from 23 Party governmental departments, including
traffic, public security, finance, health care and information, as
well as armed forces and energy giants, shared and analyzed the
latest developments in power coal supply.
Some 83 percent of key state-owned coal mines are set to keep
production during the Spring Festival, the State Administration of
Working Safety (SAWS) told a press conference on Saturday, and that
number is expect to reach 90 percent.
"Normally, State-owned collieries will use the Spring Festival
to examine and repair mining equipment and facilities. Such
examination will be postponed this year to boost output," said Zhi
Tongxiang, director with SAWS's Production Control and Statistics
Department
By Sunday morning, five provinces namely Shanxi, Shaanxi, Henan,
Anhui, Shandong have required all local state-owned coal mines to
continue production during the seven-day Spring Festival holiday
that begins on Wednesday.
Major coal producer Shanxi, which shipped 87 percent of its 2007
output (550 million tons) outside the province, requested all
state-owned collieries to keep up production during the
festival.
In response, Datong-based Tongmei Company Group decided to
shorten its Spring Festival holiday to a single day, while Shanxi
Coking Coal Group lowered its coal consumption for metallurgy and
supplied 60 percent of its coal output to power plants.
The centrally-administered Shenhua Group, the country's largest
coal distributor boasting a 1,369-kilometer rail line with a
transport capacity of 128 million tons, decided to operate its 54
collieries at full steam during the festival. It awarded workers
extra bonus and tripled their overtime payment as required by
law.
A Shenhua executive said the company's February output would be
20.2 million tons, up 12 percent from January's 18 million
tons.
SAWS figure showed the January coal output hit 185 million tons,
up 3.1 percent year on year. About half of the total or 99.94
million tons were generated by centrally-administered collieries, a
year-on-year rise of 5 percent.
General manager Li Xiaopeng of Huaneng Group, the country's
largest power generator, said the constraints of power coal supply
were easing gradually, but several of its power plants had coal
reserves unable to last one more week.
Ma Kai, National Development and Reform
Commission minister, recognized power coal supply as "an issue of
national significance". He urged relevant departments to seize on
the subdued passenger traffic during the Spring Festival to
replenish the coal reserves of power plants to rational levels.
Nine work teams have fanned out across the country's major coal
producing provinces to organize, coordinate production and mobilize
state-owned collieries to boost output while securing production
safety, sources with the SAWA said.
(Xinhua News Agency February 3, 2008)
