China's supply of coal largely managed to meet domestic demand in the first half of this year, sources with the National Reform and Development Commission said on Sunday.

The top economic planning agency estimated between January and June, 1.26 billion tons of coal were produced nationwide, a growth of 10.1 percent over last year. The growth rate in the first half year was 2.5 percentage points higher than the growth of entire last year.

The total included 1.08 billion tons of raw coal by major enterprises, up 11.4 percent.

Thanks to state policy for restricting coal export and encouraging import as well as appreciation of Renminbi, China turned from a net exporter to a net importer of strategic resources in the first half year.

In the six-month period, China imported 27.07 million tons of coal, up 47.6 percent, and exported 23.12 million tons, down 27.9 percent.

The net imports stood at 3.95 million tons, as against a net export volume of 13.74 million tons for the same period of last year. This increased the total coal supply by 17.69 million tons.

In terms of demand, fixed-asset investment kept rising and major coal-consuming products had their output grow rapidly in the first six months.

From January to June, the economic planning agency estimated, approximately 1.263 billion tons of coal were consumed nationwide, up 12.2 percent. The growth rate was two percentage points higher than that for the whole of last year.

(Xinhua News Agency September 3, 2007)