Coal futures in China tumbled after a senior government official predicted that a rise in supply would weaken prices, as concerns over power shortages rise across the country’s southern manufacturing heartlands.
The price of Zhengzhou-traded coal futures for delivery in September fell 7 per cent to Rmb790 per tonne on Monday. The slide came a day after state-run news service Xinhua quoted an unnamed official at China’s top economic planning agency as saying that higher production, increased imports and greater use of solar and hydropower would lead prices to “drop significantly” from July.
Prices in China surged to a record last month as shortages across manufacturing hubs in the south of the country highlighted a lack of coal supply.