BEIJING (Reuters) - China said on Friday it plans to create several "super-large" coal mining companies by the end of 2020 as the world's biggest producer of the fuel ramps up years of efforts to streamline the sector and slash outdated capacity.
The country's National Development & Reform Commission (NDRC) said in a statement that by the end of 2020, China plans to form a number of mega-miners, each with the capacity to produce 100 million tonnes per year of coal, which will compete on the global market and help to modernise the sector.
As of June last year, China had more than 4,000 coal mines with total capacity of 3.41 billion tonnes a year, the National Energy Administration (NEA) said in November. In 2016, China produced 3.64 billion tonnes of coal.
The plan follows the acquisition last year of state power company China Guodian Group Corp by China's top coal miner Shenhua Group Corp Ltd to create the world's largest utility.
The latest arranged marriage by the government was part of Beijing's effort to shake up its indebted and inefficient state sector, streamline the number of companies and create globally competitive firms in sectors including power generation, shipping and metals.
(Reporting by Muyu Xu and Josephine Mason; Editing by Kenneth Maxwell and Christian Schmollinger)
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