Positive April figures from the emerging coal power house helped along the January to April 2003 figures, at 391.2Mt for the period. This was up 13.7% on the 2002 January to April period.

The National Bureau statistics follow the release of statistics by the government-backed official Coal newspaper Zhongguo Meitan Bao who reported China´s 32 major coal companies who recorded total profits of more than US$940 million (780 million yuan) for the January to April 2003 period, up 25.9% on 2002.

AFX Asia found 27 of the 32 coal companies posted total profits of 860 million yuan, up 16.2% from the previous year, while five firms recorded a total loss of 80 million yuan, down 35.9%.

Demand for Chinese coal has been drawn from both from the domestic and international markets, with coal exports rising by 16.0% from the previous year to 29.54 million tons.