Shenhua group chairman Chen Biting said the increasing cost of transporting coal from China’s own resources heartland in the north-west of the country made offshore mines potentially competitive.
"If we transport from the west to the east and then to the south, the distance will be a little bit longer than that from Indonesia to Guangdong and the profit would not be so good," Chen told the Financial Times.
On Monday, Hong-Kong listed Shenhua won the right to list its shares in Shanghai, a move that the company's executives say will help finance expansion at home and internationally.
