China's Coal Crunch To Get Worse During 2005 - Reuters

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BEIJING - "China's coal shortage is expected to worsen this year in the face of increasing demand, the China Daily reported on Friday, as it struggles to clean up the world's deadliest mining industry.

Coal consumption in China, the world's seventh-biggest economy, is expected to increase by 6 percent, to 2.1 billion tons, with demand continuing to outpace supply, the newspaper quoted Pu Hongjiu, deputy director of the China Coal Industry Association, as saying.
Coal fires up more than two thirds of China's generators.

"Small mines with a production capacity of at least 200 million tons have to be shut down because they lack necessary safety control facilities," the report said.

Coal mine disasters killed more than 6,000 people in China last year, but the government's pledges to shut down small, illegal mines conflict with its rampant appetite for energy to feed its booming economy."

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