China's coal reserves down to just 12 days: report

BEIJING: China only has enough coal for 12 days of consumption, three days less than a month ago, state media reported Wednesday, sounding the alarm bells over the nation's most important source of energy. In certain parts of China, such as densely populated Hebei province in the north, reserves are down to less than a week, Xinhua news agency reported, citing the China Electricity Regulatory Commission. In the period since early March, coal reserves have slumped by 12 percent to 46.7 million tonnes, according to the commission.

Reasons for the shortage were "multi-dimensional," the commission was quoted as saying, without elaborating. Demand for coal has risen rapidly since China experienced brown-outs early this decade, motivating a construction frenzy in the power industry, with large numbers of new coal-fired plants emerging across the country. China counts on coal for about 70 percent of its energy consumption, a proportion that has stayed almost unchanged for the past nearly three decades despite a skyrocketing rise in demand for power.