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China approves coal emergency reserve plan

By Gao Yuan (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2011-03-23 15:38

China's first coal emergency storage proposal has been approved by the State Council, and the first batch of reserve has been set at five million tons, the Shanghai Securities News reported Wednesday, citing information from the China National Coal Association.

According to the plan, storage baskets will be assigned to ten large-scale coal mines and power companies, as well as eight coastal ports across the country. The central government will subsidize the companies undertaking the storage mission, the newspaper said.

Some provincial level regions and municipalities, including Beijing, Shanxi, Shandong and Hubei have also launched their own proposals. A number of projects are already under construction or operating, the report said.

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Shandong province pledged to set up six to eight provincial level coal emergency storage bases by 2015, and the volume was reported to exceed six million tons. Meanwhile, China's capital, Beijing, clinched five sites around the downtown area to warehouse about three million tons of coal as predicted, the newspaper said.

Analysts believe the storage plan will not only help to secure the country's energy safety, but to ease the pressure on market supply in the short run.

However, some industry insiders suggested an overall consideration should be given before local governments decide to establish a storage base, because the construction of a storage system could be extremely complicated, it said.