More coal, power mergers in the pipeline

China's coal and power industries are expected to see more mergers in the second half of the year, due to State-owned enterprise reform policies, industry insiders believe.

"Encouraged by government policies to reduce the number of SOEs and promote mergers and reorganizations, integration between coal and power companies has become an inevitable trend," said Zuo Qianming, a senior coal analyst from Cinda Securities.

At the beginning of the year, the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission announced the acceleration of mergers among steel, coal and power companies through vertical and horizontal integration. It stressed that coal and power company consolidation is particularly important when thermal coal prices are high and volatile.