China's coal production up 3% in first three quarters

BEIJING -- China's output of raw coal went up 3 percent year-on-year in the first three quarters of this year, official data showed.

The country produced 3.44 billion tons of raw coal during the period, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.

In September alone, China's raw coal output edged up 0.4 percent year-on-year to 390 million tons.

The country imported 350 million tons of coal in the January-September period, up 73.1 percent from the same period last year, the data revealed.