Coal behemoths on the horizon

China plans to create about 10 mega coal companies by 2020 through mergers and reorganizations, as part of its long-standing efforts to cut overcapacity, said a top official of the National Energy Administration.

Wang Xiaolin, deputy director of the NEA, said the country is preparing guidelines to overhaul the bloated sector, and aims to create several new behemoths with annual capacity of 100 million metric tons by 2020.

There were six producers in the country reaching such capacity last year, said Zhang Hong, deputy secretary-general of the China National Coal Association.