Reforms give a fillip to high-quality coal generation

China's coal industry saw reasonably fluctuating prices and increased profitability in 2018, thanks to basically balanced supply and demand, according to a report issued by the China National Coal Association on Friday.

The report estimated China's supply quality in 2019 will keep improving because of the ongoing supply-side reform that optimizes production capacity structure, while demand is likely to remain stable in 2019 and beyond.

China is likely to consume about 4 billion metric tons of coal annually in the next five years, despite some assumptions that consumption would drop within a few years because of changes in the country's energy mix, the association said.