China Battles to Contain Coal Price Surge as Dependency Worsens
- Another record year of output seen for dirtiest fossil fuel
- Beijing dials back its carbon goals for the steel industry
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China’s dependency on coal is likely to worsen this year as the authorities struggle to rein in prices after the Lunar New Year break.
Chinese miners dug up more than 4 billion tons of the dirtiest fossil fuel for the first time in 2021. The effort to stave off power outages involved unleashing some 300 million tons of capacity that’s still producing, and which is likely to add another 1% or 2% to annual output this year, according to forecasts from the Shanghai Shipping Exchange.