Coal giant to invest $3.6 billion in expansion

China Shenhua Energy Co., the nation’s biggest coal producer, said that it will spend about 27 billion yuan (US$3.5 billion) by the end of 2009 to expand output. The investment will come as Shenhua pursues a target of 200 million tons of annual production by the end of the decade, aiming to have 20,000 megawatts of power output by 2010, Chairman Chen Biting said. Coal producers in China are increasing capacity to meet rising demand. Supply and demand of coal in China will reach a balance in the second half, Chen said. That won’t prevent a shortage of “high quality” coal varieties used by power plants and steel makers in some areas, he said. First-half profit surged 20% to 10.3 billion yuan (US$1.3 billion), Shenhua said, because of increased energy demand in the country. Shenhua’s Hong Kong shares have surged 67% this year. (August 24, 2007)