BEIJING - China's June coal production fell 9.7% from a year earlier, the National Bureau of Statistics said on July 15, after a deadly mine accident in late May led to safety checks that tightened supply.

June output was 380.88-million tons. Average daily output for June was 12.7-million tons, the lowest since July 2025.

An accident at the Liushenyu coal mine in Shanxi province on May 22 killed 82, becoming China's worst mining disaster in 17 years.

A few days after the accident, more than 300 000 tons a day of coal capacity in the province had stopped production for safety inspections, consultancy Mysteel said at the time.

Production in the region has now partially recovered and capacity utilisation is at 72.6%, up 6.3 percentage points from June, Mysteel said in a weekly market commentary.

China's coal output over the first six months of the year reached 2.37-billion metric tons, down 1.7% compared with the
same period of last year.

For the full year, Mysteel still expects a slight year-on-year rise in output to 4.87-billion tons as power demand rises and prices of imported coal remain high. That would be a record high, up from last year's 4.83-million tons although stricter safety oversight will constrain further output growth.

Reuters also reported on July 15 that China's fossil-fuel power generation rose 0.5% in June from a year earlier.

Data from the National Bureau of Statistics found the growth in China's thermal electricity, generated mostly by coal
with a small amount from natural gas, was slower than the 2.1% rise in May when lower wind speeds curbed renewable output, indicating non-fossil generation likely recovered in June.

Thermal power generation over the first six months of the year was up 2.9% from a year earlier.

Hydropower volumes rose 4.8% in June and 9.3% in the first six months of 2026.

Overall power generation rose 2% to 827.6-billion kilowatt-hours (kWh) in June.

The statistics bureau data covers output from industrial enterprises with revenue above 20-million yuan ($2.95-million),
so it likely understated total output because of the omission of some small-scale renewables.

By comparison, China's National Energy Administration reported on Wednesday that power consumption rose 3.7% in June to 898.1-billion kWh.

Power generation is typically higher than consumption because power is lost to transmission loss and curtailment, though generation and consumption usually grow at similar rates.

Over the first six months, power generation reached 4.75-trillion kWh, up 3.5% from the same period last year, the statistics bureau data showed.

The energy administration reported power consumption rose 5.3% in the first half of the year to 5.09 trillion kWh, in line with analyst expectations for roughly 5% growth in power demand this year.

The battery swapping and charging, internet data services, and high-tech manufacturing sectors all had higher-than-average power demand growth at 56.9%, 44%, and 9.8%, respectively, the energy administration said.

By contrast, residential power consumption grew at a slower pace over the six months, rising 3.1% during January to June. For June, residential power demand was down 3.1%.