Coal producer Shenhua's profit rises 46% in Q3

A worker prepares for coking coal production at a plant in Wuhai, the Inner Mongolia autonomous region. [Photo/Xinhua]

China's largest coal producer saw profit jump 46 percent in the third quarter amid a price surge following the government's efforts to curb the oversupply.

Net income at China Shenhua Energy Co, the biggest coal miner in the world's largest energy consumer, rose to 7.48 billion yuan ($1.1 billion) from about 5.1 billion yuan in the same period last year, the Beijing-based company said in a statement to the Shanghai Stock Exchange.

Coal prices have made a comeback after five years of declines because of a reduction in domestic supply.

The central government earlier this year ordered miners to operate for the equivalent of 276 days of production, down from the standard 330 days, as part of its efforts to revitalize the industry and curb industrial overcapacity. This helped spur the nation's benchmark power-station coal prices more than 70 percent so far this year.

"Shenhua and China Coal Energy Co have obviously benefited from the coal price surge in the previous quarter," Leo Wu, an analyst with Guotai Junan Securities Co, said before the earnings were released. "China Coal's output decline should have been offset by the price gain."

China Coal, the second-biggest miner, said on Friday that net income swung to a 401.3 million yuan profit in the first nine months of the year from a loss of 1.59 billion yuan in the same period last year.

BLOOMBERG