In the first half of this year, China continued to be a net importer of coal. Experts say this was partly because of changes in international coal prices. Meanwhile, coal continues to account for a large portion of energy consumption in China. Chen Zhe has the details.
If a country's value of imported products is greater than the value of its exports of the same product, the difference is known as the net import. In the first half of the year, China continued to be a net importer of coal.
Chen Yong, Director of the Guangzhou Institute of Energy Conversion at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, believes that coal prices in the international market have been greatly affected by the global financial crisis.
"Suffering from the global financial crisis, international coal prices are lower than domestic coal prices. This has led many companies, especially those on the country's southeastern coast, to buy coal from the international market. "
Yue Fubin, Professor of Economics at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and Director of the Institute for China's Coal Economy, says part of the imported coal was from Chinese-owned coal mine in other countries.
"Some Chinese companies buy coal mines abroad. If the coal produced by these companies is transported to
