China coal industry association recently released the "coal industry development report 2018" (hereinafter referred to as the "report") predicted that in 2019, China's coal consumption is expected to remain basically stable, the increment is not large;The release of domestic coal production capacity will be accelerated, the capacity of major coal railway transport channels will be increased, and the coal supply capacity will be further increased.

"In 2019, coal prices will remain stable and there is no room for significant downward adjustment."Yang xianfeng, chairman of the China coal transport and marketing association, said at a press conference on Thursday that factors such as overcapacity reduction, structural changes in inventories and a higher proportion of medium - and long-term contracts have all played a big role in restraining coal price fluctuations, which will be much smaller this year than in previous years.

In 2018, national coal consumption achieved a small increase, up 1 percent year-on-year, according to the report.

Jiang zhimin, vice-chairman of the China coal industry association, said coal consumption was expected to fluctuate at high levels in the future.

In terms of supply, the country's raw coal output rose 4.5 percent year-on-year to 3.68 billion tons in 2018.Net imports rose 5.2 per cent year-on-year to 276 million tonnes, the highest level in nearly four years.

According to the report, the current coal production capacity is still large, but the structural problems are still prominent, and the overall overcapacity will become the norm in the coming period.

It is worth noting that the proportion of medium - and long-term coal contracts will be further increased in 2019.Yang xianfeng says, according to China association of coal industry nearly two years observation, the proportion of medium - and long-term contract of a few large coal enterprises amounts to 90% to 100%.

Zhi-min jiang pointed out that the reform and development of coal industry still faces many deep-seated contradictions and problems: the total coal production capacity is relatively surplus situation has not changed, the market supply and demand balance is relatively weak, the basis of fully the problems of unbalanced development of the industry, the productivity level to be promoted, to capacity and the "three for raised" separation handover, brain drain and the mining problem such as line hire to replace is still outstanding.