The State Council has recently issued the Opinions on Resolving the Overcapacity Problem of the Coal Industry to Realize Development by Extricating the Coal Industry from Difficulties (the "Opinions").
The Opinions raise requirements, specify tasks and make deployments for resolving the overcapacity problem of the coal industry and promoting the development of coal enterprises by extricating them from difficulties in the coming period. The Opinions specify that the coal industry will have a further 500 million tons of capacity exited, 500 million tons of capacity reduced and restructured, with a substantial compression of coal capacity and moderate reduction of number of coal mines within three to five years from 2016. To this end, the Opinions put forward nine major tasks: strictly control new capacity; speed up the elimination of outdated capacity and other capacity not in compliance with the industrial policies; have the excess capacity exited in an orderly manner; promote the reform and restructuring of enterprises; promote the adjustment and transformation of the industry; exercise strict governance over unsafe production; strictly control production by exceeding capacity; exercise strict governance over construction in violation of laws and regulations; and strictly restrict the use of inferior coal.