BEIJING, Aug. 21 (Xinhua) -- China's first large coal-electricity joint project, Huaneng Yimin Coal Electricity Corp. aims to increase its annual coal output to 20 million tones this year, reported Friday's China Daily.

    Located in Hulunbuir, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, the company, a subsidiary under China's leading power generator Huaneng Group, now has an installed capacity of 2,200 megawatts and an annual coal output of 15 million tonnes.

    The company is planning for its own coal-to-gas and coal-to-chemical projects to further diversify its business portfolio, said the newspaper, citing Yin Long, general manager of Huaneng Yimin.

    Rising coal prices have always been a headache for China's power generators. Last year, major power companies all incurred losses in their power generation business because of the sharp rise in coal prices, according to the newspaper.

    Coal-fired power accounts for more than 70 percent of China's total power generation. The country's main power companies have all accelerated their development of coal mine projects.

    China's power consumption in July rose 6 percent year on year to 342 billion kilowatt-hours, according to China's National Energy Administration (NEA). The figure was 10.9 percent more than that of June, NEA said.

    Meanwhile, the country's coal production continued to ease in the first half of this year on flat domestic demand amid the economic slowdown.

    Crude coal output increased 8.7 percent year on year to 1.36 billion tonnes in the first six months, but the growth was 6.1 percentage points lower than the same period a year ago, according to data released by the National Development and Reform Commission.

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