Briefs, January 22, 2013

Mobile phone subscribers on the mainland reached 1.11 billion by the end of last year, according to data released by the country's three giant telecommunications operators. China is the world's largest mobile phone market by subscribers, with a user pool of one sixth the global population. China Mobile, the world's largest wireless network operator, had a total of 710.3 million subscribers by December, of whom 87.9 million were high-speed 3G users. China Unicom had 239.3 million users and China Telecom 160.6 million. Sophie Yu

Mainland coal and power producers have signed contracts for the supply of 1.87 billion tonnes of power-station coal for 2013, up 55.8 per cent year on year, said the China Coal Trade and Distribution Association. A Daiwa Securities research note said this is the highest deal volume in seven years, adding that most deals include a price rise of 3 per cent to 5 per cent. Eric Ng