China orders supplies of fuel for heating to be maintained as winter approaches

The Chinese government has issued an order to ensure stable supplies of coal, oil and gas as the country heads into the winter amid a coal supply crunch.

The National Development and Reform Commission said it would ensure a rational level of stockpiles to guarantee stable supplies at key times and in key areas for power generation, Xinhua reported on Sunday.

There must be a focus put on resolving problems and difficulties in important regions, and efforts put into ensuring coal supplies for winter heating, it said.

The national observatory was cited as saying that a strong cold front would sweep from north to south across the country over the next three days.

China’s northeastern industrial heartland could face winter power and heating cuts after authorities in Beijing spurned requests from provincial providers for help securing coal supplies after two major mines were forced to halt output, utilities warned last month.

The mine halt is part of a concerted effort by the government to tame increasingly severe winter smog in industrial centres, especially in northern China where temperatures plummet over the winter months.

The National Meteorological Centre said on Sunday that a cold front had already caused strong winds and temperature drops of between four and six degrees Celsius in parts of Xinjiang and Inner Mongolia early in the day.

In the first three days of the National Day holiday, the cold air would affect a large part of China, including northern, central and eastern regions, with some northern areas expected to see temperature drops of more than 10 degrees, the centre said.

From Sunday to Monday morning, Chongqing, Shanghai and the provinces of Hubei, Henan, Anhui and Jiangsu would be hit by heavy rain, it said.