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June 20 (NBD) -- A development report on the power industry of 2018 was released by the China Electricity Council in Beijing last Thursday. 

According to the report, thermal power enterprises above designated size (enterprises with an annual sales over 5 million yuan) only reaped profits of 20.7 billion yuan (3.2 billion U.S. dollars) in 2017, down 83.3 percent compared with the previous year, dragging aggregated profits of all power enterprises down by 32.4 percent year over year.

Specifically, thermal power businesses of the nation's top five power generation groups China Huaneng Group Co Ltd, China Datang Corporation, China Huadian Corporation Limited, China Energy Investment Corp and State Power Investment Corporation Limited saw a loss across the board last year, a scenario which was last seen in 2008.

Rising coal price might be the factor to blame. According to the report, the five companies saw a 34 percent surge in the unit price of standard coal last year. Based on that, it is estimated the whole coal power industry's coal purchase cost increased by approximately 200 billion yuan (31.0 billion U.S. dollars) in 2017 compared with the previous year.

Meanwhile, affected by the policy of cutting coal power overcapacity, investment in the thermal power industry dropped to a decade low last year.

On the contrary, coal enterprises enjoyed whopping profits. According to the China National Coal Association, profits of coal enterprises above designated size totaled 295.9 billion yuan (45.8 billion U.S. dollars) last year, representing year-on-year growth of 290.5 percent.

 

Email: tanyuhan@nbd.com.cn 

Editor: Tan Yuhan