China Coal Energy Strengthens Chemical Business      

With the growing demand for coal in China in 2007 and the surging price of coal at home and abroad, China Coal Energy Co., Ltd. (SH:  601088) saw a rapid development for 2007.
   The company accomplished a total operating revenue of RMB36.823 billion in 2007, an increase of 29.9% over the previous year and a total profit of RMB7.147 billion, an increase of 83.28%. The earning per-share was RMB0.44.
   Benefited from the increase in both sales amount and the sales price, the company reaped an income of RMB27.330 billion from the coal business in 2007, an increase of RMB5.308 billion or 24.1% over the previous year. The income from the coal coking business was RMB4.470 billion, an increase of RMB2.381 or 114.0%. The income from the coal mine equipment business also reached RMB3.595 billion, an increase of 29.4%.
   China Coal Energy will build a 4.2 million t/a methanol and 3.0 million t/a dimethyl ether integrated project in Erdos, Inner Mongolia, and a 1.8 million t/a methanol and 600 000 t/a olefin project in Heilongjiang.
   For coal chemical project in Erdos, the company got coal resources amounting to 4.4 billion tons. The work on geological prospecting and report evaluation has been completed. In reference to the coal chemical project in Heilongjiang, the company will get coal resources amounting to around 1.4 billion tons. Procedures for transfer of coal resources are being handled today.
   China National Coal Group Corporation, the controlling shareholder of China Coal Energy, has got 4.0 billion tons of coal resources in Shuonan Coal Mine, Shanxi province. The work on detailed prospecting, feasibility study and preliminary design is under way today. Shuonan coal resources will be given to China Coal Energy when conditions are ready.
   According to analysts, the company's coal chemical business will fuel its profit growth in 2010.