Datang International Power Generation Co., the biggest Chinese mainland power producer listed in Hong Kong by market value, yesterday posted a third-quarter loss because of rising coal costs and state caps on electricity tariffs.

The company had a loss of 432.9 million yuan (US$63 million), Datang Power said in a statement to the Hong Kong stock exchange yesterday, without providing year-ago figures.

The power producer said in a separate statement it expects full year net income will likely plunge about 85 percent from last year's 3.41 billion yuan because of rising fuel costs. First-half profit tumbled 77 percent to 406.2 million yuan, the company said in August.

To help narrow generators' losses and ease China's power shortages, the government raised the price of electricity sold to grid operators by 6 percent starting August 20, the second tariff increase this year. The adjustment wasn't enough to offset rising coal costs, Bloomberg News said.

Datang Power produced 96.4 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity in the first nine months, 11 percent more than a year earlier, the company said on October 13.

Datang Power's shares fell 29 percent between June and September in Hong Kong, versus a 27-percent drop in the Hang Seng Index. The stock slid 1.8 percent to HK$2.79 (36 US cents) on Friday.

China Datang Corp, the parent of Datang Power, may miss its full-year output target because of slowing demand growth and delays in expansion, the Beijing-based firm said on October 17.

Rival Huaneng Power International Inc last Tuesday posted a third-quarter loss of 2.2 billion yuan.

(Shanghai Daily October 27, 2008)