China Taiyuan Coal Exchange, the first of this kind in the country, will be put into operation in November of this year at the soonest, the Shanghai Securities News reported today.

The coal exchange, with a total investment of one billion yuan (US$133.33 million), includes the construction of the exchange center and a coal base in Qidong city, East China's Jiangsu Province.

The exchange is expected to facilitate the trading of around 500 million tons of coal annually in its initial stage, a researcher with the Shanxi Academy of Social Science said.

Thirty enterprises have invested in the exchange, including Shanxi Coal Transportation and Sales Group Co Ltd, the biggest shareholder, who will control 10 percent.

Other major shareholders in the exchange are China's leading electric power groups, including China Huaneng Group, China Datang Corporation and China Guodian Corporation. Each of the three giants holds four percent of the exchange.

China Power Investment Corporation and China Huadian Corporation each have three percent stake in the exchange.

Shanxi-based Datong Coal Industry Co Ltd, Shanxi Coking Coal Group Co Ltd, Jincheng Coal Industry Group and Yangquan Coal Industry Group Co Ltd are also shareholders.

However Shenhua Group, China's biggest coal producer, has no stake in the exchange.

Zhang Genhu, chairman of Shanxi Coal Transportation and Sales Group, was elected chairman of the exchange.

The coal exchange is similar to the Zhengzhou Commodity Exchange, and a membership trading system will be adopted.

Shanxi is China's biggest coal producer, and coal production in the province grew by 11.2 percent year-on-year to 268 million tons in the first half of this year, accounting for almost a quarter of the total in China during the period, industry data shows.

China's coal production jumped 11.7 percent to 1.278 billion tons in the first seven months of 2007 from a year earlier, according to the National Development and Reform Commission, the nation's top economic planning agency.

(Chinadaily.com.cn October 19, 2007)