China is a large developing country and coal and other mineral resources are very valuable. Therefore, it is necessary for the state to effectively manage resources. We must not influence the economic development of the future because of temporary gains, affect the energy security of future countries, and affect the welfare of future generations. The government management department should follow the method of reducing or eventually stopping oil exports in the past 10 years, strengthen the management of coal export quotas, limit the number of coal exports, and ensure a strong domestic market demand.
According to sources, China plans to extend its long-term supply contract with Japan from April 2011 for five years. According to the new agreement, China will supply 4 to 6 million tons of electric coal to Japan each year. As domestic energy demand soars, China has become a net energy importer. Some Japanese coal purchasers had been worried that China would no longer extend the coal supply contract. Since 1980, the coal supply contract between China and Japan has been extended once every five years, and the current five-year contract will expire at the end of March next year.
China's coal export contract signed with Japan is not a small number. It is reported that although the export quotas issued by the relevant state departments to coal companies this year have been reduced compared with 2009, the export volume of 25 million tons this year is also a large amount of exports. Surprisingly, one coal company executive stated that we cannot stop coal exports. Because domestic coal companies and international customers sign long-term coal supply agreements, we still need to increase our exports in the context of safeguarding domestic market demand.
This shows that even if the country has the preconditions for the control of export quotas, the domestic companies’ impulse to export coal is also quite large. However, while China is exporting coal, China only exported more than 3 million tons to Japan in January-June this year. China is also importing coal. In the first six months of this year, China imported coal from Vietnam, Indonesia, and Australia. 81.09 million tons, an increase of 70.6% over the same period last year.
The development of China’s coal industry has caused repeated losses and waste of resources and wealth. China is not an energy-rich country. As the economy develops rapidly, so does the concern. Energy becomes increasingly urgent, leading to nearly double the net import of coal. After all, before finding a new alternative energy source, coal is actually a strategic resource. The current coal foreign trade policy must take into account future national energy security, energy succession, and energy strategy issues.
With the needs of economic development, the contradiction between the supply and demand of domestic coal will intensify. In particular, during the peak season when coal is used twice in winter and summer, the supply of coal in many areas is nearly 30%. For example, in November and December 2009, thermal power demand in the country increased by about 40% year-on-year, and the gap between supply and demand caused China's annual output of 3 billion tons of coal to be insufficient.
Some experts have analyzed that the shortage of resources is becoming a major obstacle to the sustainable development of the Chinese economy. According to the report of the Ministry of Land and Resources, among the mineral resources required for China’s modernization, by 2020, there are only six types of 45 major mine capacity guarantee needs. In 2010, the coal demand gap in China will be about 100 million tons, and by 2020 the gap will reach 400 million tons. Since domestic demand is so strong and energy is so tight, why do we still open the door to allow the flow of coal to Japan?
On the one hand, China is no longer the first country to earn foreign exchange at any cost. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, it was the time when China’s goods were in short supply and the country was in short supply. Resource-based primary products dominate China's export products, of which oil has always been China's leading source of income, and resources such as coal, ferrous metals, and non-ferrous metals are among the best in the export rankings.
This kind of low-level export structure is simply a matter of replacing the capital with money. However, "creating foreign exchange" has become less important in today's China. According to statistics, as of June 2010, China’s reserves have reached 2.45 trillion U.S. dollars, which exceeds the combined GDP of 124 countries in the world. Obviously, the era of blindly expanding exports and earning money has already ended, and China no longer needs to exchange cheap resources for exchanges.
On the other hand, China's economic development requires more resources to support its reserves, and our resources should be left to our own use. In fact, China’s natural resources are scarce. The per capita occupancy of 45 major resources is less than half of the world average. The per capita reserves of important mineral resources such as aluminum and copper are only equivalent to 9.7% and 25.5% of the world average.
In this case, coal should play its greater role through domestic sales and create more value and wealth. According to statistics, 1 ton of raw coal supported 7,000 yuan of GDP; according to the current national coal consumption rate of about 375 g/kWh of standard coal, 1 ton of raw coal can generate approximately 1900 kWh.
China is a large developing country and coal and other mineral resources are very valuable. Therefore, it is necessary for the state to effectively manage resources. We must not influence the economic development of the future because of temporary gains, affect the energy security of future countries, and affect the welfare of future generations. The government management department should follow the method of reducing or eventually stopping oil exports in the past 10 years, strengthen the management of coal export quotas, limit the number of coal exports, and ensure a strong domestic market demand. The reason is very simple. If we comprehensively evaluate the significance and role of coal exports, we can find that continuing coal exports does more harm than good.