BEIJING, (Reuters) – China’s October coal production rose to its highest level since March 2015. This was after Beijing authorized a series of expansions at coal mines in order to reduce record-setting prices and increase supply.

According to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics on Monday, the world’s largest producer and user of dirty fossil fuel coal produced 357.09M tonnes of it last month. This is an increase of 334.1 Million tonnes in September.

In 2021, the output was 3.33 billion tonnes. That’s an increase of 4% over last year.

China approved more than 153 expansions of its coal mines since July. This could increase the country’s coal production by 55 million tonnes in the fourth quarter.

In an effort to end power shortages, the central government has ordered local governments not to close coal mines without authorization and called for a restart of closed mines once they have fixed any issues.

China’s highest planning body stated last Thursday that the daily coal production reached 12.05 million tonnes. This was after an earlier cold snap had reduced daily output by over 1 million tonnes.

The raft of Beijing-approved intervention measures have helped to reduce spot thermal coal’s prices to half of what they were a month ago. They now cost about 1,000 Yuan ($156.70 per tonne in northern ports).

In early Monday morning trading, the most traded Zhengzhou thermal co futures contract fell 6.1% to 819.4 Yuan per tonne.

Analysts and traders are concerned about domestic coal supplies in winter, as bleak weather can hamper operations at open-pit mines or hinder logistics.

($1 = 6.3817 yuan)