China Shenhua: Planned commodity coal production of 330.2B tons in 2026, with coal sales of 434.9B tons

China Shenhua releases its 2025 annual report. During the reporting period, the company achieved operating revenue of RMB 294.92B, a year-on-year decrease of 13.2%; net profit attributable to shareholders of listed companies was RMB 52.85B, a year-on-year decrease of 5.3%. Basic earnings per share were RMB 2.66, a year-on-year decrease of 5.3%.

Regarding the decline in revenue, China Shenhua said it was mainly affected by two factors: first, due to factors such as the coal market’s supply-demand relationship, the company’s coal sales volume and average sales price decreased by 6.4% and 12.1%, respectively, leading to a year-on-year decrease in coal sales revenue; second, due to factors such as a decline in thermal power utilization hours and a drop in electricity prices, the company’s electricity sold volume and average electricity sold price decreased by 3.9% and 4.0%, respectively, leading to a year-on-year decrease in electricity sales revenue.

The annual report shows that China Shenhua’s main operating model is an integrated industrial chain: coal production → coal transportation (railways, ports, shipping) → coal conversion (power generation and coal chemical industry), with business exchanges among its segments. In 2025, the profit total of the coal, power generation, transportation, and coal chemical industry segments (before consolidated eliminations) accounted for 62%, 17%, 21%, and 0%, respectively. Revenues were RMB 221.23B, RMB 89.14B, RMB 11.01B, RMB 5.72B, and RMB 4.89B, respectively.

In 2025, China Shenhua’s R&D investment was RMB 75.06B, up 17.0% year-on-year; R&D investment as a percentage of operating revenue was 1.7%, up 0.5 percentage points year-on-year. R&D investment was mainly used for R&D of technology innovation projects across various industries, including R&D for high-efficiency and intelligent coal extraction and clean comprehensive utilization, co-firing and co-combustion of coal-fired boiler mixed ammonia, heavy-haul train group operation control systems, and green methanol synthesis, among others.

In 2025, China Shenhua’s net cash inflow from operating activities was RMB 21.79B, down 17.6% year-on-year, mainly because revenue from the company’s coal and power generation businesses declined. Net cash outflow from investing activities was RMB 548k, mainly used to purchase and construct long-term assets such as fixed assets and intangible assets; compared with 2024, it decreased by 74.7%, mainly because the company recovered structured deposit products, and more time deposits were added in the year-ago period. Net cash outflow from financing activities was RMB 430.9M, mainly used to pay the company’s final dividends for 2024 and interim dividends for 2025; compared with 2024, it increased by 98.1%, mainly because the company paid more dividends and repaid more debt.

Based on operating data, in 2025 China Shenhua’s product coal output reached 147.4M tons, down 1.7% year-on-year. The underground mines completed a total development footage of 548k meters.

For the full year, coal sales volume was 43.090 million tons, down 6.4% year-on-year. Coal sales volume to the company’s largest customer, China Energy Investment Group, was 986M tons, accounting for 34.2% of total coal sales. The share of annual long-term contract (long-co) sales volume was 53.2%, monthly long-co accounted for 39.4%, spot accounted for 3.8%, and pithead direct sales accounted for 3.6%.

It is worth noting that in 2025, China Shenhua’s purchases of coal volume decreased by 19.6% year-on-year to 98.600 million tons, with a much larger decline than the total volume decline. The amount spent on purchased coal was RMB 40.27B, accounting for 21.0% of total operating costs—the largest share among all cost composition items; however, due to a decline in both the sales volume and the procurement prices of purchased coal, it decreased by 36.3% year-on-year.

In 2025, affected by the coal market’s supply-demand relationship, China Shenhua’s average coal sales price (excluding tax) was RMB 495 per ton, down 12.1% year-on-year.

Regarding intelligent mine construction, as of the end of 2025, all working faces for coal mining and excavation operations at China Shenhua’s underground mines were fully intelligent. Fixed locations such as underground substations, distribution points, pump rooms, and main transportation systems achieved unmanned operation. More than 350 sets of auxiliary operation robots were applied, including R&D and applied inspection monitoring and heavy-labor substitution. At open-pit mines, more than 450 sets of autonomous driving haul trucks, autonomous electric shovels, and autonomous auxiliary equipment were applied; all coal preparation plants achieved intelligent operation.

As of the end of 2025, China Shenhua’s coal resource reserves were 41.41 billion tons, up 7.05 billion tons from the end of 2024. This increase mainly came from an increase of 3.82 billion tons of resources through the acquisition of Hangjin Energy (including the Dayan mining area and Taranglege mining area) and an increase of 3.49 billion tons of resources through verification of resource reserve quantity in the Nantaggezi area of Xinjietai. China Shenhua’s proven recoverable reserves of coal were 17.31 billion tons, up 2.22 billion tons from the end of 2024.

In terms of power generation, as of the end of 2025, China Shenhua’s total installed capacity of power generation units was 52,676 MW. Of this, the total installed capacity of coal-fired power generation units was 49,384 MW, accounting for about 3.9% of the national coal power generation installed capacity of 1.26 billion kW.

In 2025, China Shenhua added a total installed capacity of 5,212 MW. Of this, coal-fired power generation installed capacity increased by 5,000 MW; hydropower installed capacity decreased by 47 MW; and photovoltaic power generation installed capacity available for external commercial operation increased by 259 MW.

In 2025, China Shenhua’s coal-fired power generation units achieved an average utilization of 4,682 hours, which was 340 hours fewer than the previous year. Compared with the national average utilization hours of coal-fired power generation equipment in plants of 6,000 kW and above, which was 4,346 hours, it was higher by 336 hours.

In its annual report, China Shenhua stated that in 2026, it is expected that China’s coal demand will generally remain stable. It is expected that coal for electricity generation and for coking will basically remain stable, while there is still room for growth for coal used in the chemical industry and other uses. Coal production is expected to remain generally stable, and policies such as ensuring supply and reviewing production capacity will jointly guide the orderly supply of coal. Imported coal volume will remain stable or decline slightly.

Overall, in 2026 the coal market’s supply and demand are expected to be basically balanced, and coal market prices will fluctuate within a reasonable range. Due to factors such as seasonal fluctuations, unexpected events, and extreme weather, local areas and some time periods may experience tight supply.

Facing 2026, the annual report provides corresponding operating targets. Among them, planned production of commodity coal was 330.2 million tons, down 0.6% year-on-year; coal sales volume was 330.2B tons, up 0.9% year-on-year; and power generation was 223.7 billion kWh, up 1.6% year-on-year. Operating revenue was RMB 280 billion, down 5.1% year-on-year.

Editor | Xu Heyang

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