China’s coal-fired power plants are facing procurement challenges for coal due to tight domestic supply, high prices, disruptions in shipping and strong electricity demand, the China Electricity Council (CEC) said in a report dated 27 Sept ’21.

The CEC has thus advised plants to build inventory to ease the situation as electricity rationing by several Chinese provinces has taken place the recent weeks whilst seeing power outages in some cities, as utilities tried to conserve fuel stocks and manage demand-supply imbalances.

Chinese electricity consumption rose 13.8% over Jan-Aug, versus an 11.3% industrial power generation increase during the same period.

Translated into the dry bulk market, the Supramax FFA for Oct ’21 currently stands at USD ~38.8k/d.