China's top 5 power firms suffer more losses

China's five major state-owned power-generating firms lost a total of 12.16 billion yuan or US$1.88 billion from January to May period. This is a substantial increase 4.3 billion yuan in losses during the same period last year.

The jump in losses was attributed mainly to soaring prices of coal, which fuels nearly 80 percent of the power output in the world's second-largest electricity producer after the United States.

The China Electricity Council identified the five power generators are China Huaneng Group, China Datang Corp., China Guodian Corp., China Huadian Corp. and China Power Investment Corp.

The council said they lost 1.69 billion yuan in May alone.

While China started to raise prices of electricity on June 1 in its efforts to better reflect market demand, coal prices also increased substantially following the government's move.

The full story is available at bernama.