China silicon metal exports in December 2022 by country/region.

Gwede Mantashe admits constraints at mining indaba, says state is working on solutions

Northeast China's Heilongjiang province saw its foreign trade in goods grow by 33 percent year-on-year to 265.15 billion yuan ($39.44 billion) in 2022, customs data showed.

Its output growth rates over the past two years far exceeded that of the three leading coal-producing regions of Shanxi, Shaanxi, and Inner Mongolia.

Power consumption data can reflect situations of enterprises' production and economic operation, and thus become a key barometer of economic activity, experts said.

China's raw coal output posted stable expansion in December 2022, official data showed.

This year, Inner Mongolia will also step up the clean and efficient use of coal, Wang said.

Last year, Shanxi provided 620 million tonnes of thermal coal for another 24 provincial-level regions in China, according to the provincial statistics bureau.