North China's Shanxi province eliminated 156.85 million metric tons of annual coal production capacity during the 13th Five-Year Plan period (2016-20) to cut production overcapacity in the coal industry, according to an announcement from the Shanxi Energy Administration on Jan 10.

Over the past five years, the province took the supply-side structural reform of the coal industry as a key task, cutting excess coal production capacity and adjusting the industrial structure, which greatly promoted the local coal industry's high-quality development. 

The province reduced its annual coal production capacity to 1.35 billion tons from 1.46 billion tons in 2016, shut down more than 178 coal mines and closed all coal mines with an annual output of less than 600,000 tons. The reduction amount was the largest among all provincial-level regions in the country.

In addition, Shanxi increased the average single pit output to 1.5 million tons in 2020 and the province increased the proportion of advanced production capacity to 68 percent during the five-year period.