China Faces Severe Coal Transport Capacity Shortage

(Beijing) — China is suffering from a major shortage of trains to transport coal, a situation that follows a pause in construction of new rail cars and the scrapping of many old ones due to oversupply and weak demand over the past three years.

Beijing has embarked on a campaign to eliminate excess capacity in a number of industrial sectors, with coal and iron both set for sharp reductions. Much of the excess was built to feed China's hungry economy during years of breakneck growth, when annual expansion routinely reached 10% or more.