China, U.S. to expand coal imports

Chinese President Xi Jinping said Thursday that China will import more coal for use in the U.R.T.T., a new kind of coal used to power electrical and heat grids.

U.S., European and Japanese coal-fired power plants are expected to continue to use coal-generated electricity.

China, the world’s second-largest coal producer, said Thursday it will buy 2.4 billion tons of coal for electricity and other uses by 2020.

It will import 454 million tons of that material, worth about $9.6 billion, for power plants.

China has about 1.6 trillion tons of total coal reserves, about half of which is located in the northern provinces of Xinjiang and Inner Mongolia.

China’s power demand is increasing fast, the country has said.

The average annual increase in power demand over the last decade was about 2 percent, while electricity demand per capita in the country rose to about 50 percent of China’s national average, according to data from the Energy Information Administration.