China power crunch

As China came out of the pandemic, the economy recovered fast, which led to energy demand, which led to really rapid production of coal, which led to some mining examples. As a result, the gov put some safetly regulations on, which constrained coal mining production this year. Prices went up.

Over the summer, local officials were really conscious of these issues and tried to coordinate with power companies to make sure power supply and demand would be balanced. But in September, demand was higher than expected.

Also, wind and hydro were lower than expected in some areas.

In some areas also, local officals were not meeting their energy intensity targets.

This led to the CCP unilaterally deciding to cut power supply to certain sectors of the economy.

At the heart of it is really 'local officials' decisions,' it was said.

(Coal has been the best performing commodity this year price wise.)