China Coal Energy, the country's No. 2 coal producer, said its 2007 net profit rose 90.35 percent to 5.17 billion yuan due to higher coal prices and increased output.

The company said in its annual report that the 2007 operating revenue rose 29.9 percent to 36.82 billion yuan, which mainly supported by growth of coal production, coal chemicals and coal-mining equipment. The company's output up 14.5 percent to 90.52 million tons of raw coal.

China Coal Energy is exploring investments in Australia and Indonesia while it doubles spending to ramp up production and feed the world's largest coal market. It also expects to export about as much of the hydrocarbon this year as it did in 2007, or 18.9 million tones.

We hope to keep exports at last year's level, said Jing Tianliang, chairman of listed China Coal and president of its parent, China National Coal Group Corp.

Australia China Energy