CRI听力:Coal Shortage Worsens as the Nation Braces for the Coming Winter

Traditionally, when winter arrives, obtaining coal becomes a constant struggle to make-ends-met for ordinary Chinese households. The situation is not getting any better.

Decades of fast economic growth has been outpacing coal production and in recent years, coal transporters haven't been able to keep up with demand. Some economists are even describing this state of affairs as a chronic disease of the Chinese economy.

Lin Boqiang is an expert in the country's energy sector,

"Energy consumption increases as a result of economic growth. But the demand is constantly outgrowing the capacity of supply. So I would describe the race between supply and demand as chronic. That is why we see more and more occurrences of coal shortages."

Dr. Lin says that recently the country has been facing thermal coal shortages not only in summer when factories feed on coal to keep buzzing, but also in winter as an increasingly affluent urban population seeks a more comfortable living standard.

Zhou Zhonghai is manager of a heating equipment company in south China's Hunan Province,

"Rich people have now turned to floor heating, where they install our electricity-powered floor radiation system to keep the house warm. Certainly the new system consumes more power than the old radiators."

But despite efforts to subsidize heating companies and putting punitive prices on big power consumers like steel companies, Dr. Lin Boqiang says the conflict between supply and demand is not an easy problem to resolve. He urges policy makers to prepare early to avoid the transportation rush.

"If everyone prepares three months earlier, let's say, then you will not have problems with congested traffic. Because at that time, we didn't have as much transportation activity as we are having now. But when we wait until the last minute to offload stocks at almost the same time across the country, we see situations like this."

But as Xu Saifan, a teacher from the backwater town of Yan Ling in Hunan would say, the vast rural population is only waiting to take their share of power consumption to brace for the coming winter.

"People in the cities use air-conditioning to keep their apartments warm. But in villages and our small town, we rely on burning charcoal to get by. Of course we would like to have electric radiators and air-conditioners."

The huge demand for energy that has been unleashed by rapid economic growth seems to be insatiable and it is asking policy-makers to prescribe more than just pain-killers.

For CRI, I'm Su Yi.