On August 30, China Shenhua Energy Company Limited (China Shenhua) disclosed in an announcement that its net profit attributable to shareholders in the first half of the year decreased by 12% compared to the same period last year. This marks the third consecutive year of declining half-year net profit for the company.
According to the “2025 Interim Report” released by China Shenhua on the 30th, the company’s operating income for the first half of the year was 138.109 billion yuan, a decrease of 18.3% compared to the previous year. The net profit attributable to shareholders was 24.641 billion yuan, down by 12% year-on-year. This continuous decline in half-year net profit has raised concerns.
China Shenhua attributed the profit decline to factors such as a decrease in coal sales volume and average selling prices, leading to a decline in coal sales revenue. Additionally, both electricity sales volume and average selling prices also decreased, resulting in a drop in electricity sales revenue.
As a subsidiary of the China Energy Investment Corporation Limited, China Shenhua’s main business sectors include coal, power, new energy, coal chemical industry, railways, ports, and shipping. It is often referred to as the “king of coal” in China.
According to a report by “Yicai” on August 30, in terms of operating profit in the first half of 2025, coal, railways, and power generation are the main sources of profit for China Shenhua, accounting for nearly 96% of the company’s total operating profit, with the coal sector contributing over 60% of the profits.
However, due to the decline in demand in the coal market, China Shenhua’s performance in the coal sector has been subpar. In the first half of the year, coal sales volume for China Shenhua decreased by 10.9% year-on-year, with the average coal selling price dropping by 12.9% to 493 yuan per ton, leading to an 11.4% decline in operating profit for the coal sector.
At the same time, China Shenhua’s power generation in the first half of the year decreased by 7.4% to 987.8 billion kilowatt-hours, with total electricity sales volume falling by 7.3% to 929.1 billion kilowatt-hours year-on-year.
Electricity consumption is one of the components of China’s “Li Keqiang Index.” The Li Keqiang Index consists of three indicators: electricity consumption, railway freight volume, and bank loan disbursement, accounting for 40%, 25%, and 35% respectively. It was initially proposed by the British political and economic magazine “The Economist” in 2010, inspired by Li Keqiang’s approach to tracking economic changes in Liaoning Province through real economic indicators.
The Li Keqiang Index, also known as the “Li Keqiang Index,” was suggested during Li Keqiang’s tenure as the Communist Party Secretary of Liaoning Province in 2007, when he expressed a preference for using railway freight volume, electricity consumption, and bank loan disbursement as indicators to track economic changes and replace potentially inflated statistical data.