China's coal imports rose 8.2% on a yearly basis to 108million tonnes in the first six months of 2016 amid the country's drive to cutdomestic overcapacity, Bloomberg News reported July 13, citing customs data.

China plans tocut as much as 500 million tonnes of its annual coal output inthree to five years.

According to ICIS China analyst Deng Shun, the country'sefforts to curtail overcapacity in the coal sector has led to a supply shortfall.Shun added that there is no sign that "the government will ease itsefforts in addressing overcapacity," according to Bloomberg.

It is expected that China's coal output will drop by 9% thisyear, which will offset declining demand of 3.4%,Citigroup Inc. said in a research note, according to the report.

Meanwhile, China's copper imports in the first half jumped22% year over year to 2.74 million tonnes with monthly imports in the six-monthperiod were consistently above 420,000 tonnes, according to Metal Bulletin.