Coalimports in China aretargeted to remain at over 20 million tons per month during the second half ofthe year, to aid demand and to help fill a supply gap left by a mining slowdown, BloombergNews reported, citing an analyst with ICIS China.

Inanother report, China's coal capacity cut target this year was reduced to over250 million tons froma previous 280 million tons, while steel capacity is expected to contract by 45million tons.

InJune, China's coal output dwindled by 16.6%. The nation's coal demand is set toshrink by 3.4% this year, said the report, citing Citigroup Inc.