The Daqin Railway Line, China's largest coal transportation railway, will be closed for 10 to 15 days from Oct. 8 for maintenance work, the Ministry of Railways announced on Monday.
The 653-kilometer Daqin Railway Line began operations in 1992 and links Shanxi Province's capital city of Datong to the eastern port city of Qinhuangdao in Hebei Province, supplying coal to some 350 thermal power plants and more than 6,000 industrial firms in east China.
More than 440 million tons of coal were transported on the line in 2011, roughly 19 percent of the 2.26 billion tons of coal transported by rail in China last year.
The maintenance work comes amid a slowdown in coal demand as the economy weakens and follows a similar shutdown in April.
"There are still more than 6.8 million tons of coal sitting at Qinhuangdao Port and most thermal power plants still have large stockpiles so the closure will only have a limited impact on the coal market,' Qi Yingying, a coal trader, told Interfax on Tuesday.
Amid weak demand for coal and slumping prices the National Development and Reform Commission has proposed production caps and reductions in key coal bases, which will inevitably result in a decline in coal volumes on the Daqin Railway, said Qi. National coal output is to be capped at 3.65 billion tons this year.
As China imports more coal from abroad the railway will play a less important role in domestic coal transportation as shipments arrive directly at ports.
Net coal imports in the first seven months of this year surged 62.8 percent year-on-year to 127.34 million tons, according to the General Administration of Customs