China's top economic planner said on Tuesday that it is studying ways of intervening in high coal prices and would take all necessary measures to bring them back to a reasonable range, in an effort to deal with recent large-scale power shortages in the country.

The National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) will make full use of all necessary means stipulated in the Price Law to study the intervene measures, it said in a statement on Tuesday.

The NDRC also vowed to crack down unusual transactions and malicious hype on the thermal coal amid the energy crunch in China, as coal prices in the country have hit record highs in succession, which greatly pushed up production costs in downstream industries and adversely affected power supply and winter heating.

The main contracts of thermal coal-related futures in China plunged over 8 percent after the news.

The NDRC will strengthen the supervision of the futures and spot markets of coal, punishing abnormal transactions and malicious speculation to maintain a benign capital market order, it said in a separate statement released after the meeting with major energy and electricity suppliers such as China Railway, PetroChina, Sinopec and State Grid.

According to the NDRC, preliminary results have been achieved in ensuring the coal supply and stabilizing the price in the country.

In order to meet domestic demands, a batch of production coal mines have been approved since the end of September, which brought the current average daily output increasing by 1.2 million tonnes comparing to the daily output in September, the NDRC said , adding the daily output of October 18 reach 11.6 million tonnes, a year to date high.

Meanwhile, the market-oriented reform of coal-fired power generation on-grid electricity prices has been deepened. Recently, the new market transaction prices in provinces including Jiangsu, Shandong, Hubei and Shanxi have increased by nearly 20 percent in accordance with the price policy, the NDRC said.

On October 12, China fully liberalized pricing for all electricity generated from coal-fired power and allow all industrial and commercial users to buy electricity at market prices, just days after it allowing electricity prices to fluctuate upwards within 20 percent.

As one of measures for the next, the NDRC said it will further release coal production capacity and steadily increase production, striving to achieve a daily coal output of 12 million tonnes, while enhancing energy transportation security.

It will guide coal prices back to a reasonable level, requiring state-owned enterprises to play a leading role in ensuring supply and price stabilization by signing more medium- and long-term contracts and strictly implementing the contracted coal prices.

All key coal ports must actively provide regulatory authorities with illegal clues such as malicious hoarding and price hikes, and restrict transportation, loading and unloading of transactions that clearly exceed a reasonable level, it said.

(Cover via CFP)