Yanzhou Coal profit drops 17.6 per cent

Yanzhou Coal Mining, a unit of the mainland's fourth-largest coal producer, said profit fell 17.6 per cent last year to 2.37 billion yuan from 2.88 billion yuan in 2005 because of a decline in selling prices. Net sales rose 4.3 per cent to 12 billion yuan. Yanzhou Coal produced 36.05 million tonnes of raw coal last year, up 4 per cent, and sold 34.66 million tonnes of coal, an increase of 6.7 per cent over 2005. The average coal price dropped 2.4 per cent last year to 341.12 yuan a tonne.