The coal hub of North China’s Shanxi province is striving to restructure its economic growth model amid declining coal prices and increasing ecological costs, senior officials said. “The past year was the most difficult year for us. Pressure from the price decline was as bad as in financial crisis-hit 2009,” provincial Party Secretary Yuan Chunqing said. Shanxi is China’s energy base, with coal reserves and output both accounting for one-fourth of the nation’s total. Coal output in 2013 reached 960 million tons, of which more than 64%, or 620 million tons, was transported and consumed outside the province. Shanxi also was China’s second-largest power supplier. Yuan noted that coal and coal-related industries, such as coke and smelting, accounted for about 80% of the province’s industrial added value. Coal price declines since mid-2011 reduced Shanxi’s revenue by CNY200 billion. “The golden decade of the coal industry is gone and probably will not come back,” said Zhu Xiaoming, Director of the province’s State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC). “The only way out is restructuring and modernizing the coal industry,” he added. “Coal remains the fundamental industry for the province in terms of China’s energy portfolio,” Vice Premier Ma Kai said. “But the solution is not to expand mining capacity, which will further drive down coal prices, but in extending the industrial chains, such as coal-electricity integration and coal coking business, as well as enhancing efficiency through promoting clean technology.” Liu Jianzhong, Chairman of the Shanxi Coal Transportation and Sales Group Co, said that the restructuring of the coal industry means greater business opportunities in coal-electricity integration as well as the utilization of waste, such as fly ash, a residue of coal combustion.