Eastern China’s Shandong province posted a surge of 49.35% from the year before to 2.444 billion yuan ($391.7 million) in profit from its coal industry over the past year, said the Shandong Coal Industry Bureau on February 15.<br /> <br /> The increase was mainly due to its effort to cut production cost and improve efficiency, as well as the development of non-coal industries, said the bureau.<br /> <br /> The province produced a total 148.30 million tonnes of coal in 2014, down 1.90% from a year ago, ranking the seventh of the country, data from the Shandong Administration of Coal Mine Safety showed.<br /> <br /> Total sales reached 144 million tonnes during the same period; business revenue of this sector reached 307.47 billion yuan, down 1.94% year on year, the bureau added.<br /> <br /> The market share of Shandong’s coal producers has been falling due to the influx of imported coal, which dropped 33% in 2014, compared with 63% from ten years ago, said Qiao Naichen, director of the bureau.<br /> <br /> <p> The production cost of coal fell 32% from the previous year to 331.43 yuan/t, while average price of commercial coal from provincial-owned coal miners dropped 20.4% on year to 413.41 yuan/t, data showed. </p> <p style="text-align:center;"> <img src="/upfiles/news/image/20150226/20150226163724_0314.jpg" alt="" /> </p>