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The Performance of China's Industrial EnterprisesA Coal Industry PerspectiveSchool of East Asian Studies, Sheffield University, UK Coal mining has been one of the biggest loss-making sectors among China's state-owned enterprises (SOEs), and the performance of the industry might thus throw light on broader questions of enterprise performance during China's reform period. After outlining the overall financial performance of coal mining SOEs, the article examines the medium- and long-term influences on the performance of coal mining enterprises in four major categories—those relating to government policies, to the market, to the particular nature of coal mining as an extractive industry, and to internal enterprise operation. The article concludes that, up to the mid-1990s, the state's economic priorities expressed through the fixing of prices were the most important negative influence on coal mining profits. After the incomplete deregulation of prices by 1994, while the government's role remained important, price competition in the context of more conventional economic cycles became the key influence. This article hopes to add an important industry perspective to a debate that has in the past focused either on the SOE sector as a whole or on individual enterprises or groups of enterprises.
Key Words: state-owned enterprises • coal mines • profits • financial performance
China Information, Vol. 20, No. 2,
165-199 (2006) |
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