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BEIJING, Aug. 6 (Xinhua) -- Coal producers in China havereported impressive profits for the first half of this year.

Of China's 37 listed coal companies, more than half haveestimated half-year profits to double in H1 from a year ago.

In its semi-annual report filed to the Shenzhen Stock Exchange,Henan Shenhuo Coal and Power Co., Ltd. said the company's netprofits excluding non-recurring gains and losses increased morethan 11 fold year on year to 576 million yuan (86 million U.S.dollars) due to a rise in prices.

Meanwhile, China Shenhua Energy Company, the country's largestcoal miner, announced earlier that its first-half profit jumped 147percent from the same period last year to 24.3 billion yuan.

The company attributed the huge rise to higher coal prices.

Other coal producers, including Shanxi Xishan Coal andElectricity Power and China Coal Energy Company Limited, alsoreported hefty gains for the Jan.-June period.

About 111 million tonnes of capacity was forced out of themarket in the first half of this year, 74 percent of the annualtarget, according to the National Development and ReformCommission, China's top economic planner.

In the first five months, large coal companies registered totalprofits of 123.4 billion yuan, 120 billion yuan more than the sameperiod last year.

As part of the effort to overhaul the economy, the Chinesegovernment plans to eliminate 150 million tonnes of coal capacitythis year. Enditem