China's five major power-generating companies suffered from losses caused by high coal prices in January after losing money in 2008 for the same reason, reported Saturday's China Daily.

The five companies, China Huaneng Group, China Datang Corp., China Guodian Corp., China Huadian Corp. and China Power Investment Corp., posted losses of around 40 billion yuan in 2008,while coal-fired power generators had losses of 70 billion yuan, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.

The current coal price is still "too high" for power companies, said Zhai Ruoyu, general manager, China Datang Corp., citing that as the main reason for the losses.

Transportation costs have also partly caused high coal prices, he said.

The losses are mainly due to rising fuel costs and lackluster electricity demand. In the first-half of last year coal prices went up sharply, and as a result many domestic power companies began to lose money, said Xue Jing, executive of the China Electricity Council (CEC).

"The first two quarters will be the most difficult for China's power industry. Power demand is likely to see a continuous decline in the first-half," the China Electricity Council (CEC) said in an earlier report.

Power demand is now expected to pick up only in the third quarter, according to the CEC.

Source:Xinhua