Blizzard exposes flaws in Beijing's rail, coal policies

Beijing

CHINA'S worst blizzard this winter exposed a flaw in Beijing's drive to create remote coal mining hubs as it tries to streamline heavy industries and clear the air in populated regions: a lack of railroads to get the fuel to market. Heavy snow storms snarled the world's largest rail network last week, closing highways, freezing ports and cutting off critical supplies of thermal coal.

The bottlenecks added to a month-long coal price rally and prompted four top utilities to warn of potential heating and electricity shortages ahead of the upcoming Chinese New Year.