China may reduce the amount of coal it allows to be exported in the second half of the year to ensure adequate domestic supplies as state price controls discourage imports.

``I believe the government will move to cut the second half quota because of concerns about a potential domestic shortage,'' Fang Anxiu, a director of information at the state-owned China Coal Transport and Distribution Association, said in an interview in Beijing. The nation's restrictions on domestic selling prices announced last month may deter overseas suppliers from selling the fuel to China, he said.

The world's biggest coal producer and consumer shut 32 coal-fired power generating units with a combined capacity of 4.82 gigawatts because of fuel shortages, the China Electricity Council said in May. The government has capped thermal-coal prices until the end of this year to help power companies cover increasing costs, the National Development and Reform Commission said June 19.

Power-station coal prices at Australia's Newcastle port, a benchmark for Asia, jumped to a record for a fifth week, reaching $172.1 a metric ton in the period ended June 27, according to the globalCOAL NEWC Index. China's domestic thermal coal prices range between 800 yuan ($117) and 900 yuan a ton, Fang said in the interview yesterday.

``The gap between domestic and international prices may widen as I cannot see why global prices should drop significantly,'' he said.

The government approved exports of 31.8 million metric tons in its first set of authorized shipments this year amid efforts to ensure domestic supplies, the Beijing-based Commission, China's main economic planning body, said in a statement posted on its Web site dated March 14.

The nation is due to announce a second export quota for the year early this month, Fang said.

China, which became a net coal importer for the first time in January last year, has reduced exports to feed an economy that expanded 11.4 percent in 2007, the quickest pace in 13 years. Overseas coal shipments dropped 16 percent to 53.2 million tons last year, compared with a state quota of 70 million tons.