The Longmay Mining Group, the largest coal mining company in northeast China, will lay off 100,000 employees, about 40 percent of its current workforce, over the next three months, company chairman Wang Zhikui announced last week. The Longmay Group has been badly hit by the slowdown in the coal industry over the last two years. Production costs in Longmay’s mines are relatively high but coal prices have plummeted leading to a reported loss of six billion yuan last year despite a three billion yuan bailout from the Heilongjiang provincial government. Read more
