Sept 16 (Reuters) - Inner Mongolia, China’s largest coal-producing region, has ordered 15 mines to halt production after they were found to have exceeded their approved output plans, a document from the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region Energy Bureau showed.

China launched inspections in major coal hubs in July and asked local authorities to report whether mines had exceeded output in 2024 and the first half of 2025, as Beijing seeks to tackle overcapacity in the sector.

Make sense of the latest ESG trends affecting companies and governments with the Reuters Sustainable Switch newsletter. Sign up here.

Reuters called the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region Energy Bureau, and the person who answered confirmed the document detailing the results of the region’s production capacity inspection and the key details.

The investigation results showed that 15 mines in Ordos exceeded their approved capacity by more than 10% in the first half of 2025. They have been ordered to suspend operations and may resume only after passing inspections by regional safety regulators, according to the document.

The document did not provide a timeline for when the inspections will take place. The halted mines have combined annual capacity of about 34.6 million metric tons, according to Mysteel, a Chinese commodity consulting firm.

As of September 16, five of the 15 mines, with combined capacity of 19.3 million tons per year, were ordered to suspend production for five to seven days due to safety hazards. Four mines have since resumed normal production after the inspections, according to Mysteel.

China’s most-traded coking coal futures contract on the Dalian Commodity Exchange rose 5.84%, or 68.5 yuan ($9.63) a ton on Tuesday.

The market rallied after state media published President Xi Jinping's call on Monday for the “orderly exit” of outdated production capacity and the curbing of “disorderly” price competition.

($1 = 7.1151 Chinese yuan renminbi)