Trade in China’s thermal coal futures has almost come to a halt after Beijing stepped up its control of coal prices to rein in the soaring costs of energy and raw materials. The flagship product for Zhengzhou Commodity Exchange (ZCE) has at times seen as many as 1 million lots exchange hands in a day but recorded a turnover of just 27 lots on Monday. That was down 99.9% from a year ago and the lowest daily volume since the contract launched in 2015, showed ZCE data. Liquidity started drying up after Beijing intervened in the world’s biggest coal-consuming market last September to cool runaway prices. In February it introduced “reference price ranges” for long-term and spot thermal coal trades and the state planner has also warned […]