BEIJING - China's crude coal output was the highest of the year in November as the coal shortage started to ease, official data showed Thursday.

Average daily output reached 10.3 million tons in November, up by 1.2 million tons from October and surpassing ten million tons for the first time this year, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

Total crude coal output reached 310 million tons in November, down 5.1 percent year on year. The decline rate was 6.9 percentage points lower than a month earlier.

Coal prices ended a six-month long rising streak driven by supply cuts and rising demands in mid November, with a benchmark coal price falling by about 33 yuan ($4.75) per ton in November.

Meanwhile, above-scale industrial crude oil narrowed its output drop in November, while natural gas production reversed previous drops and started to grow.