China's benchmark power-station coal price rose for the first time in four months as stockpiles declined at the nation's biggest port for shipping the fuel.

Coal with an energy value of 5,500 kilocalories a kilogram at Qinhuangdao climbed to a range of 625 yuan ($98.30) to 635 yuan a metric ton as of Sunday, according to the China Coal Transport and Distribution Association on Monday. The midpoint was 0.4 percent above a week earlier, when prices touched the lowest since October 2009.

Inventories at Qinhuangdao fell for a sixth week to 6.51 million tons on Sunday, data from the association showed.

Stockpiles rose in June to more than 9 million tons, near capacity, as China's economic slowdown damped demand for electricity, about 80 percent of which is generated from coal.

The increase in Qinhuangdao spot prices snapped a losing streak that was the longest since Bloomberg started compiling the data in 2008. Prices are still 22 percent lower this year, Bloomberg calculations show.

(HK Edition 08/28/2012 page2)