On Friday, China Shenhua Energy Co., the country's biggest coal producer, said that its first-half net profit increased by 14% from a year earlier because of an increase in its output and sales, in spite of the global economic crisis.

The Beijing-based company said that its net profit was 16.9 billion yuan ($2.5 billion) in the month of January, compared with 14.8 billion yuan a year earlier.

An increase by 17.6 percent was seen in the company's commercial coal output from a year earlier to 105.8 million tons, while sales hiked 7 percent to 123.1 million tons.

The revenue increased by 16% to 57.1 billion yuan ($8.4 billion), up from 49.8 billion yuan in the first half of 2008.