His comments followed the latest last-minute meeting the government held with coal miners on Thursday and suggest the company is complying with Beijing's requests for miners to help tame runaway prices.

Jiang Chun, the spokesman for ChinaCoal, said talks with customers have started, but he did not give a time frame for their conclusion.

"ChinaCoal hopes to see a more stabilized coal prices. Any big drops or big falls in prices will hurt both producers and utilities," Jiang said.

This year's negotiations are in particular focus as prices skyrocket and supplies tighten as government-enforced mine closures caused shortages ahead of the winter months.

Market participants are speculating about how much the government will intervene to stem the rally and force miners to agree fixed prices for 2017 with their customers.

A week ago, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) asked miners to cap 2017 prices as it worried about the survival of utility companies.

Almost 60 percent of coal-fired plants swung into losses in Shanxi province in September, one of the country's top coal and power producing region, the state planner said. In the first nine months, Shanxi's coal-power utilities made 3 billion yuan in profits, down 3.8 billion yuan on year.

The NDRC said in September it allowed miners to increase output by 1 million tonnes per day, partially reversing its effort to cut excess capacity and shift towards more renewable energy.

Thermal coal prices have been on a wild ride since the start of 2015.

Prices plunged 30 percent in 2015 to 365 yuan per ton. This year, it surged almost 90 percent to close at 710 yuan per ton on Friday, data provided by Fenwei Energy showed.

The surging prices has prompted four coal meetings by Beijing in less than 14 days and fuelled more panic about winter supply as power plants are preparing for winter.

"Markets are expecting policymakers to ask coal producers to cut prices again in the future," Zhang Min, a Zibo, Shandong-based coal analysts said. "Tight supply conditions support further rises."

China's thermal coal futures rose more than 4.6 percent in the afternoon trade, hitting the highest since its launch.

($1 = 6.7615 Chinese yuan)

(Reporting by Meng Meng and Josephine Mason; Editing by Gopakumar Warrier and Christian Schmollinger)