China’s Shenhua Group is in talks with leading Chinese nuclear developers on taking stakes in domestic nuclear projects, as the country’s biggest coal producer diversifies into cleaner forms of energy, Shenhua President Zhang Yuzhuo said.

Shenhua Group, state-owned parent of Shanghai and Hong Kong-listed China Shenhua Energy, has been cutting coal production in a bid to shore up prices, which have plunged as a result of declining demand and a huge domestic supply glut.

The nuclear companies Shenhua is in talks with include China National Nuclear Corp (CNNC) and China General Nuclear Power Corp (CGN), Zhang said.

Shenhua Energy saw its net profit fall 56.9 per cent in 2015. It produced 280.9 million tonnes of coal over the year, down 8.4 per cent on 2014, and expects output to fall a further 0.3 per cent this year, it said in its results filing last week.

Zhang said the company was dealing with a transformation in China’s energy structure in which coal use would decline. The company has built 6.2 gigawatts of wind power capacity and 182 megawatts of solar power and is developing geothermal energy.

"Among big Chinese companies, when it comes to developing clean and renewable energies, we are not lagging behind at all," he said.

"We are hoping that in 20 or 30 years," he said.