for those who give a toss

... here's some coal news of interest:

Euro Coal-Prices tick higher with oil, power

"Europe is extremely quiet but we're sold out for February and March and still getting calls from buyers outside Europe who are nothing to do with China," one European trader said.

March loading South African cargoes were bid and offered at around $109.00 a tonne FOB Richards Bay on Friday, up 50 cents from the previous day.

South African December thermal coal imports into China reach year-high

South African thermal coal imports into China reached their highest of the year in December, rising to 1.87 million mt, up 14% on the previous month and nearly four times the volume shipped a year earlier, according to Chinese customs data released Friday.

Japan may hike 2012 coal, LNG imports

Japan could hike coal and LNG imports by 6.3m tonnes and 20m tonnes in the current financial year, respectively, against April 2010-March 2011 levels, if nuclear power plants are still offline by the summer, Japan’s institute of energy economics said. The institute did not stipulate 2010 or 2011 financial year import levels, but Barclays Capital analysts expect 2012 calendar year thermal coal imports to total 128m tonnes, while Société Générale pegs the total more conservatively, at 118m tonnes. Rises in Japanese coal import demand can have a bullish impact on global prices, while LNG import increases could drive European gas prices higher, and further pressure clean spark spreads –a measure of the profit margin for burning gas to produce power. “Actual import totals for the 2011 fiscal year are yet to be known, but they are going to be significantly biased from a normal year because of the Fukushima accident,” Kensuke Kanekiyo, editor-in-chief for the institute, told Montel.

“Thus, we compare the forecast for the 2012 fiscal year with the totals for 2010, although we had a hot summer and cold winter in that year,” he added. “This summer, Japan is again to face extremely hot issues of severe electric power supply and demand problems,” the institute said in a report, released. “On New Year’s Day, only six out of 54 nuclear power plants were in operation in Japan, and they are due for routine maintenance by May,” it said. “A substantial amount of fossil fuels will be imported to supplement the deficit in energy generation.”

Amid the prospect of heightened coal and LNG utilisation, CO2 emissions could rise by more than 11% to 1.2m tonnes in 2012, the institute said. All of fossil fuels for power generation in Japan are imported, as Japan has negligibly small domestic production of them, Kanekiyo said.

Source: Montel

China to Add 200 Mln Tonnes of Coal Production Capacity in 2012

China will add 200 million tonnes of coal production capacity this year, compared with 95 million tonnes in 2011, Liu Tienan, Deputy Director of National Development and Reform Commission and head of the National Energy Administration, said at a national energy work conference in Beijing on Tuesday. The country also aims to build 70 gigawatts of power-generation capacity this year, after adding 90 gigawatts in 2011 to bring the country’s total capacity to 1,050 gigawatts.

In 2011, China saw its energy supply greatly increased, with the total coal output in the country’s 14 major collieries reaching 3.2 billion tonnes and hydropower capacity reaching 230 gigawatts with 55 million kilowatts of projects under development. Besides, the country added wind power capacity of 16 million kilowatts, bringing the total capacity to 47 gigawatts. For China’s 12th Five-year Plan Period (2011-2015), the country may limit its annual energy consumption to the equivalent of 4.1 billion tonnes of standard coal with power consumption of less than 6.4 trilllion kilowatt-hours by 2015.

Source: steelhome

Courtesy of BenBradley on HC:

Energy Expert: Germany’s Renewable Energy Transition “Will Fail Spectacularly – Heavily Damaging The Economy”

By P Gosselin on 25. Januar 2012

The European Institute for Climate and Energy (EIKE) issued a press release on a 28-page report that German energy expert Dr. Guenter Keil wrote concerning Germany’s transition to renewable energy, and away from nuclear and fossil fuel energy.