1. South Africa's very poorly maintained thermal coal power plants are deteriorating significantly- blackouts worst on record.
It appears to be a long term continuing problem, with no quick "easy" solutions (Eskom has debts of US $26b).
Does anyone know if the thermal power stations can at least provide power for:-
. South Africa's thermal coal mines, to continue mining coal without disruption?
. rail coal transport & conveyors etc., to deliver coal from the mines to the power stations, to use; &/ or rail to the ports, for export?
. the port loading facilites, to load the coal onto ships for export?
SA is a major thermal coal exporter to Europe. Whilst Europe now has large stockpiles of coal (frenzied buying in 2022- but autumn & winter have been mild), it will need to replensih these later in 2023 (EU imported much Russian coal until 10.8.22- totally banned from then).
Extra opportunities for WHC exports later in 2023?
(China's) sxcoal. com T. Yang 20.2.23 said
"South Africa's state power utility Eskom on February 19 said it would implement "Stage 6" power cuts continuously until further notice due to breakdowns of eight generation units in the afternoon of the day.
Further changes on the stages of loadshedding at short notice are possible given the high number of breakdowns, Eskom said in a statement.
Eskom has been implementing the worst rolling blackouts in South Africa on record, leaving households in the dark, disrupting manufacturing and hurting businesses of all sizes, leading to President Cyril Ramaphosa declaring a national "state of disaster" earlier this month over his country's crippling power shortages.
The "Stage 6" power cuts, the worst outage level on record, require up to 6,000 megawatts to be shed from the national grid, and mean up to 10 hours a day without power for some South Africans".
http://www.sxcoal.com/news/4672073/info/en
2. India expects thermal coal usage to increase by c. 8% in 12 months to March 2024, cf 12 months to March 2023; & to import more thermal coal.
This may eventually benefit WHC, raise NEWC prices etc.
sxcoal.com T. Yang 17.2.23 said
"India invoked an emergency law to request imported coal-based power plants to maximize generation to prepare for the expected surge in power consumption this summer, Reuters reported, citing an internal power ministry notice.
The power ministry expects these power plants to operate at full capacity and sell power to buyers on exchanges. However, many of them have not run at full tilt as they found it hard to compete with power generated from cheap domestic coal.
The directive will be effective from March 16, giving plants the time to import coal ahead of the expected surge in consumption, and it may remain valid till June 15, according to Reuters.
India's power ministry expects a peak demand of 229 GW in April and thermal coal power capacity needs to reach 193 GW during the same month. Power coal consumption during the fiscal year ending March 2024 is expected to rise 8% compared with a year ago driven by more active economic activities and erratic weather, according to the ministry.
http://www.sxcoal.com/news/4672117/info/en
(20min delay)
