Italian Steam Coal Market Has Recovered

ITALIAN COAL ASSOCIATION

Press Release – This year Italy will import 17 million tons of steam coal, up 3% from 2009, and 5.5 million tons of coking coal and PCI, up 37% over last year. These are some of the figures disclosed by Mr Andrea Clavarino, Chairman of the Italian Coal Association – Assocarboni – during the Coal Industry Advisory Board plenary meeting, held in Paris on November 18th and 19th 2010.

Mr Clavarino, who is delegate of the Italian Government to the CIAB board – the coal consultative body of the IEA, the OCSE energy watchdog – therefore stated the Italian steam coal market has fully recovered after the crisis, and Italian imports are growing again.“In 2011, thanks to Enel Torrevaldaliga North plant in full operations, steam coal imports should reach the peak of 19 million tons (up from 17 forecasted for 2010) that will become 25-26 MT in the next five years, as per our projections”, he said.

According to the World Energy Outlook 2010, global demand for coal increases by around 20% between 2008 and 2035 in the New Policies Scenario, with almost all of the growth before 2020. Non-OECD countries, as a group, account for all of the growth in global coal demand in all the projections: China, India and Indonesia account for nearly 90% of the total incremental growth. Global coal production in the New Policies Scenario grows from just under 4900 Mtce in 2008 to just above 5600 Mtce in 2035.

Mr Clavarino made even more enthusiastic projections talking about the global coal trade that is expected to grow significantly during the next few decades, with total thermal seaborne coal demand set to increase from 680-million tons to 1,1-billion tons between 2010 and 2025. “Nearly all major coal-consuming countries in Asia are expected to experience significant demand growth: China’s and India’s economies have been relatively unscathed by the economic turmoil that developed economies have faced. According to forecasts, in 2011 total thermal coal imports for China will reach 122 Mt, while thermal coal demand in India will increase by 810 million tons – 137% by 2025, driven by a 158% increase in coal-fired power capacity”, he commented.

During the CIAB board meeting, the global value of coal has been underlined, as well as the opportunities that clean coal technologies present to continue and expand utilization of this energy source. Mr Clavarino pointed out coal’s major role in the coming decades, and claimed himself to be confident that by increasing coal-based generation efficiencies and fostering carbon capture and storage, the world will be able to meet the goals of an 80% reduction in CO2 emissions amid sustained economic growth, the eradication of poverty and elimination of energy deprivation.

“Access to electricity is a key to alleviating poverty impacting up to 6 billion people: it is essential to increase the quality of life, economic well-being, and a clean environment. Coal is the only fuel that can meet the world’s rising energy demand, due to its abundance and accessibility, to his security, reliability, affordability and versatility. That is what happened to China, where coal has underpinned a massive and unprecedented growth in output, fueling an economic miracle”, he concluded.

ASSOCARBONI is a no profit organization founded in 1897, which represents more than 90 national and international companies engaged in solid fuels. Its head office is in Rome and it has a representative office in Brussels. Assocarboni is part of the Board of Directors of the Experimental Fuel Station (leading fuel research body) in Milan.

On an international level, Assocarboni is member of Euracoal (European Association for Coal and Lignite), of CAG (Coal Advisory Group) – a European Commission working group involved in coal research grants – of WCI (World Coal Institute) in London, of CIAB (Coal Industry Advisory Board) – a section of the International Energy Agency of Paris, which brings together more than 40 companies (both energy producing and electric generation companies) from 14 different countries – and of the “Working Party on Coal” of the ECE-UN Energy Committee in Geneva. Source: European Energy Review