Belgium’s prime minister has called for the European Union to buy energy collectively as fears mount of a potential crisis this winter linked to the conflict in Ukraine EU leaders are meeting in Brussels as Russia squeezes gas supplies to the block and that is forcing many within the EU to contemplate once again turning to coal to keep the lights on benefiting from that could be south African coal producers who at times are battling to keep up with the demand
Coal prices hit a record of over 400 per ton this year while the price has subsided demand is still high as the war in Ukraine has no end in sight just six months ago at the cop, 26 climate change conference in Glasgow commitments were made to phase out coal globally but the war in Ukraine has upended that south African coal miners such are benefiting from record coal prices as well as a significant rise in orders from European countries eager to plug the gap left behind by Russia.
“After covert pandemic lockdowns, the economy started restructuring and then restarting the economies and then we had this issue between Russia and Ukraine that is the biggest actually uh reason for the resurgence because um Russia is a big supply for European markets 136 million per year so that coal now stopped as of august 10 there’ll be no Russian call going to Europe so that means that Europe needs to get caught from somewhere and then they mainly come to South Africa and go to Colombia to buy.” – Vuslat Bayoglu, Managing director of Canyon Coal
The coal experts say the commodities the boom has cushioned the impact of the COVID 19 pandemics in the south African economy resulting in a 12 billion dollar boost to tax revenues this year.
On market sentiment while the resurgence of coal has been good for the coal miners and exports it’s bad for the environment experts are worried coal’s bounce back will hamper the global climate change initiative.
With Germany’s decision to restart its coal-fired power plants it seems south In order to keep up with the demand worldwide. African core producers and others throughout the world will have their hands full.
