Coal: Less than lackluster
Not many in the world coal industry will remember 1993 as a good year. The reasons for the poor state of affairs were first the weak economic climate, and second, the energy glut. For the first time after expanding steadily since the 70s, seaborne trade in hard coal fell by about 4% to 350M mt. Steam coal accounted for a good half of this volume. While demand continued to rise in the newly industrialized countries of the Pacific area, imports into Europe of both coking coal and steam coal fell sharply. The United States, CIS, and Canada had to accept substantial losses of export volume. Australia, as well as South Africa, Colombia, and Indonesia consolidated their market positions and Poland, too, recorded high volumes available for export. The positive news came from Australia, where in mid-December the New South Wales coal industry reported an increase in the net profit after tax from $A83M (about $55M) to $A98M (about $126M) in 1992/1993. This success was however ascribed less to an improvement in the fundamental mining indicators than to the fall in the Australian dollar and the lowering of corporate tax. The reduction in capital investment by 26% down to $A330M (after the previous year when it had also been cut by 25%) is seen by the chairman of the NSW Coal Assoc. as not auguring well for the industry's ability to meet the forecast growth in demand to the year 2000.
- OSTI ID:
- 7067142
- Journal Information:
- Engineering and Mining Journal; (United States), Journal Name: Engineering and Mining Journal; (United States) Vol. 195:3; ISSN 0095-8948; ISSN ENMJAK
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
015000* -- Coal
Lignite
& Peat-- Economic
Industrial
& Business Aspects
CARBONACEOUS MATERIALS
COAL
COAL INDUSTRY
DEVELOPED COUNTRIES
ENERGY SOURCES
EUROPE
FOSSIL FUELS
FUELS
GLOBAL ASPECTS
INDUSTRY
MARKET
MATERIALS
NORTH AMERICA
PRICES
PRODUCTION
SUPPLY AND DEMAND
USA