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| News and Updates |
| Pakistan coal imports likely to rise up to 10-25pc - Aug 27, 2010 16:18:40 |
LONDON: The devastating floods that hit Pakistan are likely to mean a rise of up to 10-25 percent in its coal imports, or around one million tons, this year to fuel the rebuilding needed, Pakistani and Indian coal importers said.
More coal will be needed for reconstruction, but the final tonnage will depend on the money available to import the materials needed, they said.
The floods have rendered more than four million people homeless and an estimated eight million are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance.
“There will be huge-scale reconstruction needed to repair the roads and to rebuild buildings, which were destroyed in the floods, and the cement-makers know they will need more coal,” one of Pakistan’s biggest coal importers said on Wednesday.
The floods marooned villages, destroyed power stations, roads and bridges and ravaged the mainstay agriculture industry just after the government had made progress in stabilising Pakistan through offensives against Taliban insurgents.
Pakistan’s coal imports have risen from around two million tons in 2007 to just under four million in 2009 and are forecast now to reach 4.5-5 million by the end of calendar 2010, importers said.
Earlier this year, imports into Pakistan were projected at 3.7-4 million tons.
Pakistan’s economic growth may be knocked down to between zero and two percent, Pakistani officials said on Monday.
But reconstruction could begin as early as November or December, according to the Pakistan Planning Commission, and the authorities have said that, despite the fragility of the economy, whatever needs to be imported will be.
South Asian and South East Asian coal demand, led by China, has been by far the most important price supporting factor this year, more than compensating for weak demand in South Africa’s traditional European market.
India accounted for 34 percent of South Africa’s exports in 2010, an average of around two million tons a month.
Pakistan is a much smaller importer of South African and Indonesian coal than India, but has been a steady buyer during the last four years.
Unlike India, which mostly uses imported coal for power generation, Pakistan’s imports in 50,000-75,000 tons vessels are almost all used to make cement.
Despite floods, coal shipments have continued with a few interruptions or delays, the importers said.
“We have had a couple of cargoes delayed discharging for two weeks, maybe four weeks maximum, but there were no major problems,” an Indian supplier of South African coal to Pakistan end-users said.
Just prior to the floods, Pakistan cement companies had ramped up imports to build stocks at the ports ahead of the Ramazan.
“There were very high stocks at the ports. They were all full when the floods hit, but the problems were more to do with roads being washed away, so it took a long time to move coal further inland, and this held up some shipments,” the Pakistan importer said. Over 750,000 tons of coal was imported in August alone, he added. |
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