South African Coal

WorldWatch received news of another world happening that will eventually affect certain coal importing countries mainly those that use coal for energy in power plants, South Africa's Richards Bay Coal Terminal, the world's biggest coal-export facility, expects a 30-fold surge in sales to India this year, increasing prices for European power producers competing for supplies.

The terminal shipped 7.3 million metric tons to India in the first 10 months, compared with 300,000 tons for the whole of 2006. That may rise by another 2 million tons before the end of the year, Richards Bay coal prices have gained 72 percent this year.

Benchmark prices for thermal coal, used in power plants, have reached a record in Australia, South Africa and Europe in the last three weeks. Costs have risen because of shipping and rail bottlenecks as Asian customers compete for supplies with European utilities. Indian coal demand will exceed supply for the next five years.

South Africa's northeast coast,is the biggest single source of coal for European power plants.

Richards Bay, which has about 3.5 million tons of coal stockpiled at the moment, is owned by mining companies including BHP Billiton Ltd. and Anglo American Plc.
South Africa in this area will have a boom next year..so coal exports are also one of the fuels that serve to feed world the ever growing energy needs..