Euracoal reports that for the first time in many years, the world market for hard coal fell by some 8 % during the first quarter 2009. This latest Euracoal (http://www.euracoal.org/) report arrived too late for International Mining’s August article on the global coal industry, which is about to be published. Steam coal was 140.1 Mt, down from 140.7 Mt in the first quarter of 2008. The fall in coking coal waxs much more severe, down from 42.6 Mt to 29.9 Mt in 2009. The combined total showed a fall of 13.3 Mt between 2008 and 2009.

Nevertheless, markets behaved differently: whilst the Atlantic steam coal market decreased exports, the Pacific market increased slightly. The Pacific market increased by only 2.2 Mt with Australia being the only exporter increasing sales (+ 6.7 Mt). China (- 2.6 Mt) and Indonesia (- 2.0 Mt) bore the main decreases. On the Atlantic steam coal market, only South Africa (+ 1.3 Mt) and Russia (+ 0.4 Mt) increased exports. The total Atlantic market shrunk by 2.8 Mt.

The coking coal market suffered in the economic crisis and dropped by 30 % during the first quarter 2009. China became a net importer for coking coal. Australia exported 8.1 Mt less than during the first quarter 2008 and the US and Canada also recorded an export decrease. The total coking coal market is expected to decrease by some 40 to 50 Mt for the entire year 2009.

Steam coal prices fob South Africa are currently around $60/t, even though the demand on the Atlantic market stays weak.

Contract prices for coking coal which also reached historic peaks during the 2008 summer are now coming back to normal and the negotiated prices for 2009/2010 are expected to be low. Hard coking coal is currently contracted at $120-125/t, semi-soft coking coal at $80-90/t and low-volatile PCI coal at $75-80/t.

A special situation was observed in China, who became for the first time a net importer. The reason was that for the steel and electricity industries, located near the harbours, it was cheaper to import coal because international coking coal prices are currently lower than Chinese coking coal prices. The Chinese coke market totally collapsed; in April 2009 there were only some 20.000 t of coke exported. After the very high coke prices in summer 2008 the prices collapsed in winter 2008 but are currently again picking up slowly. In March 2009 the coke price fob China was $420/t.

Due to the collapse of the steel industry, Polish coke demand dropped by some 30 %. The demand from Germany and France as well was considerably lower or even cancelled for 2009. The industry nevertheless expects improvements of demand in the second half/end of 2010. Coke production should then even increase again in the following years.

The longer term future of German hard coal depends now, as in the past, on political decisions. According to a legal guideline, the German Bundestag will check before 2012 if the decision to close down in the year 2018 is to be reviewed again or not; this will be determined mainly by the outcome of the Bundestag elections in September 2009. While the Social Democrats and the trade unions together with some of the Christian Democrats are in favour of maintaining a minimum level of indigenous coal production, large numbers of Christian Democrats, Liberals and also Greens in Germany see little reason to go back on the decision to close down.

The UK Government made its long awaited policy announcement on new coal power plant build: any new coal stations must have at least one unit fitted with CCS and the remaining units must be ‘carbon capture ready’. The Government will provide financial support for up to four such CCS projects. A consultation on the financial support mechanism was published in June 2009.

British output is now increasing for the first time in many years. There was an increase for the year 2008 compared with 2007 which came from surface mines. The ongoing increase during the first quarter of 2009 includes an increase from deep mines also. There continues to be an encouraging trend in surface mine planning permissions. The potential re-opening of Harworth Colliery would cost some £200 million, but sourcing finance for this in the current climate is proving difficult.

The situation in the Czech hard coal industry is strongly influenced by lower demand for coal suitable for coking and a drop in its price by one third. This year OKD-OKK a.s. (Ostravskokarvinské koksovny, a coking coal company) expects a decrease in its annual coke production to 710,000 t against the planned 850,000 t. The other negative factors include decreasing electricity consumption, lower electricity prices on the energy exchange, and an increase in the price of steam coal (+ 17 %). These three factors prompted the operator of the 800 MW hard coal-fired Dětmarovice power station, ČEZ, to consider a shutdown of this power station for four months. Following an agreement between ČEZ and OKD, the duration of the shutdown was reduced to one month. OKD’s supplies to the power station are 800,000 t annually. This has made it possible for OKD to maintain extraction and hundreds of jobs in northern Moravia. In 1Q 2009 OKD produced 3.1 Mt of hard coal. Compared with 1Q 2008, production dropped by 12 %.

German lignite production during Q1 2009, at 44.8 Mt, was generally 3.4% higher than the previous year. In Lausitz (+ 11.8%) and in Central Germany (+ 4.6%), lignite production was higher; on the contrary, in the Rhineland (-1.6%) and in Helmstedt (-1.3 %) production dropped. The changes are essentially due to the development of deliveries to power plants (+ 3.2 %), where some 92% of all production goes. Power generation by lignite-fired power plants was generally a good 3% higher than during the same period last year. For refined products, briquetting (+47.3%) showed a clear increase during the first quarter of 2009. The production of lignite dust (-11.2 %) and lignite coke (-8.7%) was dropping. Pulverised lignite production (-1.8%) was just under last year’s level.

In the chain of the impacts of the economic crisis, brown coal is not in the forefront in the Czech Republic but it will be affected at some later stage. This year’s fall of electricity prices can be expected to be reflected in energy companies’ results for 2010 and 2011. The price of coal is expected to drop by a few percent in 2010. In 1Q 2009 brown coal and lignite production amounted to 12.6 Mt. Brown coal companies contributed to this output as follows: SD, 6 Mt (+2.8%), CCG, 3.8 Mt (-2.9%) and SU, 2.6 Mt (-16.9%). The Centrum deep brown coal mine and Hodonín deep coal mine (lignite) produced 150,000 t. Compared with 1Q 2008, brown coal and lignite production declined by around 4%. Customers’ demand has helped to change the Czech Coal Group’s original decision to discontinue extraction from the last deep brown coal mine in the country. Extraction from the Centrum mine was to be ended last year, with employment contracts terminated for 300 employees. An agreement on extension of supplies until 2012 with the petrochemical company Unipetrol has ensured continued mining. Centrum produces about 280,000 t of coal every year.

In order to reach a further improvement of productivity in Matra’s opencast mines, the assembly of a new compact excavator was started at the end of 2008. This machine is a prototype of the world’s biggest compact excavator. Its assembly is largely completed, and it will start operation in the Bükkabrany opencast mine in mid-2009.

The Slovenian power plant Sostanj (TES) is preparing to build a new so-called block 6 with 600 MW capacity and around 42% efficiency. It will replace old units. The Velenje coal mine will start a project for vertical skip winding of coal this year.

Serbia completed and launched the new overburden ECS (Excavator-Conveyor-Spreader) system in the Kostolac lignite basin in order to increase annual production from 6.5 to 9 Mt of lignite in the first stage and finally to 12 Mt of lignite.