Coal news and updates

UK May thermal coal consumption at multi-year low: DECC

The UK's thermal coal consumption in May slumped to 1.88 million mt, down 27% on the year and the lowest for the time of year since records started in 1995, according to data by the Department of Energy and Climate Change Thursday.

Thermal coal burn in the first five months of 2015 was 15.86 million mt, down 20% on-year and also a record low for the 20-year period.

DECC said the decline in consumption was due to a number of reasons including outages at some power stations, the closure of the Uskmouth plant in Wales, the partial closure of the Ferrybridge C unit in 2014, a 645 MW unit at Drax Power converting to biomass and changes in the relative prices of coal and gas.

Market sources have said that declining rates of coal-fired power after the first quarter was mainly due to a hike in the UK's Carbon Price Support mechanism from GBP9.55/mt of carbon in 2014-15 to GBP18.08/mt in 2015-16 which came into effect April 1, making it more expensive to procure and burn thermal coal.

Thermal coal stocks at UK power generators at the end of May dipped 3% on the month to 15.57 million mt, up 15.5% on the year and were the highest for this time of year since 2010.

Total May coal imports into the UK -- including metallurgical coal -- fell 55% on-year to 1.86 million mt, the DECC data said.

source: http://www.platts.com