Publication Date:
1988-12-01
Description:
In response to a directive from member countries in 1983, IEA Coal Research initiated a series of techno-economic studies designed to assess the future cost and availability of steam coal supplies for export from major existing and potential producing countries. As a means of setting this assessment work in a world context and to help explain why certain countries were selected for study and the order in which those studies have been carried out, the paper provides background information on world coal supply (4,400 Mt) and hard coal trade (330 Mt) for 1986. Since 1983 reports have been published on Colombia, United States, South Africa, Canada and the People's Republic of China; reports are currently in draft form for the Soviet Bloc and Australia; and studies are in progress for the Asia/Pacific Region and for Western Europe. The paper goes on to review the evolution of the study work, study methodology and typical report format. Generalised conclusions are drawn on coal supply categories, the economies of scale required to produce and deliver low value coal products, and the principal factors affecting coal pricing. More specific conclusions are then drawn for each country and finally the programme of future work in this field is indicated. The overall objective of this assessment work has now been geared towards producing integrated projections of world supply of all the principal coal products that are expected to be traded 15–20 years ahead and for those projections to be kept current and issued as annual reports.
Print ISSN:
0144-5987
Electronic ISSN:
2048-4054
Topics:
Energy, Environment Protection, Nuclear Power Engineering
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Mechanical Engineering, Materials Science, Production Engineering, Mining and Metallurgy, Traffic Engineering, Precision Mechanics
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