CIAB Market & Policy developments 2005/06 - IEA

The main reason for the electricity sector increase has been the 1320MW Isken-Sugözü
power station which started operating in 2004 and uses imported coal.
3.2.2 Steam Coal Consumption
98. World consumption of steam coal increased by over 8% (350 million tonnes) in 2006
according to IEA provisional estimates, a further significant increase on the 5.1%
increase seen in 2005 4 . World steam coal consumption has increased by 40% since the
year 2000. Recent growth has been driven by continued steam coal use in developed
economies as well as very rapid growth in developing economies including China (17%,
building on 2005 growth of 9%) and India (8%, building on 2005 growth of 5%). Growth
in non-OECD countries in 2006 was over 13%.
Table 1 - Steam Coal Consumption (million tonnes)
2004 2005 2006e
m.tonnes m.tonnes change m.tonnes change
EU(19) 281 272 -3.2% 286 5.1%
OECD 1478 1499 1.4% 1485 -0.9%
World 4073 4280 5.1% 4633 8.3%
© OECD/IEA, 2007
99. Steam coal demand in South Africa increased by 2% to 177 million tonnes in 2006.
Local market consumption is 72 percent of the total output (of which bituminous coal is
99.4% and anthracite is 0.6%). The rest is exported mainly through the Richards Bay
Coal Terminal (97%), Durban (2.0%) and Maputo (1.4%).
100. In FY2006 Japanese Power Utilities (JPUs) consumed 93.6 million tonnes of steam coal,
a 1.3 million tonne decrease from the previous year due to mild weather during the
period and increased regular safety inspections of generation units. Australia remained
as the largest steam coal supplier for JPUs, with around a 60% share. China continued
to reduce their share from 15% to 14% because of its robust domestic demand and
policy change to encourage imports. Russia also reduced its share from 7% to 6% due to
its increased exports to the EU, which substituted for supplies from South Africa and
Columbia to the EU. As a result, Australia and Canada each took an additional 1% of
supplies to JPUs.
101. In the United States of America, EIA preliminary estimates show that the electric power
sector used 1,027 million short tons of coal (932 million tonnes) in 2006 for electricity
generation. Just over 50.4% of all electricity produced during the year was coal fired.
Total electricity generation increased in 2006 by 0.2%. Generation from coal declined by
1.1%. Due in part to low coal inventories in the first part of the year which forced an
increase in natural gas use, in part to the 8 GW (approx.) of new natural gas capacity
that came on line in 2006 and in part to slightly lower natural gas prices, generation from
natural gas increased by 7.5% in 2006, building on a similar increase in 2005. Nuclear
generation increased by 0.7% and generation from hydro power was up by 7.2% in 2006,
due to increased precipitation in the principal hydro regions in the western United States.
102. Coal use by electricity generators in the United States of America will increase in 2007.
The EIA short term forecast issued in December showed an expected 1,049 million short
tons (947 million tonnes) will be burned to generate electricity. Coal’s market share in
electricity generation is expected to be flat at 50% in 2007.
4 This may be an overestimate of growth – see discussion in 3.2.1 Hard Coal Consumption.
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