CIAB Market & Policy developments 2005/06 - IEA

of steel increased by 19% in 2006 and imports of steel, led by an increase in imports
from China, reached an all time high. Imports in January-November 2007 were lower
than last year but still well above 2005 levels. Although lower than in 2006, imports from
China continue to be strong and China remains the number one offshore supplier of
finished steel to the United States of America. Steel production in January-15 th
December was approximately 2.3% below 2006 levels. Steel production in 2007 is
expected to be approximately 106 million short tons (96 million tonnes).
118. Through the first five months of 2007 estimated consumption of coking coal was 2.2%
above 2006 levels. The EIA has forecast that coking coal use will increase by 600,000
short tons in 2007.
119. Australian steel production totalled 7.8Mt in 2006, primarily achieved via the blast
furnace method which utilised 5.8Mt of metallurgical coal in 2006. Metallurgical coal
demand in Australia is forecast to remain stable at current levels.
3.2.4 Total Brown Coal Consumption
Table 4 - Brown Coal Consumption (million tonnes)
2004 2005 2006e
m.tonnes m.tonnes change m.tonnes change
EU(19) 391 384 -1.7% 375 -2.3%
OECD Total 622 634 1.9% 629 -0.7%
World 908 920 1.3% 921 0.2%
© OECD/IEA, 2007
120. World growth in demand for brown coal increased marginally in 2006 to 921 million
tonnes, with significant increases in consumption in Turkey (+4.2 million tonnes), Russia
(+2.6 million tonnes) and Romania (+2.2 million tonnes).
121. In Germany, brown coal use declined by 1.5 million tonnes to 176 million tonnes in 2006,
the lowest level since the year 2000, but it remains by far the largest consumer of brown
coal, with 19% of world demand. Lignite is mainly used for power generation, followed by
utilisation in processing plants. Between 1990 and 1999, demand more than halved to
163 million tonnes, but has been at a level of around 180 million tonnes for each of the
past six years. Germany has a lignite-based power plant capacity of some 20GW, one
third of which went on stream in the second half of the last decade or in the first years of
the current decade.
122. In Turkey, lignite is consumed mainly in thermal power stations, but is also used by
households and industry. Lignite use increased by almost 35% between 1990 (45 million
tonnes) and 2001 (61 million tonnes), but declined sharply to 51 million tonnes in 2002
as a consequence of natural gas volume commitments in supply agreements. The share
of lignite in electricity generation reached its highest value of 47% in 1986, but had
declined to just below 20% by 2006 as a consequence of the increased use of natural
gas in electricity generation.
123. Lignite use increased sharply in 2005 (by over 20% to 56 million tonnes) and again in
2006 (by about 8% to 61 million tones). The main reasons for this increase were:
• two new lignite based power stations, namely Can 18 Mart and Elbistan B, started
trial operations in 2004 and 2005 respectively and their lignite consumption
increased further in 2006; and
- 19 -