Energy Industry Insiders - At Least 10 Million Tons Coal Gone From Export Market For Next 2 Months

[hatrack]

Jan 29, (Reuters) - The world coal market is facing an unprecedented supply shortage in key consuming regions due to a halt in Chinese exports, South Africa's power crisis, heavy rains in Australia and booming domestic demand in coal exporting countries such as Indonesia.

At least 10 million tonnes has disappeared from global coal supply for the next two months, industry sources said. The figure could be higher if the South African authorities make a substantial call on the country's export coal, they said.

Asian consumers expecting Chinese shipments will be the worst affected but traders and utilities in Europe and India due to receive South African coal are extremely anxious about the potential difficulty in replacing lost coal.

"There's something going wrong in just about every coal exporting country," one major European consumer said. "Where isn't there a problem?," he added.

EDIT

http://money.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=372894

[Duke Newcombe]

1. step 4: PROFITS!

:(

Duke

[phantom power]

2. It's pretty remarkable, how fast this export-collapse is playing out.

It's faster than I expected.

[Hydra]

3. Hmm...is this a Debeers or Cheney deliberate shortage?

Time will tell, I suppose.