By Jacqueline Cowhig
LONDON, April 24 (Reuters) – Energias de Portugal
has bought 2.4 million tonnes of mostly Colombian and some U.S.
thermal coal for delivery in 2013 and 2014 at a discount of just
over $3.00 a tonne to the API2 index, sources at the utility and
traders said.
Two contracts were awarded last Friday for 1.2 million
tonnes each, one to a Colombian producer and the other to a
trader, following a tender issued just after the Easter
holidays, they said.
“We bought 1.2 million tonnes a year for 2013 and 2014,
mostly Colombian origin but some U.S.,” a source at the buyer
said.
Coal will be delivered to EDP’s usual ports of Gijon and
Sines.
It costs more than $1.00 a tonne more to ship coal to the
Iberian ports than to Europe’s main import hub ARA, a cost
reflected in the discount to the API2 index, they said.
EDP, alongside other major European utilities, has been
unable to secure forward contracts for U.S. coal at competitive
prices, although prompt supply is abundant and aggressively
priced.
Spain and Portugal saw strong coal consumption for power
generation through 2011 and this is set to continue this year.
According to Spain’s national grid manager REE,
coal-fired power stations have generated 17,656 GWh out of a
total of 85,425 GWh or 20.7 percent of the country’s
electricity.
EDP, which buys coal for plants in both Spain and Portugal,
is expected to burn 5 million tonnes of coal in 2012 and will
issue spot tenders for top-up tonnage, having secured baseload
supply.
