Pakistan to import 4 million tonne of coal in 2011 up by 8% to 10% compare to this year’s imports.

Mr Omar director of Sea Trade Group of Pakistan said that "Pakistan's total demand for coal for this year would be around 3.6 million tonnes to 3.7 million tonne."

Sea Trade Pakistan is a leading coal importer since 2003 and largest trading and shipping company in Pakistan. Pakistan has imported 750,000 tonne of coal in August as the shipments of June and July accumulated in August 2010. June and July shipments were delayed from Indonesia for various reasons.

Mr Omar said that the sudden increase coal imports in August were, purely on delayed shipments from June and July and also a correction in market and freight from South Africa and not due to any surplus or additional demand in Pakistan.

According to his forecast, in next 2 months, Pakistan will import only 160,000 tonnes to 200,000 tonnes as lot of coal stocks are still at ports due to floods. Becasue of floods, the inland transport system were disturbed. The total demand for coal in Pakistan for this year is around 3.6 million tonnes to 3.7 million tonnes and it might increase next year to 4.0 million tonnes due to commissioning of a new cement plant.“

He said that "I don’t see, there is any an additional demand for coal due to floods. There will be additional demand for cement but Pakistan already has surplus cement of 20 million tonnes out of which 10 million tonnes is exported so we still have 10 million tonnes of cement surplus which will be used for re building.

(Sourced from Coal Spot)