NEW YORK: Polish coal trader Weglokoks is due to get its first ever shipment of US coal after Donald Trump has promised Poland’s pro-coal government US energy. The move comes as 19 nations signed a coal phase-out deal.
The Navios Helios, a vessel carrying a 73,616-ton coal shipment for state-owned Weglokoks from Baltimore, is expected to enter the northern port of Gdansk later on Friday. Weglokoks, which is Poland’s largest coal trader, said it didn’t rule out more imports, perhaps from Kazakhstan and Colombia.
Most imported coal has come to date from Russia, but mainly supplying households as the government does not permit state-run power generators to burn it, due to its low quality. Industry sources expect state or private buyers to take at least three more cargoes over the next seven months.
“The deal seems to make sense for Weglokoks,” Aleksander Sniegocki, an analyst at Wise Europa, a Warsaw-based think tank, told DW. Contrary to popular intuition, Sniegocki believes this is mainly an economic, not a political decision.
“It is necessary because of the fall in domestic coal production — the amount of imported coal is limited [to 75 kilotons], and there are other countries [e.g. Kazakhstan] considered,” he told DW.
Sniegocki also said the decision is not just about cost-efficiency, but primarily about availability of domestic fuel. “The Polish mining sector has failed to meet its production target and Weglokoks saw a shortfall of the fuel available for export, both in terms of quantity and quality,” he went on.
A slogan is projected by Greenpeace on a cooling tower of Belchatow Power Station, Europe’s largest coal-fired power plant, in central Poland (Reuters).
