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COAL
miner Sultan Mining and Energy Development Corp. (SMEDC)
said Monday that it will soon commence exporting coal
after it secured a supply contract with Switzerland’s
Glencore International AG.
Data
from the Department of Energy (DOE) showed that the
contract of sale was signed by SMEDC-subsidiary MG
Mining and Energy Corp. after it notified the energy
department that it has ramped up production in its coal
mine in Bislig, Surigao del Sur.
Production has been sustained at over 20,000 metric tons
a month despite adverse weather conditions.
Under
the contract, Glencore will buy from MG Mining a total
of 90,000 metric tons of Bislig steam coal to be shipped
from August to December this year. Glencore currently
buys local coal from Semirara Coal Corp.
Steam
coal or bituminous coal has the broadest range of
commercial uses among the coal variants and has long
been utilized for steam generation in electric-power
plants and industrial boiler plants.
Glencore
is the first to seal a supply contract with Sultan
Mining among several other prospective foreign buyers.
“We hope
to pursue talks with the potential buyers soon since the
firm really aims to start exports within the year to
take advantage of higher prices overseas,” Rufino
Bomasang, Sultan vice chairman, said. SMEDC earlier said
that it is looking at major coal markets such as China,
India and Japan as well as global traders, as coal
prices continue to go up in the global market as the
price of crude oil rises.
Bomasang
said there is currently a shortage of coal in the world
market due to the growth in the power generation
industries in the red-hot economies of China and India.
In the
Philippines, SMEDC continues to supply coal to cement
and power generation companies as well as some canneries
that have shifted to using coal for boilers instead of
the more expensive bunker fuel. |
