Page 8 - AsiaElec Week 27

AsiaElec
NEWS IN BRIEF
AsiaElec
COAL
Gladstone coal exports rise again
Coal exports from the Port of Gladstone in Queensland rose to a ve-month high in June aided by a surge in volumes to China.
Figures from Gladstone Ports Corp. showed that a total of 6.43mn tonnes were exported from Gladstone in June, up 2% year on year and 8% month on month, and the highest monthly volume since the 6.45mn tonnes seen in January.
China was sent the third largest volumes in a single month since the beginning of 2018 with a total of 1.41mn tonnes. While still down 7% from June last year, it was a 93% increase from May.
Gladstone coal exports to South Korea fell to a 13-month low of 547,000mn tonnes in June, slumping 43% year on year and 49% month on month, according to GPC, while forecasts for the country’s total metallurgical coal imports show a steady but subdued view for the next couple of years.
ere was a rm uptick in Gladstone’s coal volumes to Japan in June. With 1.64mn tonnes sent to Japan from Gladstone in June, the volume was up by 14% year on year and 20% month on month, GPC said.
India, which is on track to be the world’s largest importer of metallurgical coal, was for the h month in a row the largest recipient of Gladstone coal, with a total of 1.77mn tonnes sent in June. e gure was up 14% year on year and down 5% from May, GPC said.
GAS-FIRED GENERATION
Wärtsilä’s to deliver 200
MW power plant to meet
Cambodia
Wärtsilä is to supply a 200 MW exible baseload power plant to Cambodia that will help meet the country’s rapidly growing energy demand.
e order with Wärtsilä was placed in June 2019 by CGGC-UN Power Co, the Chinese state-owned main EPC contractor for the power plant project.
e plant, located in Kandal Province near Capital city of Phnom Penh is being built on behalf of Cambodia’s state-owned Electricite du Cambodge (EDC). It is expected to become fully operational in 2020.
e 12 high e ciency Wärtsilä 50DF dual- fuel engines will provide the fast-starting, balancing exibility to improve grid stability and reliability and also increased levels of renewable energy, in particular solar power, to be eventually integrated into the system.
” is is our rst thermal power plant installation in Cambodia, and we greatly appreciate the support from Wärtsilä in delivering their generating equipment with such a short lead time. is will allow the project to be completed by next year, so that the needed electricity supply can come on-line as planned,” said Liu Fei, president of CGGC- UN Power.
HYDRO
Thais protest against
Chinese develepment on
Mekong
ai environmentalists have clashed with the Chinese government over the construction of large hydropower plants on the Mekong River. e Chinese embassy has accused ai
media of spreading false information about China’s development projects in Southeast Asia’s longest rivers.
e ai Mekong People’s Network fought back, saying Beijing was exploiting the Mekong for its own bene ts.
e embassy issued a statement on July 05 defending China’s projects in the Mekong – known in China as Lancang – in relation to ecological protection, the blasting of rapids, hydro-power projects and the sharing of hydrological data.
e group, representing people living along the river in eight provinces, responded on
July 07 saying the river’s resources had been destroyed and exploited by large corporations.
Yet the embassy’s statement claimed China “protects the environment like we protect our eyes and treat the environment like it is our lives.”
It said under the framework of the Lancang-Mekong Cooperation, six countries have established the Environmental Cooperation Centre and Water Resources Cooperation Centre and “we have also actively engaged in sustainable infrastructure construction, investment and nancing.”
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Week 27 09 •July•2019