eckerslike Posted January 20, 2011 Share Posted January 20, 2011 Why did coal imports double between 1997 and 2007? In 1997 we were importing less than 20 million tons of coal a year. By 2007 imports were above 43 million tons. I'm puzzled. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dosxuk Posted January 20, 2011 Share Posted January 20, 2011 Foreign coal is cheaper than British coal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
discodown Posted January 20, 2011 Share Posted January 20, 2011 Round about then is probably when stocks of domestic mined coal ran out Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wednesday1 Posted January 20, 2011 Share Posted January 20, 2011 Round about then is probably when stocks of domestic mined coal ran out Michael Heseltine's pit closure programme of the 1990's finished off so many mines which hadn't closed in the few years after the strike in '84. As the seams ran out in these few remaining collieries the shortfall between demand and supply meant coal had to be imported to fill this gap. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
discodown Posted January 20, 2011 Share Posted January 20, 2011 Michael Heseltine's pit closure programme of the 1990's finished off so many mines which hadn't closed in the few years after the strike in '84. As the seams ran out in these few remaining collieries the shortfall between demand and supply meant coal had to be imported to fill this gap. The seams didn't run out. Theres thousands of tons of coal left. It was just cheaper to import it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wednesday1 Posted January 20, 2011 Share Posted January 20, 2011 The seams didn't run out. Theres thousands of tons of coal left. It was just cheaper to import it The economically viable ones did. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
discodown Posted January 20, 2011 Share Posted January 20, 2011 No they didn't. Thats why some pits are still open. I think there are 4 or 6 profitable pits open there is talk of re-opening Hatfield as well Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
puisseguin Posted January 20, 2011 Share Posted January 20, 2011 The seams didn't run out. Theres thousands of tons of coal left. It was just cheaper to import it Its is one of those strange quirks of fate. Thatcher is castigated locally because her government closed all the non viable pits once subsidies were outlawed by the EU. So by the late 1990s only viable pits were left. Since then around 2/3 of the remaining pits have closed, but now its claimed that they ran out of coal rather than to extract the remaining reserves is no longer viable. We appaerently generate twice as much power using gas than we do coal, and most of the coal actually comes from Russia. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wednesday1 Posted January 20, 2011 Share Posted January 20, 2011 No they didn't. Thats why some pits are still open. I think there are 4 or 6 profitable pits open Yes but their output is not enough to supply all of the UK's demand.That's why we have to import the shortfall. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wildcat Posted January 20, 2011 Share Posted January 20, 2011 No they didn't. Thats why some pits are still open. I think there are 4 or 6 profitable pits open The original pit clossures were only justified economically because North Sea Gas came online and was cheaper.... until it ran out. Our Coal was cheaper than anywhre else in the EEC. There would be many more pits open had a less short term view been taken on the issue and we would have been £billions more wealthy. Even though we do produce some coal we also have to import high grade coal from china by ship to make some of the more exotic steels because they are the only supplier of the high grade fuel required. Coal we used to produce ourselves.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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