Carbon neutral encounters high coal prices
Inner Mongolia restarts coal production capacity of more than 60 million tons
With the development goals of "carbon peak and carbon neutrality" put forward, many coal companies are generally pessimistic about the future development prospects.
However, since the beginning of this year, coal prices have risen again and again, far exceeding market expectations.
The reporter learned that, in July, the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region approved land use procedures for 38 open-pit mines in Ordos City that had previously stopped production due to incomplete land use procedures, involving a production capacity of 66.7 million tons per year.
At present, all these coal mines have resumed production, and the daily output of 200,000 tons of coal can be achieved by August.
From March to May each year, it is the traditional low season for coal consumption, but the coal market has a phenomenon of "not low off-season". Coal mines in main producing areas have low inventories, coal carts line up for loading reappearance, and coal prices continue to soar.
According to the CCTD Bohai Rim thermal coal spot reference price, from March 1 to May 10, the spot price of thermal coal with a calorific value of 5,500 kcal rose from 571 yuan/ton to 865 yuan/ton, an increase of more than 51%.
In order to prevent market participants from misjudging the price trend, starting from May 11, the release of multiple coal price indexes, including the CCTD Bohai Sea Thermal Coal Spot Reference Price, has been suspended.
At present, my country's annual consumption of raw coal exceeds 4 billion tons, accounting for 56% of total energy consumption, of which coal-fired thermal power generation accounts for 75% of the country's total power generation. Coal occupies a pivotal position in my country's energy structure.
A sales person in charge of a large coal company in Inner Mongolia said frankly that since the beginning of this year, the coal market has been very hot, and the market coal price has hit a new high in the past ten years.
On May 19, the State Council executive meeting pointed out that it is necessary to attach great importance to the adverse effects of rising commodity prices, ensure the supply of bulk commodities, curb unreasonable price increases, and urge key coal companies to increase production and supply while ensuring safety.
Recently, the National Development and Reform Commission and other departments have jointly issued a document to make unified arrangements for the energy shortage caused by the current soaring coal prices.
Encourage qualified coal mines to nuclear increase coal production capacity, and implement a capacity replacement commitment system for coal mines to nuclear increase production capacity.
The capacity replacement commitment system means that coal mines that apply for nuclear increase before March 31, 2022 do not need to implement capacity replacement indicators in advance, and can use the promised method to perform capacity replacement. After obtaining the approval for capacity increase, the production capacity will be completed within 3 months. Replacement plan.
At present, the utilization rate of coal production capacity in my country is still low, and production capacity cannot be effectively released. Environmental pressure is one of the reasons.
Safety production and environmental protection have similar effects on the release of coal production capacity. Although its original intention is to improve the quality of coal industry development, it will still curb production in the short term. "One pass" has even become the face of safety inspections and environmental protection inspections in many places. A common choice at the time.
Another reason why the advanced production capacity cannot be effectively released and the output increase is not obvious is the improvement of the overall efficiency of the coal industry.
Benefiting from overcapacity, my country's coal production capacity has been optimized in recent years, a large number of outdated production capacities have been eliminated, the past oversupply market situation has been improved, coal prices have gradually recovered, and corporate profitability has improved.
This is inevitable in the process of industry quality improvement, but some coal companies simply understand that as long as they reduce coal production and compress coal supply, they can maintain high coal prices and ensure their own profits.
Therefore, currently some coal companies are subjectively unwilling to produce more coal and increase coal supply.
The industry believes that although carbon reduction is the ultimate goal, it must be realistic and not blindly follow suit.
At present, the pace of my country's energy transition is steadily steadily, and the proportion of coal consumption is declining year by year, but the fact that coal is still my country's main energy source will not change for a long time in the future.
How not to be chased by coal guarantees and how to balance the relationship between energy transition and people's livelihood and economy is a "time-limited" must-answer question before everyone.
Reporter: Li Yubo