Coal arrivals at Bangladesh’s new Payra seaport have gone up 185% y-o-y to 0.42 million tonnes (mn t) in the first half of this year (Jan-Jun’20), as compared against the aggregate imports 1.46 mn t during Sep-Dec’19.
This is in exact concurrence with our earlier reports which anticipated that Bangladesh’s coal imports would surge remarkably on the back of rising demand to fuel the country’s innumerable brick kilns.
“The number of brick kilns is increasing. Kilns cannot burn bricks without coal as the government has banned the use of firewood”, stated Syed Atiqul Hassan, president of the Bangladesh Coal & Coke Importers Association (BCCIA).
“98% of the imported coal is used to burn bricks to support the increasing demand from public and private sector construction. Demand for coal is rising every year owing to increasing consumption of bricks, buoyed by development activities and rising construction of brick-built houses”, Hassan added.
Aside from the growing requirement of coal for brick production, imported thermal coal demand is also poised to grow as a consequence of ongoing coal-fired power capacity expansion plans in Bangladesh.
Foreign-funded mega power plants set to boost seaborne coal demand in Bangladesh
Bangladesh’s power utility sector is one of the fastest growing in South Asia and has been exhibiting remarkable growth in terms of capacity addition in the recent past.
As the country’s growing population continues to escalate the demand for power, electricity consumption has increased significantly in line with rapid urbanisation and the government’s vision of ensuring access to affordable and reliable electricity for all by 2021.
Bangladesh presently has at least 29 coal-fired power projects with a total capacity of 33,200 MW in pre-construction and under construction phases. China, UK- and Japan-based corporates are the leading driving force behind the planned coal-based power projects in Bangladesh.
Most of the proposed coal projects plan to use imported coal for power generation. Deepwater seaports at Payra in Patuakhali district and Matarbari in Cox’s Bazar district would be the gateways to import coal from Australia, India, Indonesia, and South Africa.
Bangladesh had received its first-ever coal consignment on 19 Sep’19, when a bulk vessel laden with 20,000 t of coal reached the jetty of Payra port, the country’s third seaport located in southern Bangladesh.
The coal was bought from Indonesia by the newly-constructed 1,320 MW Payra power plant operated by Bangladesh-China Power Company Limited (BCPCL), a joint venture firm of the state-owned North-West Power Generation Company Limited (NWPGCL) and China National Machinery Import and Export Corporation (CMC).
Notably, the Payra power plant is expected to import 4 mn t of coal annually through the Payra port.
By Aditya Sinha
Leave a Reply