Global Trends Indicate a Coal Comeback Is Unlikely
Global Trends Indicate a Coal Comeback Is Unlikely FacebookTwitterLinkedInEmailPrint分享Financial Times:President Donald Trump has pledged to “put our miners back to work” in the US, promising to return high-paying jobs to rundown rural areas of states such as Pennsylvania that brought him victory in last year’s election. Trends in coal markets, both in the US and internationally, suggest that will be an uphill battle.In 2013, the US Energy Information Administration projected that world coal demand would rise 39 per cent by 2040. Now it is expecting growth of just 1 per cent. If not quite “Peak Coal”, it certainly looks like an extended plateau. Projections of energy demand even a few years into the future can never be relied on: there are too many uncertainties in how markets and technology will evolve, and the EIA itself makes clear that this scenario is just one among many possible outcomes. Even so, the latest projection, from the EIA International Energy Outlook 2017, published last week, shows that the promise of eternally rising world demand for coal, which was the consensus expectation just a few years ago, can no longer be taken for granted.China dominates world coal markets, accounting for more than half of total global demand. The EIA believes that Chinese coal consumption may now be on a declining trend, with industrial use for steam and steelmaking already having peaked, and demand for power generation likely to peak around 2023. With demand also in long-term decline in the US and in Europe, growth in some emerging economies, led by India, is not enough to raise total coal use overall.More: ($) The future of coal in seven charts
Remote working has been implemented for all positions where possible. For its frontline employees, who must attend production, logistics sites and installation, Nexans has implemented a bonus of €750 monthly which will be awarded for the entire duration of the crisis. The other members of the executive committee have agreed to reduce theirs by 15 per cent over the same period, and the Group’s top managers will be asked to join in this effort as well. The company said it will only use partial unemployment according to the needs identified, for periods as limited as possible. Christopher Guérin, CEO of Nexans, has committed to reducing his compensation by 30 per cent for the months of April and May 2020.
Christopher Guérin said: “The whole Group, at all levels, is engaged every day in respecting safety standards and sanitary measures, maintaining our production, and delivering products and services to our customers. We are already working on an industrial recovery plan to be deployed. This next phase must be thought, defined, imagined now at all levels and for all the challenges we face. A new world for a new Nexans, and we are ready for it.” The members of the board of directors and its chairman, Jean Mouton, will similarly reduce their remuneration by 30 per cent, for the months of April and May 2020. Nexans CEO, members of the board of directors, and management are to take voluntary pay cut as a sign of solidarity and social cohesion, but also to award its frontline employees.