Japan's Nuke Crisis to Double Coal Prices

VIVAnews - World's coal market now sees new chances from the leaking Japan's nuclear plant which has recently been crippled by huge-magnitude earthquake and giant waves. Some nuclear power plants at Fukushima Dai-Ichi, Fukushima Daini, Onagawa and Tokai Daini lose a total of 9,000 megawatt of power.

Based on data of the International Energy Agency (IEA) in 2009, Japan's electricity is backed up by coal (28%), nuclear (27%), gas (26%), fuel (9%) and water (8%).

Senior Vice President of Peabody Energy, Rovert Reilly, said the positive impact of Japan's nuclear crisis is the rise in coal prices.

In fact, the energy contributes more than one fourth of the country's needs for electricity.

"Coal prices will in time double," said Robert Reilly.

Japan, being the top importer of world's coal with 165 million metric tonnes in 2009, has mostly imported the commodity from Australia.

In 2010, Japan imported coal from Indonesia by 24 million tonnes, almost 10 percen of the national total production of 275 million tonnes.