Energy industry demands buoying the coal outlook

摘要

THE KEY FACTORS behind the optimism are expectations of enormous demand across Asia and India for coal-fired electricity generation, coupled with forecasts of exponential growth in world steel-making - with associated increased demand for coking coal. Remarkably, if Australia's premier official industry forecaster, the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics (ABARE) is on the mark, coal will hold its place as a provider of 25 per cent of the world's energy requirements - with and without clean coal technology and a hastening uptake of greenhouse gas-neutral alternatives.