Poland’s climate and environment minister has offered reassurances that the current coal shortage in the country is under control.
In an interview for Polish public Radio 1, Anna Moskwa explained that Poland had by April received 3 million tons of coal from Russia, while another 3 million tons had been imported since that time and contracts had already been signed for an additional 7 million tons.
The minister said that the coal was coming mainly from Colombia and Indonesia and that more contracts were going to be signed. She pointed to the logistics effort required to actually offload and distribute the imported coal, saying that this is the biggest operation of its kind ever carried out by Polish ports.
“Placing the order for coal comes first, and this is not problematic. But then comes actually transporting it to Poland, offloading it in ports, and selecting coal for domestic use and energy generation,” Moskwa told listeners. “Here we have to engage railways and road transport to actually distribute the coal to warehouses and then recipients,” she added, insisting that measures were being introduced to increase the capacity of ports and speed up distribution.
Moskwa admitted that there was concern that coal traders would increase prices to cash in on demand, but state companies are selling the coal to the traders, and they can have some leverage over price levels.
The minister reassured consumers that there would be no limits on coal purchases and insisted that the government does not foresee such limits at this stage.
