Minergy turns away orders

Local coal producer, Minergy Ltd, is turning away new orders, as the market for the previously shunned fossil fuel once again turns positive. Writing in the company’s 2022 Annual Report, CEO Morné du Plessis said the full capacity of 125,000 tonnes per annum at the Masama Coal Mine had been reached in July and maintained since then. He said Minergy was “currently flooded” by requests from the local and international industrial and power generation markets to secure supply to the extent that not all orders could be accepted as they exceeded the current production capacity. Du Plessis said Minergy’s strategy remained to operate at full production capacity to maximise sales. Minergy saw both demand and prices for coal shoot up from early in the year, as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine caused an energy crisis in Europe and Asia, resulting in countries hunting for coal as an alternative. The local coal producer saw its revenues for the first three quarters of the financial year that ended June 30, 2022, reach P201 million, while the fourth quarter alone was P224 million due to the Ukraine invasion.