(01-21-2021, 10:00 AM)PaulP date Wrote:https://theconversation.com/forget-about...lia-153300China is the world's biggest supplier of steel, India is the second biggest, coal is a critical part of the process and about 70% of the world's steel uses coal as part of the production process not just for energy but for coking. Coking uses twice as much coal as power stations.
Neither country has enough of it's own iron ore or coal to keep up manufacture without foreign support.
If China stops buying coal it is shooting it's own exports in the foot!
The general public get sold on no coal fired power, that's fair enough, but it's only a very small part of the picture not just because power stations are diminishing or being replaced by nuclear, but because even existing coal fired power stations are much more efficient than they were a decade ago. However, coking coal is a different issue, and our government knows that the world isn't going to stop making steel any time soon. If production of steel stops or pauses for a while the price of our ore and coal goes up when demand returns!
People think they are being greener by using steel framed homes instead of cutting trees! ;D
"Ruck, ruck, ruck, ruck ....... Ruck, ruck, ruck, ruck"