§ Mr. Llew SmithTo ask the President of the Board of Trade if he will set out the basis of his calculations that United Kingdom coal is more expensive than imported coal.
§ Mr. EggarBritish Coal currently supplies coal to National Power and PowerGen at around £1.88p a gigajoule (GJ). Assuming delivery costs of 5–20p/GJ, depending on the sourcing of the coal this gives a delivered cost of around £1.93–2.08p/GJ.
The price of coal delivered to Amsterdam/Rotterdam over the past 12 months has been in the range 75p—£1/GJ, depending on the exchange rate and the world price of coal. Transport and port charges to cover the cost of delivery to power stations in England and Wales would add a further 20–40p/GJ to this cost.