§ Mr. Cummingsasked the Secretary of State for Energy if he will indicate the level of coal imports during the years 1985, 1986 and 1987 to date, through the port of Seaham; and what are the origins of such imports.
§ Mr. Michael SpicerFor the purposes of Her Majesty's Customs and Excise's import statistics, Seaham is included within the port of Sunderland. Coal imports through Sunderland in 1985, 1986 and January-August 1987 (the latest period for which data are available), split by country of consignment, are shown in the table. The country of consignment is the place from which the coal was despatched to the United Kingdom and is not necessarily the country in which the coal was originally mined. No split of coal imports through Sunderland by country of origin is available.
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Coal Imports through Sunderland by Country of Consignment Thousand tonnes 1985 1986 Jan—Aug 1987 Australia — 13.6 2.3 Belgium/Luxembourg — 11.0 — France — — 1.2 German Democratic Republic 12.0 — — Federal Republic of Germany 15.4 10.7 16.3 Netherlands 47.6 157.0 38.5 Poland 10.6 42.3 14.6 Sweden — — 4.3 United States of America 2.5 8.3 1.3 Total 88.2 242.9 78.6 Total may not equal sum of constituents due to rounding.