Project developer PIBT aims to complete a 12mn t/yr facility at Qasim port, around 50km southeast of Karachi, in December-January, a source with knowledge of the site’s construction said.

The terminal will initially handle 65,000-70,000 deadweight tonne vessels, but will eventually be able to accommodate larger carriers, after a nearby channel is dredged.

The complex will help deliver fuel to new imported coal-fired generation sites that are scheduled for commissioning by the end of this decade. A total of nine plants of a combined 7.8GW of capacity are expected to connect to the grid by 2020.

The complexes will burn around 20.1mn-21.9mn t/yr when they are fully operational, Argus calculates — based on a government-mandated minimum efficiency of 39pc, an 80pc load factor and assuming that they use NAR 5,500-6,000 kcal/kg supply.

And PIBT’s terminal will send product to domestic cement manufacturers, which use around 4mn t/yr. Fresh demand from utilities and other consumers may prompt the firm to expand capacity to 20mn t/yr.

Pakistan unloads its coal receipts at the 8mn t/yr state-operated Karachi Port Trust facility at present, or at the Port Qasim Authority’s (PQA) 3.4mn t/yr iron ore and coal berth, which connects to a steel stockyard by conveyor belt.

Recent water and power ministry efforts to curtail the development of imported coal-fired capacity may delay PIBT’s expansion plans, the source said. Islamabad earlier this month cancelled the 660MW Lakhra imported coal-fired project.

PIBT in November 2010 agreed to construct and run a coal and cement terminal on a build-and-operate transfer basis with the PQA.

Source: Argusmedia

Submitted By: Miko Brown

Date: 31-August-2016