Australia is planning to cap coal and gas prices for a year in a bid to shave utility bills for households and businesses hit by soaring costs because of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said yesterday.
Gas prices would be capped at A$12 (US$8.11 dollar) per gigajoule, while the limit for coal would be A$125 per tonne for 12 months, with the Australian government supporting coal producers whose costs exceed that figure, he said.
“Extraordinary times call for extraordinary measures, and we know, with the Russian invasion of Ukraine, what we’ve seen is a massive increase in global energy prices,” Albanese told reporters after a Cabinet meeting that included state leaders.
Photo: Reuters
The government also agreed to provide assistance of up to A$1.5 billion to homes and small businesses, starting from the second quarter of next year.
The gas price cap would apply to new wholesale gas sales by producers on Australia’s east coast.
At A$12, it is less than half the average short term gas price of A$26 per gigajoule in the third quarter of this year, data from research group EnergyQuest showed.
The coal price cap would apply to coal used in power generation, the government said.
The cap of A$125 is about half the A$249 a tonne average selling price Banpu PCL achieved for its Australian coal in the third quarter.
Gas producers had urged the government not to impose the price cap, saying it would deter future investment in supply, which would be key to driving down prices in the long term, and could damage Australia’s reputation for foreign investors.
Producers that could be hit by the gas price cap include ExxonMobil Corp, Shell PLC, Origin Energy Ltd, Woodside Energy Group, Santos Ltd and South Korean steel giant POSCO International Corp’s Senex Energy.
“The uncertainty caused by the federal government’s plan to impose a price cap in the eastern Australian gas market has already destroyed the confidence both buyers and sellers need in order to complete the transactions that will ensure energy supplies to households and businesses,” a Woodside spokesperson said.
Coal producers that would be affected include Glencore PLC, Banpu Resources Australia, Coronado Global Resources Inc and Peabody Corp, which supply coal to power plants in New South Wales and Queensland states.
Coal producers declined to comment until they see further details on how the price cap would work.
The Australian Industry Group welcomed the price caps, but said they were not the best solution.
“They will be messy to implement ... but they look likely to be very helpful in dampening the immediate economic pain of this global energy crisis,” group CEO Innes Willox said in a statement.
However, power producers, represented by the Australian Energy Council, said it was unclear whether electricity bills will fall anytime soon, because energy retailers and generators that hedge their risks have already settled their contracts for the next 12 months on the basis of higher prices.
“If more lower priced fuel is available, over time those savings may lead to lower wholesale electricity prices, but that will take time to flow through to end users,” council chief executive Sarah McNamara said in a statement.
With this year’s Semicon Taiwan trade show set to kick off on Wednesday, market attention has turned to the mass production of advanced packaging technologies and capacity expansion in Taiwan and the US. With traditional scaling reaching physical limits, heterogeneous integration and packaging technologies have emerged as key solutions. Surging demand for artificial intelligence (AI), high-performance computing (HPC) and high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips has put technologies such as chip-on-wafer-on-substrate (CoWoS), integrated fan-out (InFO), system on integrated chips (SoIC), 3D IC and fan-out panel-level packaging (FOPLP) at the center of semiconductor innovation, making them a major focus at this year’s trade show, according
DEBUT: The trade show is to feature 17 national pavilions, a new high for the event, including from Canada, Costa Rica, Lithuania, Sweden and Vietnam for the first time The Semicon Taiwan trade show, which opens on Wednesday, is expected to see a new high in the number of exhibitors and visitors from around the world, said its organizer, SEMI, which has described the annual event as the “Olympics of the semiconductor industry.” SEMI, which represents companies in the electronics manufacturing and design supply chain, and touts the annual exhibition as the most influential semiconductor trade show in the world, said more than 1,200 enterprises from 56 countries are to showcase their innovations across more than 4,100 booths, and that the event could attract 100,000 visitors. This year’s event features 17
Germany is to establish its first-ever national pavilion at Semicon Taiwan, which starts tomorrow in Taipei, as the country looks to raise its profile and deepen semiconductor ties with Taiwan as global chip demand accelerates. Martin Mayer, a semiconductor investment expert at Germany Trade & Invest (GTAI), Germany’s international economic promotion agency, said before leaving for Taiwan that the nation is a crucial partner in developing Germany’s semiconductor ecosystem. Germany’s debut at the international semiconductor exhibition in Taipei aims to “show presence” and signal its commitment to semiconductors, while building trust with Taiwanese companies, government and industry associations, he said. “The best outcome
Semiconductor equipment billings in Taiwan are expected to double this year, as manufacturers in the industry are keen to expand production to meet strong global demand for artificial intelligence applications, according to SEMI, which represents companies in the electronics manufacturing and design supply chain. Speaking at a news conference before the opening of Semicon Taiwan trade show tomorrow, SEMI director of industry research and statistics Clark Tseng (曾瑞榆) said semiconductor equipment billings in Taiwan are expected to grow by an annual 100 percent this year, beating an earlier estimate of 70 percent growth. He said that Taiwan received a boost from a
RSS