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Drax shares take a slide

market watch | 30.08.2006 19:33 | Climate Camp 2006 | Climate Chaos | Ecology

Sell Sell Sell

Three years ago, Drax coal-fired power station group, was virtually bankrupt. This year however, Drax shares have been the best performing blue chip stock, with an 'electrifying' 85.6 per % share price increase. Drax has been benefiting from the massive shift back to coal for electricity generation last winter, thanks to supply difficulties with Natural Gas. With North Sea production of gas in terminal decline, the UK has had to turn to greater and great imports of increasingly expensive Gas from Russia and elsewhere. This has sparked a rapid revival of fortunes for coal fired power generation and a staggering 17% increase over the previous year.

Nether-the-less, Drax is suffering an annoying blip in it's new found fortunes as the climate camps threat to close down the power plant has been accompanied by a share price slide over the last couple of days. Today's trading saw a further decline as Drax shares lost 1.33% to 890p.


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Additions

Where coal comes from

31.08.2006 08:06

Drax sources coal from both domestic and international sources. The web page dosn't specify how much from each, but I bet a few minutes with their accounts would reveal more.

If you want to penalise Drax, the answer is simple - use less electricity.

Drax the Destroyer
- Homepage: http://www.draxpower.com/sales.php


Comments

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Where does the coal come from though?

31.08.2006 03:01

Does anyone know if the coal for Drax is sourced on the open-market, i.e. clawed out the ground by barefoot children in Columbia, presumably at gunpoint, just so we can watch EastEnders? Or do they burn off rainforests and blow off mountaintops in Borneo just to open-cast-mine it?
Maybe the N.U.M. deserve an apology. Our coal is in abandoned mines where the head-gear was sold for scrap and new Tesco car-parks built...
Once upon a time some wanted to bring it all to the surface before closing the mines, regardless of whether there was an immediate market for it.

Arthur S.


Selby Miner

31.08.2006 09:20

Drax didn't shut my pit, it was closed because of government lack of support. If the governmant has supported my pit it would be open today and I would think drax would have bought the coal rather than paying to trasport it from all over the place.

Miner