Post by
galvanized on Jul 07, 2022 2:22am
Will state owned KEPO turn out the lights on Korea Zinc?
Korea Zinc operates a very large zinc smelter in Korea that is a bit more than 2X the NIF smelter.
So this is something to keep an eye on in my opinion. KEPO is the 100% state owned electricity supplier in Korea,. Like the Europeans, they have been listening too much to Greta, closing coal plants, reducing nuclear, and increasing reliance on LNG .....Oops! Their present mix is 28% nuclear and mostly the rest depends on LNG, give or take a windmill or solar panel or two.
Electricity rates are regulated by the government and set quite low in comparision to other asian nations. The trouble is energy costs for KEPO are spiking, but the regulated rates to the customers are not. Therefore the losses are mounting and are unsustainable.
One of 3 things are likely to happen... pick one.
1) The Korean gov't does nothing, lets Korea Zinc continue to enjoy their free lunch, at the expense of Korean taxpayers.
2) The Korean gov't throwns in the towel and doubles or triples electricity rates, causing a huge problem for Korea Zinc.
3) The Korean gov't shuts down Korea Zinc' s smelter in an effort to stem the losses and protect the rates for Joe Korean consumer.
Comment by
Scotch12 on Jul 07, 2022 1:04pm
Looks like the cost of electricity has already gone up significantly in South Korea. https://www.spglobal.com/commodityinsights/en/market-insights/latest-news/coal/062722-south-korea-to-raise-electricity-rates-to-reflect-spikes-in-fuel-prices