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Column 633
Written Answers to Questions
Thursday 11 March 1993
TRADE AND INDUSTRY
Plutonium
Mr. Llew Smith : To ask the President of the Board of Trade how many individual movements of plutonium were involved in post-irradiation examination experiments at Berkeley nuclear laboratories and Winfrith nuclear research establishment to which reference is made in note (2) to section A of his departmental press release P/93/51 of 4 February on annual plutonium production and stockpile figures.
Mr. Eggar : Dispatches for post-irradiation examination involve movements of spent fuel, details of which are an operational matter for the owner of the fuel in question.
Technology Imports
Mr. Dafis : To ask the President of the Board of Trade if he will bring forward proposals to place a duty on those importing technology into the United Kingdom to provide environmental impact information as part of the import licensing procedure.
Tractors and Earth-moving Equipment
Mr. Cousins : To ask the President of the Board of Trade what were the import, export, balance of payments and import penetration figures for tractors and earth-moving equipment since 1987.
Mr. Needham : Information on trade in, and sales of, earth-moving equipment is regularly published in the Central Statistical Office's business monitor PAS3254, copies of which are available in the Library of the House. However, because product sales information is collected only from large firms, it is not comparable with the trade data and reliable import penetration figures cannot therefore be derived.
Anthracite
Mr. Alan W. Williams : To ask the President of the Board of Trade what has been the annual production of anthracite in each year since 1985 ; and what has been the cost of its production in 1992 prices.
Mr. Eggar : The annual production of anthracite in the United Kingdom since 1985 was :
|Thousand tonnes
------------------------------------------------
1985 |2,142
1986 |1,985
1987 |2,091
1988 |1,798
1989 |2,060
1990 |1,945
1991 |1,864
1992 |2,029
Information on the cost of anthracite
production is not held centrally.
Coal Industry
Mr. Alan W. Williams : To ask the President of the Board of Trade what has been the average cost of British Coal's production in each year since 1985 in 1992 prices.
Mr. Eggar : Information on British Coal's production costs are published in British Coal Corporation's report and accounts. Figures in 1992 prices are as follows :
Financial yeCost per tonne<2>
|Deep-mined|Opencast
--------------------------------------------
<1>1985-86 |66.95 |40.85
1986-87 |57.52 |37.48
1987-88 |56.07 |35.70
1988-89 |48.91 |33.75
1989-90 |50.59 |33.99
1990-91 |45.45 |35.09
<3>1991-92 |42.13 |33.99
<1> Figures for 1985-86 exclude release of
1984-85 provisions for strike recovery
costs.
<2> Cash figures adjusted to 1992 price
levels by excluding the effect of general
inflation as measured by the GDP deflator.
<3> The GDP deflator for 1992 has been
estimated.
Mr. Alan W. Williams : To ask the President of the Board of Trade what is the estimated percentage market share of British Coal in (a) the industrial steam coal market, (b) the domestic coal market, and (c) the market for electricity generation in Britain during 1992.
Mr. Eggar : British Coal's percentage shares of the respective coal markets during 1992 are estimated at 85 per cent. for electricity generation, 45 per cent. for industrial steam coal and 75 per cent. for domestic coal.
Mr. Alan W. Williams : To ask the President of the Board of Trade how much coal has been produced by the private sector of (a) opencast and (b) deep mined, annually since 1987 ; and what proportion of private sector production was sold to (i) the power generators, (ii) industrial users, (iii) the domestic home market and (iv) abroad.
Mr. Eggar : The amount of opencast and deep-mined coal produced by private sector licensed mines since 1987 was :