London (Platts)--19Nov2010/758 am EST/1258 GMT

Italy is set to import 17 million mt of steam coal this year, up 3% on 2009, and 5.5 million mt of coking coal and PCI (pulverized coal injection), up 37% on 2009, Italian coal association Assocarboni said Friday.

"In 2011, thanks to Enel's Torrevaldaliga North plant in full operation, steam coal imports should reach a peak of 19 million mt, up from 17 million mt forecast for 2010, [and rising to] 25-26 million mt in the next five years," said Andrea Clavarino, chairman of Assocarboni, during a Coal Industry Advisory Board meeting in Paris November 18 and 19.

Clavarino, who is the Italian government's delegate to the CIAB board, the coal consultative body of the IEA, said the Italian steam coal market was growing again following the economic crisis.

A key project driving Italy's forecast growth in coal use is Enel's 3 x 660 MW oil-to-coal conversion of its Porto Tolle oil-fired power station, south of Venice on the Adriatic coast.

The project has all administrative permits at local level, "and there is only one pending at a national level, which is the authorization decree issued from the Ministry of Economic Development," an Enel spokeswoman said Friday.

Decisions by the ministry were delayed over the summer following the resignation of industry minister Claudio Scajola. His replacement, Paolo Romani, is expected to issue a final decree for Porto Tolle by the end of the year.

Enel hopes to start the conversion "anytime in 2011," the spokeswoman said, although legal challenges following the decree are not ruled out.

"We will need around six years to have it fully completed," she said.

Other projects set to boost coal burn in Italy face potentially show-stopping local opposition. Tirreno Power's plans for a 460 MW coal unit at its Vado Ligure power station site has been opposed by Liguria region, while SEI's 1,320 MW coal dust power plant project at Saline Joniche has been opposed by regional authorities in Calabria.

Further advanced are E.ON's plans to convert two old 160 MW oil-fired groups at its Fiume Santo plant, Sardinia, to 410 MW of coal capacity. In April this year the environment ministry gave its approval.

As for Porto Tolle, the ministry of economic development now needs to give its approval.

--Henry Edwardes-Evans, henry_edwardes-evans@platts.com

Similar stories appear in International Coal Report.

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