Steel mill, smelter top free carbon credits list

1 March 2012
Media Release
Horizon Publishing - Carbon News

Steel mill, smelter top free carbon credits list

The Glenbrook steel mill and the Bluff aluminium smelter were the big winners in last year’s hand-out of free carbon credits to industrial emitters.

Steel mill operator New Zealand Steel Development got taxpayer-funded credits to cover nearly one million tonnes of emissions, while New Zealand Aluminium Smelters got credits for more than 400,000 tonnes of emissions, Carbon News reports today.

The Emissions Trading Scheme provides for a free allocation of credits for trade-exposed emitters, based on returns filed with the government. Both steel and aluminium processing qualify for allocations of 90 per cent of total emissions.

Ministry for the Environment figures show that for the year ending December 31, 2011, New Zealand Steel Development Ltd was allocated 989,304 credits.

New Zealand Aluminium Smelters got 437,681 credits, according to Carbon News, New Zealand's specialist information service on the carbon markets..

The next largest allocations went to Methanex (294,153), Fletcher Concrete and Infrastructure (251,367) Norske Skog Tasman (237,752), and Carter Holt Pulp and Paper (259,551)

At the time of the allocations, spot NZUs (the units which are issued to emitters) were trading at around $14 a tonne.

The units can be traded on the New Zealand market, but not overseas.

The figures suggest that the Glenbrook mill emitted a total of 1,099,296 million tonnes of CO2-equivilent, with an obligation of 109,992 tonnes.

Other significant allocations were:
• Balance Agri-Nutrients 119,728
• Holcim (NZ) 171,167
• Pan Pac Forest Products 117,962
• McDonald’s Lime 98,466
• Fletcher Steel 36,095
• Whakatane Mill 76,828
• ACI Operations New Zealand 30,682
• Fonterra 21,290

Applications for credits for last year’s emissions close on April 30.

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