S.Africa coal industry, unions meet for wage talks

Strong dollar and contract benchmarks at three-year lows forcing US miners out

South African coal miners started wage talks with unions and a mediator on Wednesday in a bid to prevent stoppages that could threaten supply to power plants and limit exports, while a fuel sector strike threatening the economy entered its tenth day.

Africa’s largest economy relies on coal for almost all its power, but state-owned utility Eskom has said it has enough coal in stock to last 41 days, so a strike would have to be lengthy to affect its operations.