Berlin (AFP) - Fear of a major gas shortage in the aftermath of the war in Ukraine has prompted residents of the German capital to buy coal , which has become a scarce commodity, despite the damage this polluting heating method can cause to the environment.

"We've never seen such a rush in the summer...everyone wants to buy coal," merchant Frithof Engelke explains the situation with these words.

That is why the 46-year-old who runs the century-old family business Hans Engelke Energy has had to delay his vacation, he says.

The company has to take orders, arrange truck deliveries - delivery schedules are full through October - and prepare goods for those who come directly to buy fuel from the depots.

Exhausted by the sweltering August heat, the merchant weighs and bags the coal amid the dust and noise with the help of a baler, then arranges the bags on pallets awaiting customers.

In Berlin, between 5,000 and 6,000 homes still rely on coal for heating, which is a very small number of the roughly 1.9 million homes in the city.
The residents of these homes are often elderly and some are completely dependent on this fuel and live in old dwellings that have never been renovated, or they like the sizzling heat of old stoves.

But this year, new customers came to the company "in droves", says Frithof Engelke, whose small business has also diversified into selling wood pellets or fuel oil.

"Those who use gas for heating but still have a stove at home now all want to buy coal," says Engelke, which he says is a widespread phenomenon in Germany.
- Better than cold' -
One of these is Jean Blum. The 55-year-old, with gray hair and a disheveled white beard, came to load 25-kilogram bags full of precious black stones onto his trailer.

"I'm buying coal for the first time in many years," Blum told AFP. Since his house was equipped with gas, he sometimes lit his stove but only with wood.

Now, with the price of gas expected to rise further from October when companies will be able to charge consumers the increase in electricity prices, the man wants to secure his needs.

"Even if it is harmful to health, it is better than being cold," Blum said. Hence, with the price of gas rising by about 30%, coal has become less expensive and is even cheaper than wood, which has doubled in price.

"I am worried and the question is will there be enough gas for everyone?" he added. After Russia cut gas shipments on which Germany relied heavily.

- back -
Thus, the market is witnessing a return to black fuel after the German government decided to increase the use of coal in power plants to meet the electricity needs of its huge industry. This is with the government confirming that it will not return from its goal of abandoning this polluting energy in 2030, and excludes a return to fossil fuels, especially coal on a large scale, as Chancellor Olaf Scholz recently announced.

And with the rise in demand due to the emergence of new consumers, production is unable to keep up. Many of the small coal merchants in the capital had nothing left to sell.

"We produce at full capacity during the summer, working three shifts seven days a week," LEAG spokesman Toralf Schirmer told AFP.

The company is located in the Lusatian mining basin to the east, and supplies coal to fuel stores.

Production has jumped 40% since January, Schirmer said, but demand is strong everywhere and the pressure is expected to continue at least into winter, especially since the other factory supplying the market in Germany, located in the Rhine Basin, will stop producing at the end of the year. , and this will reduce the supply.
Engelke admitted that he was "a little afraid of winter". For now, people feel relatively relieved when they say the delivery will take place in at least two months, but "it's going to be drastically different when the cold hits".