Dalrymple May Further Expand World’s Third-Biggest Coal Port July 1 (Bloomberg) -- Australia’s Dalrymple Bay port, the world’s third-largest coal export terminal, may further increase cargo-handling capacity as producers of the fuel boost output. Studies are under way to determine the viability of a future expansion after coal producers ...... click here for the full article. Source: Bloomberg 01 July 2009 Coal India Seeks Faster Approvals, Imports, Overseas Miners July 1 (Bloomberg) -- Coal India Ltd., the world’s biggest coal producer, wants mining approvals sped up to help it boost production to meet a widening supply shortfall that is forcing more imports, Chairman Partha Bhattacharyya said. Faster consent will allow the company to increase ...... click here for the full article. Source: Bloomberg 01 July 2009 SA coal exports unlikely to breach 65Mt this year – Transnet Coal volumes railed to South Africa’s Richards Bay Coal Terminal (RBCT) during the rain-affected first quarter of 2009 had fallen well short of the corridor’s nameplate yearly capacity of 70-million tons, and had come in at closer to an annualised 60-million tons, Transnet acting CEO Chris Wells rev... click here for the full article. Source: www.miningweekly.com 26 June 2009 South African Domestic Coal Shipments to Triple June 24 (Bloomberg) -- Transnet Ltd., South Africa’s state- owned rail and port operator, plans to increase the amount of coal it rails to the nation’s users, including Eskom Holdings Ltd., more than threefold over the next seven years. ... click here for the full article. Source: Bloomberg 25 June 2009 Xstrata Proposes Merger with Mining Company Anglo American Xstrata, an exporter of coal used by power plants, on Sunday proposed a merger with Anglo American to gain access to iron ore mines and control of the world’s biggest platinum producer. “A merger of these two world-class companies with complementary assets is highly compelling” and would provide ... click here for the full article. Source: New York Times 22 June 2009 MOVES-Trafigura hires senior coal trader from Macquarie-source PERTH, June 19 (Reuters) - A senior coal trader from Australian investment bank Macquarie Group (MQG.AX) has left the firm to join commodity trading giant Trafigura, a source with direct knowledge of the move said on Friday. ... click here for the full article. Source: Reuters 19 June 2009 S.Korea utilities ink '09 coal contracts with China PERTH, June 17 (Reuters) - South Korean utilities have agreed 2009 thermal coal contracts with three Chinese producers at about $78.50 a tonne, down more than 45 percent from a year ago but in line with asking prices from China, two utility sources said on Wednesday. Two separate utility sources said the five power companies have agreed to buy a total of three million tonnes of thermal coal from China's Shenhua Energy Co (1088.HK), China Coal Group (1898.HK)(601898.SS) and Datong Coal Mine Group. The headline price of $78.50 a tonne is based on coal with a heating value of 5,800 kcal/kg (NAR) and is significantly higher than the low-$60s range which South Korean utilities were seeking as early as last month. [ID:nSYD404272] Apart from the agreed 3 million tonnes, South Korea's five power companies -- Kosep, Kospo, Komipo, Kowepo and Kewespo -- are also individually negotiating with Chinese producers for additional tonnage, said one of the utility sources. "We've decided to settle with the Chinese because prices are now on an uptrend and there are also considerations that supplies may tighten in the third and fourth quarter, which could push prices higher," said the utility source who requested anonymity because he was not authorised to speak to the media. The agreement, which was signed on Tuesday, comes amid a recent surge in Asian coal prices, which have jumped about 18 percent since May to about $74 a tonne on the globalCOAL Newcastle index, after touching a four-month high of $77.19 last week. The long overdue settlement for contracts beginning from April may also set the tone for negotiations between Japanese utilities and Chinese miners, which have also been locked in annual contract talks since early this year. Source - Reuters 17/06/09 Australia’s Newcastle Coal Exports Decline 17 Percent June 16 (Bloomberg) -- Coal exports from Australia’s Newcastle, the world’s biggest export harbor for the fuel, dropped 17 percent last week and the number of ships waiting outside the port fell. The volume shipped in the week ended 7 a.m. local time yesterday fell to 1.8 million metric tons from 2.17 million tons a week earlier, Newcastle Port Corp. said today on its Web site. A total of 33 ships, waiting to load 3.2 million tons of coal, were lined up outside the port, down from 37 last week. Coal ships waited 11.1 days to load coal, up from 10.7 days a week earlier, Newcastle Port said. The waiting time compared with 1.2 days for general cargo vessels last week, it said. The weekly price index for power-station coal shipped from Newcastle advanced 3.3 percent last week to $76.75 a ton, the highest in almost four months, according to the globalCOAL NEWC index. Rio Tinto Group, Xstrata Plc and BHP Billiton Ltd. are among mining companies that ship coal through Newcastle. A total of 22 vessels carrying coal left Newcastle in the week ended June 13, Newcastle Port said today in an e-mailed report. Seven ships were bound for Japan, six for South Korea, five for China and one each for New Caledonia, Vietnam, Mexico and Malaysia. Source: Bloomberg (16 June 2009) SAfrica's coal terminal expansion delayed to Q4 JOHANNESBURG, June 15 (Reuters) - South Africa's Richards Bay Coal Terminal (RBCT) said on Monday the completion of a project to expand the export facility had been delayed to the fourth quarter of this year from a July 1 target. RBCT Chief Operations Officer, Raymond Chirwa, said in a statement contractors on the 1.2 billion rand ($148.5 million) project will consider working double shifts to ensure the project was ready for commissioning by the fourth quarter of 2009. Chirwa said a risk assessment had shown that the project would be delayed, but he did not give specific reasons. The expansion would increase RBCT's name plate capacity from 72 million tonnes a year to 91 million tonnes a year. source: Reuters 15 June 2009 Shenhua denies giving ground on export coal price SHANGHAI, June 15 (Reuters) - China Shenhua Energy Co (1088.HK)(601088.SS), the country's top coal producer, expects Japanese and South Korean clients to pay at least as much as Chinese customers for this year's annual contract prices, its board secretary, Huang Qing, said on Monday. Earlier Chinese media reports had said Shenhua had offered lower prices to overseas clients, but Huang denied this. "We treat our domestic and overseas clients fairly. It's impossible that we would offer lower prices to overseas clients than domestic clients," Huang told Reuters. "The negotiation has not concluded yet and therefore the price is still unknown." Huang also said a local newspaper report that Shenhua expected the term price with Japanese and Korean clients to be 540 yuan, or $79, a tonne was wrong. "Overseas clients are still negotiating what grades of coal they would buy. One can't simply take the price, 540 yuan, that we've reached with domestic clients on annual supply contracts for coal with 5,500 kcal/kg at ports, divide by 6.8 and come to the conclusion that we wanted to sell to overseas clients at $79. It's definitely wrong." Huang said he did not know when the negotiation would end. Shenhua said earlier that by the end of the first quarter, it had accomplished its target of signing the domestic long-term contracts for the year. Price for thermal coal with calorific value of 5,500 kcal/kg was increased to 540 yuan a tonne, including of value-added tax. China's top five power generating groups have not yet finished signing this year's annual supply contracts, industry sources said. "The company strengthened the relationship with major customers and explored small and medium customers," said Huang. But he declined to comment on whether Shenhua has signed annual term contracts with the top five power firms. Shenhua's commercial coal output in May jumped 19 percent from a year earlier to 18.2 million tonnes, but coal exports tumbled 60 percent on the year to 800,000 tonnes, the company said in a statement. ($1=6.838 Yuan) source: Reuters 15 June 2009 China Shenhua not eyeing new foreign coal mines-media BEIJING, June 12 (Reuters) - China Shenhua Energy Co Ltd (601088.SS)(1088.HK), the top Chinese coal miner, will not consider buying any major overseas mines before it starts operating the Watermark coal project in Australia, a newspaper reported on Friday. "We will not go for other projects if we have not succeeded in this one, the first step of our overseas efforts," Shenhua board secretary Huang Qing was quoted as saying by the Shanghai Securities News. "Shenhua will take an active and cautious approach (toward overseas buying)." He said Shenhua was conducting environmental reviews and exploration on the Watermark project after gaining a license last year. Shenhua Watermark Coal Pty Ltd paid A$299.9 million ($243.6 million) for a coal exploration licence in Australia in 2008. Huang said the project had undergone all regulatory procedures in Australia and would not meet any policy restrictions or uncertainties. He said Shenhua would focus on opportunities in Australia, Indonesia and Mongolia that could be potential suppliers to coal users on China's southeast coast. He added that the company was also interested in coking coal resources in Mongolia. He downplayed concerns over the impact of rising coal imports on the domestic market, saying the majority of coal was still supplied by domestic producers. China's major power companies stepped up coal imports this year as they failed to reach price agreements with domestic coal miners for annual supply contracts. Coal imports in April soared to a record high of 9.16 million tonnes, up 3.4 million tonnes from a month earlier and far above market expectations. Imports in the first four months surged 56 percent to 22.77 million tonnes, official data had showed. China burnt about 2.7 billion tonnes of coal last year, Huang said. source: Reuters 12 June 2009 China Shenhua to invest $59 bln in coal conversion BEIJING, June 11 (Reuters) - Shenhua Group, China's biggest coal producer, plans to invest more than 400 billion yuan ($58.53 billion) over the next decade in facilities to convert coal to oil, methanol and gas, Xinhua news agency reported on Thursday. Its target is to have the capacity to convert 100 million tonnes of coal into about 30 million tonnes of oil and chemical products by 2020, it added. A coal-to-liquids plant of Shenhua Group in Inner Mongolia went through a successful trial run earlier this year, producing naphtha and diesel, among other products. China last year suspended all but two coal-to-oil projects because of high investment risk. China, the world's largest coal producer and consumer, a few years ago began encouraging coal-to-oil projects to help ease its dependence on imported crude oil. Shenhua Group is the parent of China Shenhua Energy Co Ltd (601088.SS)(1088.HK). ($1=6.834 Yuan) source: Reuters 11 June 2009 Coal industry puts emissions talks on hold The Federal Government has failed to convince the coal industry to back its emissions trading scheme ahead of a Senate vote in the next fortnight. The industry says the scheme threatens the viability of coal mines and it wants a better compensation package to protect coal mining jobs. The Government had hoped to win the industry's support ahead of the senate vote. The Coal Association's executive director Ralph Hillman says there is no need to rush negotiations because the scheme is almost certain to be blocked by the Opposition and the Greens. "The Government is really still trying to persuade us to accept the $750 million package which was in the white paper and that of course is totally insufficient and will the substantial loss of jobs in mining coal mining regions such as the Illawarra, the Hunter and regional Queensland," he said. Mr Hillman says despite weeks of talks the Government will not agree to a compensation package that will allow the industry to remain internationally competitive. "We have been very disappointed that the Government hasn't heard our message on jobs and competitiveness," he said. "I mean there are three sets of modelling out there which clearly show job losses in regional new south wales and regional Queensland, they just don't seem to be listening to that." source: www.abc.net.au 11 June 2009 UPDATE 1-China top power cos sign regional coal deals SHANGHAI, June 11 (Reuters) - China's top five power generating groups have signed 2009 coal supply contracts with miners in Guizhou and Xinjiang, with prices up 4 percent on the year, or flat after tax effects, sources said on Thursday. The price increase is in line with deals signed earlier in Shandong and Henan provinces, said the sources, including an executive at one of the power producers and a power industry official, both with knowledge of the negotiations. The tonnage contracted so far, estimated at more than 100 million tonnes, accounts for up to 20 percent of the total annual coal consumption at these companies, the sources said. "We've signed some contracts in certain regions, but deals with most of the expected regions are still up in the air," said the power company executive. The industry official said the top five firms might sign annual deals for 200-300 million tonnes in all. The top five state-owned power groups -- Huaneng, Datang, Guodian, Huadian and China Power Investment -- have been in talks with coal producers since December last year to try to agree contract prices. The absence of a deal within China and the slowdown in demand overseas helped drive Chinese imports of coal to a record high in April, the last month for which data is available. After the Henan and Shandong deals, analysts at Nomura said they expected the price to spread to the rest of China. "We believe the rest of the coal miners in China may take the prices they have negotiated as benchmarks to finalise coal contracts in other provinces," Nomura analysts Ivan Lee and Evan Li Nomura said in a note to clients on June 5. They said if the trend continued, it would improve earnings forecasts for the power firms' listed units: Datang Power (0991.HK), China Resources Power (0836.HK), Huaneng Power (0902.HK), Huadian Power (1071.HK) and China Power (2380.HK). Last week Chinese miner Yanzhou Coal (1088.HK) said it had struck deals for 7.84 million tonnes with an average benchmark price of 502.62 yuan per tonne, including 4.29 million tonnes for power producers at 463.86 yuan per tonne, a 4 percent increase from 2008. The provincial deals involve local coal mines, not top Chinese miners such as Shenhua (1088.HK)(601088.SS), which has insisted this year's contract price for coal with calorific value of 5,500 kcal/kg (NAR) should rise to 540 yuan a tonne, or 17 percent higher than last year. The power firms have so far rejected Shenhua's price, citing deep losses last year due to rising coal costs and lower power demand amid the economic downturn. source: Reuters 11 June 2009 China top power firms sign regional coal contracts SHANGHAI, June 11 (Reuters) - China's top five power generating groups have signed 2009 coal supply contracts with miners in Guizhou and Xinjiang, with prices up 4 percent on the year, or flat after tax effects, sources said on Thursday. The price increase is in line with the deals signed earlier in Shandong and Henan provinces, said the sources, including an executive at one of the power producers and a power industry official, both with knowledge of the negotiations. The tonnage contracted so far, estimated at more than 100 million tonnes, accounts for up to 20 percent of the total annual coal consumption at these companies, the sources said. source: Reuters 11 June 2009

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