Coal

[blacksheep]

China coking coal posts steepest weekly fall in nearly 11 months on demand worries

Enrico Dela Cruz

MANILA (Reuters) - Chinese coking coal futures slipped on Friday and logged their biggest weekly loss since November 2018, as slowing economic growth and a bruising U.S.-China trade war clouded demand outlook for the steelmaking raw material.

 

read more - https://www.reuters.com/article/us-asia-iro...s-idUSKBN1WC0VU

[blacksheep]

Top US private coal miner Murray Energy files for bankruptcy

Cecilia Jamasmie | October 29, 2019 |

Murray Energy, the US largest privately owned coal producer led by outspoken Donald Trump ally Robert Murray, has filed for chapter 11 protection, as the fossil fuelâââہ¡Ãƒâ€šÃ‚¬ÃƒÆ’¢Ã¢Ã¢â€š¬Ã…¾Ãƒâ€šÃ‚¢s role in the countryâââہ¡Ãƒâ€šÃ‚¬ÃƒÆ’¢Ã¢Ã¢â€š¬Ã…¾Ãƒâ€šÃ‚¢s energy mix continues to diminish.

 

The Ohio-based miner, the eighth coal company to go under over the past year, said it had reached a restructuring agreement with lenders to restructure more than $2.7 billion of debt.

read more - https://www.mining.com/us-top-private-coal-...for-bankruptcy/

[blacksheep]

Canavan revives carbon capture in new effort to underpin coal generators

Michael Mazengarb1

As reported by the Australian Financial Review, representatives from oil and gas company Santos, and coal miner Glencore have met with Prime Minister Scott Morrison and advocated for carbon capture and storage projects to receive financial support under the $2 billion Climate Solutions Fund.

 

The push to invest in carbon capture and storage projects appears to have the backing of resources minister Matt Canavan, who confirmed that financial support for such projects was under active consideration by the Morrison government.

 

Two of Morrisonâââہ¡Ãƒâ€šÃ‚¬ÃƒÆ’¢Ã¢Ã¢â€š¬Ã…¾Ãƒâ€šÃ‚¢s closest advisors are the former CEO and deputy CEO of the Mineral Council of Australia, the principal coal lobby in Australia which also supports CCS, even though projects to date have been hugely expensive and not very effective.

 

âââہ¡Ãƒâ€šÃ‚¬ÃƒÆ’…âہ“We are looking into this. We have put a lot into CCS and we are looking at the next steps,âââہ¡Ãƒâ€šÃ‚¬ÃƒÆ’‚ Canavan told the Financial Review.

 

Carbon capture and storage technologies have already received substantial financial support from the Australian government âââہ¡Ãƒâ€šÃ‚¬ÃƒÆ’¢Ã¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚¬Ãƒâ€¦Ã¢â‚¬Å“ around $500 million âââہ¡Ãƒâ€šÃ‚¬ÃƒÆ’¢Ã¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚¬Ãƒâ€¦Ã¢â‚¬Å“ but almost nothing has been delivered in terms of actual emissions reduction.

 

Companies like Glencore and Santos see carbon capture as a technology that would enable coal, oil and gas industries to continue while supporting efforts to limit global warming.

read more - https://reneweconomy.com.au/canavan-revives...nerators-54900/

 

Michael Wests Top 40 Tax Dodgers shows Glencore paid "zero" tax. https://www.michaelwest.com.au/tax-dodgers/

[blacksheep]

Coal exporter NCIG, heading for record figures, works to keep Novocastrians onside amid criticism

ABC Newcastle By Liz Farquhar

Posted about 3 hours ago

As protests in Australia over coal and climate change grow louder and more aggressive, a coal loading company in Newcastle is working on re-engaging with its community.

 

Key points:

Major exporter Newcastle Coal Infrastructure Group expects to move a record 57 million tonnes of coal this year

The company has restarted its community engagement group

The Grattan Institute says it is increasingly difficult for coal to stay onside with public opinion as climate concerns increase

 

Newcastle Coal Infrastructure Group (NCIG) has just confirmed it is expecting a record year of coal tonnage through its terminal at the Port of Newcastle as new and established New South Wales mines ramp up production.

 

NCIG began operating in 2010, mostly sending coal to customers in Japan, Korea, and China.

 

CEO Aaron Johansen said this year will be bigger than ever.

 

"We're expecting up to 57 million tonnes through the NCIG terminal this year," he said.

read more - https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-11-20/coal...ection=business

[blacksheep]

Interesting read

Coal Knew, Too

A newly unearthed journal from 1966 shows the coal industry, like the oil industry, was long aware of the threat of climate change.

 

âââہ¡Ãƒâ€šÃ‚¬ÃƒÆ’…âہ“Exxon knew.âââہ¡Ãƒâ€šÃ‚¬ÃƒÆ’‚ Thanks to the work of activists and journalists, those two words have rocked the politics of climate change in recent years, as investigations revealed the extent to which giants like Exxon Mobil and Shell were aware of the danger of rising greenhouse gas emissions even as they undermined the work of scientists.

 

But the coal industry knew, too âââہ¡Ãƒâ€šÃ‚¬ÃƒÆ’¢Ã¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚¬Ãƒâ€šÃ‚ as early as 1966, a newly unearthed journal shows.

 

As Cherry did some of his own digging, he soon realized his discovery could be the first evidence that the coal industry was aware of the impending climate crisis more than half a century ago âââہ¡Ãƒâ€šÃ‚¬ÃƒÆ’¢Ã¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚¬Ãƒâ€šÃ‚ a finding that could open mining companies to the type of litigation that the oil industry is now facing.

 

https://www.huffingtonpost.com.au/entry/coa...984f?ri18n=true

[blacksheep]

Vale to shutter Mozambique coal operations for 3 months

Bloomberg News | November 27, 2019

 

Vale SA, the Brazilian mining giant, plans to place its Mozambican coal operations on maintenance for three months, essentially closing the tap on about one-third of the southeast African countryâââہ¡Ãƒâ€šÃ‚¬ÃƒÆ’¢Ã¢Ã¢â€š¬Ã…¾Ãƒâ€šÃ‚¢s export earnings.

 

The move could have severe implications for the countryâââہ¡Ãƒâ€šÃ‚¬ÃƒÆ’¢Ã¢Ã¢â€š¬Ã…¾Ãƒâ€šÃ‚¢s balance of payments and currency, as coal is by far its biggest source of export earnings. Mozambique exported $1.7 billion worth of the fuel used in power stations and steel plants last year, with Vale operations in the center of the country accounting for almost all of that.

 

The company completed a review of its Mozambican coal mines and decided to shift the focus to producing more metallurgical coal âââہ¡Ãƒâ€šÃ‚¬ÃƒÆ’¢Ã¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚¬Ãƒâ€šÃ‚ used to produce steel âââہ¡Ãƒâ€šÃ‚¬ÃƒÆ’¢Ã¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚¬Ãƒâ€šÃ‚ and less of the lower-value product that power stations burn. Under the new plan, the assets will produce at a rate of 15 million tons per year by the end of 2020, up from less than 12 million tons last year, but still well short of Valeâââہ¡Ãƒâ€šÃ‚¬ÃƒÆ’¢Ã¢Ã¢â€š¬Ã…¾Ãƒâ€šÃ‚¢s target to export 22 million tons from the mines in central Mozambique.

 

Vale will this quarter write down the assets by $1.6 billion, it said in a statement.

 

(By Matthew Hill)

https://www.mining.com/web/vale-to-shutter-...s-for-3-months/

 

 

[nipper]

BlackRock, the world's largest fund manager, is dumping more than half a billion dollars in thermal coal shares from all of its actively managed portfolios, as part of a more active global stance on climate change driven by chief executive Larry Fink.

 

The coal ban, which includes any company earning 25 per cent of its revenue from thermal coal, will apply to BlackRock's $US1.8 trillion ($2.6 trillion) in actively managed equity portfolios.

 

"Climate change has become a defining factor in companiesâââہ¡Ãƒâ€šÃ‚¬ÃƒÆ’¢Ã¢Ã¢â€š¬Ã…¾Ãƒâ€šÃ‚¢ long-term prospects," Mr Fink wrote.

 

It will not affect the balance of the fund manager's $US5.2 trillion in assets under management that are managed in passive exchange-traded and index funds.

 

But as part of a new sustainable investment policy, BlackRock will help clients screen out fossil fuels from passive portfolios

 

 

[nipper]

.

 

China has not confirmed officially it has blacklisted Australian coal. But after meetings in China on Saturday of the National Development and Reform Commission, China’s main economic planning agency, the CCP’s bellicose mouthpiece, the Global Times, reported approval had been given to power plants to import coal without clearance restrictions, except from Australia. Coal producers in Mongolia, Indonesia and Russia would benefit from the change in policy, it said.

 

That news will make for an anxious Christmas for coal workers, investors and those in the regional areas where the miners live and work in Australia. It is also bad news for the 1000 sailors stranded aboard 80 bulk carriers off China’s coast, which are not being allowed to unload. Not surprisingly, the ship owners holding the black-listed coal are threatening legal action against Chinese buyers, as Perry Williams reports. With China buying $13.5bn in coal a year, the crisis has put Australia’s industry under pressure.

 

But China is not our biggest market for thermal coal, as Mr Morrison pointed out on Tuesday. Japan buys $9.6bn of thermal coal a year, followed by China ($4bn), South Korea ($3.3bn) and Taiwan ($2.8bn).

 

The biggest markets for Australian metallurgical coal are India at $10.2bn, followed by China ($9.7bn), Japan ($7.4bn), South Korea ($3.8bn) and Taiwan ($2.5bn)

[henrietta]

I'm just starting to wonder if China's refusal to take our coal, might be part of of a much more beneficial (for China) strategy to gradually buy up our coal mining ventures, at bargain prices.

China is going to need high quality coal for a long time. Australia might just be falling for yet another foreign ploy.

 

Then again, maybe I'm just paranoid.

 

Cheers

J

[nipper]

if you think that way, then they would be aiming to take over the entire country. Long Game