Chinese steel futures prices have tumbled over the past week on expectations of a steel oversupply, due to a relaxation of production cuts over winter, market sources said this week. January 2020 rebar contracts traded on the Shanghai Futures Exchange closed at Yuan 3,324/mt ($470/mt) on Thursday, down 4.2% from the end of September. China’s winter emissions control plan does not contain across-the-board output cut percentages, as was the case previously when capacity utilization rates were reduced by up to 50%. Larger, more efficient mills that have invested heavily in ...

China’s monthly crude steel output slid to a six-month low in September, official data showed on Friday, as mill operations were hit by a raft of restrictions aimed at cutting pollution ahead of parades marking the country’s National Day on Oct. 1. Total output fell 5.4% to 82.77 million tonnes last month from 87.25 million tonnes in August, the lowest level since March, data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed on Friday. But September production was up from 80.85 million tonnes in the same month last year. Average ...

South Africa’s plans for additional power generation over the next decade will involve a variety of energy sources, with coal still playing a significant role as well as more renewable energy, mines and energy minister Gwede Mantashe said on Friday. Mantashe said that while the government planned to extend the life of the Koeberg nuclear power plant, there would not be a large-scale nuclear rollout. Source: Reuters (Reporting by Alexander Winning, Writing by Olivia Kumwenda-Mtambo; Editing by Mark Potter)

BHP (BHP.AX) (BHPB.L) shareholders are poised to reject a motion urging the world’s biggest listed miner to suspend membership of some industry bodies judged to be at odds with goals to tackle climate change, initial voting in London suggested on Thursday. Ethical investors have called for the suspension, arguing BHP’s membership of some industry organizations funds pro-coal lobbying. One of BHP’s biggest shareholders, Aberdeen Standard Investments, part of Standard Life Aberdeen (SLA.L), last week spoke out in favor of the resolution, saying lobby groups can be a major obstacle to ...

India’s Adani Enterprises has awarded a contract to an Australian rail company as the conglomerate steps up infrastructure spending to support its new thermal coal mine in Queensland state. The A$100 million ($68.30 million) contract was awarded to privately held Martinus Rail, based in the regional city of Rockhampton, Adani said in a statement on Friday. Adani Mining Chief Executive Lucas Dow said more than A$450 million worth of contracts had already been awarded on the Carmichael Project, the majority to regional Queensland areas. “Construction on the Carmichael mine and ...

Egypt, the world’s largest wheat buyer, has enough strategic reserves of the grain to cover its consumption needs until February, the Supply Ministry said in a statement on Friday. The state’s grains buyer, the General Authority for Supply Commodities (GASC), bought 405,000 tonnes of wheat at its last purchase tender on Oct. 16. Source: Reuters (Reporting by Momen Saeed Atallah; Writing by Nadine Awadalla; Editing by Mark Potter)

Recent progress in trade talks between the United States and China could help American soybean farmers regain Chinese market share, the CEO of the U.S. Soybean Export Council told CNBC. Washington and Beijing reached a partial trade agreement at negotiations last week, which U.S. President Donald Trump described as a “very substantial phase one deal.” The deal includes purchases of about $40 billion to $50 billion worth of American agricultural products by China, as well as agreements on intellectual property and financial services. It’s a “tremendous deal for the farmers,” ...

Australian mining giant BHP reported Thursday that its metallurgical coal and iron ore production fell in the first quarter of the 2019-2020 (July-June) fiscal year, but has maintained its guidance ranges for the 12-month period. BHP’s share of metallurgical coal production from its Queensland Coal business was 9.36 million mt over July-September, which is down 10% year on year and 21% lower than the April-June quarter. It is the weakest quarterly production the company has seen of the product since April-June 2017, according to data from the miner. “At Queensland ...

Volatility in the global commodity markets is not expected to unduly rattle Australia’s commodity outlook through 2020, but the 2021 picture is less rosy, according to government research. A recent report from Australia’s Department of Industry, Innovation and Science maintains a confident outlook for the coming year. Resources and Energy Quarterly, published at the end of September, anticipates that Australian resource exports will hold up in 2019-20, projecting A$282 billion in exports over the forecast period. But with a less stable world industrial production outlook, the demand forecast for 2021 ...

Benchmark Dalian iron ore futures extended losses into a fourth consecutive session on Thursday to hit seven-week lows, on fears that demand for the steelmaking raw material will be hurt further by a bruising U.S.-China trade war. Trade tensions between the United States and China, the world’s two largest economies, are a significant risk for the global economy, with “real spillover effects” for emerging markets, top IMF officials said on Wednesday. Steel demand in top consumer and producer China is forecast to grow by just 1% next year, compared with ...

China’s benchmark power coal price dropped slightly during the past week. The Bohai-Rim Steam-Coal Price Index (BSPI), a gauge of coal prices in north China’s major ports, stood at 577 yuan (about 81.3 U.S. dollars) per tonne Wednesday, a drop of one yuan week on week, according to Qinhuangdao Ocean Shipping Coal Trading Market Co. Ltd. Analysts said that as the port market entered its traditional off-season, coal stockpiles at northern ports were once again climbing upward, undermining downstream purchasing intention. Meanwhile, control measures on coal import were less stringent ...

Mining entities in Karnataka are expecting iron ore prices to fall as supply from NMDC’s Donimalai mines is likely to restart. Also, lesser offtake due to a decline in demand for the steel sector. To ensure seamless renewal of mining leases allocated to the government companies, the Union government recently amended the Minerals (Mining) by Government Companies Rules, 2015. A major beneficiary would be NMDC, which got into a legal battle with the Karnataka government over Donimalai, after it was asked to pay a premium equivalent to 80 per cent ...

South32 Ltd on Thursday reported a 9% rise in coking coal production for the first quarter, as the miner ramped up output at its Illawarra project in New South Wales. Production of the steel-making ingredient, known as metallurgical or coking coal, was about 1.7 million tonnes in the September quarter, compared with 1.5 million tonnes a year earlier. The Illawarra operations, which account for nearly all of the company’s coal output, rose 9% in the quarter. The miner maintained its fiscal 2020 production forecast across all of its operations, with ...

Chicago wheat futures rose for a second session on Thursday to hit a three-month high, with short-covering by funds and cold weather in the U.S. grain belt underpinning the market. Soybeans edged higher for the first time in three sessions, although gains were checked as traders waited for more clarity on U.S.-China trade negotiations. The most-active wheat contract on the Chicago Board Of Trade added 0.3% at $5.15 a bushel by 0253 GMT, after climbing to its highest since July 19 at $5.16-1/2 a bushel. Soybeans were up 0.2% at ...

Amid the protests and the brickbats, Adani has found a friend. Queensland’s dominant rail freight company, Aurizon, is under pressure from shareholders not to haul coal for Adani One of Australia’s leading rail freight companies has publicly disclosed that it is willing to service Adani’s Carmichael mine, despite an intense campaign by environmentalists aimed at dissuading companies from dealing with Adani. Pacific National, the major rail freight company in NSW and the fastest growing in Queensland, told the ABC: “We haul coal, that’s what we do.” But the company may ...