The operator of New York state’s last active coal-fired power plant, located north of Buffalo in Somerset, filed with state utility regulators for permission to shut as soon as Feb. 15, saying it wants to build a data center at the site. On Nov. 15, Somerset Operating Co asked the New York State Public Service Commission (NYSPSC) to waive the state’s 180-day notice requirement before shutting the plant. The company said in a release that it is retiring the plant due to stricter emissions regulations designed to eliminate coal in ...

Growth in palm oil production will slow in the next few years, helping reduce stockpiles and boost prices, leading industry analyst James Fry said on Thursday. Dry weather and lower fertiliser use – a move adopted by some growers to save costs – have affected output this year at top producers Indonesia and Malaysia, and will continue to be a factor in the coming years, Fry said. “In addition, we have seen the repercussions from the relentless pressure from NGOs to stop oil palm planting. This is on top of ...

China’s steelmakers have been slow to heed warning signs from the country’s economy as they push ahead with more production, raising the risk of a manufacturing slump. While China’s quarterly economic growth has dropped to 6 percent, its lowest level in at least 27 years, China’s mills boosted crude steel production by double-digit rates in four of the past eight months recorded through October, raising output by 7.4 percent so far this year. The increases have been good for steelmakers’ revenues, but not so much for the bottom line. On ...

Discussions are faltering about how to shut down Germany’s lignite coal industry as company executives and government ministers struggle to agree over the politically charged issue of how to compensate industry for plant shutdowns. Ten months after Germany set out a road map to exit coal by 2038, officials and the main utilities remain at loggerheads over setting a price for closing down operations, according to at least five people with direct knowledge of the deliberations. The government already missed a self-imposed target to have legislation ready in October and ...

State-owned CIL will develop 55 new coal mines and expand 193 existing ones in the next five years, Parliament was informed. The company is also undertaking portal-based monitoring of ongoing projects to ensure their timely completion. “Coal India has taken… steps to boost its coal production, (including) opening of 55 greenfield projects having capacity of 92 MTPA (million tonne per annum) and expansion of 193 brownfield projects having capacity of about 310 MTPA in next five years,” Coal Minister Pralhad Joshi said in a reply to the Lok Sabha. A ...

Chicago soybeans ticked up on Thursday, recovering from a nearly two-month low touched in the previous session, although gains were limited by concerns that a U.S.-China trade deal could be pushed into next year. Wheat lost ground after three sessions of gains, while corn was trading nearly flat around Wednesday’s lowest in two months. The most-active soybean contract on the Chicago Board Of Trade rose 0.2% to $9.06-1/2 a bushel by 0357 GMT. The contract hit its lowest since Oct. 1 at $9.04 a bushel on Wednesday. Wheat lost 0.3% ...

Morgan Stanley strategists Martijn Rats and Susan Bates argue that the outlook for commodities “remains soft”, principally because there’s “too much of everything”. From an investment perspective, a lack of inflation, soft demand and limited roll yield in forward curves continue to dent broad commodities indices, they said as part of a wider 2020 Global Strategy Outlook released this week. “The weakness in global trade and manufacturing is yet to turn around,” Mr Rats and Ms Bates wrote. “As long as this prevails, we anticipate a degree of demand weakness ...

China raised its coal-fired power capacity by 42.9 gigawatts (GW), or about 4.5%, in the 18 months to June, connecting new projects to the grid at a time when capacity in the rest of the world shrank, according to a study published on Wednesday. China also has another 121.3 GW of coal-fired power plants under construction, U.S.-based research network Global Energy Monitor said in its report, nearly enough to power the whole of France. The increase followed a 2014-2016 “permitting surge” by local governments aiming to boost growth while formerly ...

Beaten-down commodities markets might tempt investors to start tactically adding the asset class to their portfolios in a bid for diversification. That’s understandable, but likely premature, according to one analyst. “Is November 2019 one of these great ‘tactical’ times to add commodities to a portfolio? Our opinion is no,” said John LaForge, head of real asset strategy at Wells Fargo Investment Institute, in a Monday note. The Bloomberg Commodity Index is up 1.7% in the year to date, trailing a 24.5% rise over the same stretch for the S&P 500 ...

Production of iron ore concentrate in Iran during the first seven months of the current Iranian calendar year (March 21-October 22) has risen four percent compared to the same period of time in the past year, IRIB reported on Tuesday citing the data released by Iranian Mines and Mining Industries Development and Renovation Organization (IMIDRO). The IMIDRO’s data put the country’s iron ore concentrate output at over 27 million tons during the mentioned seven-month period. As previously announced, Iran’s export of iron ore concentrate rose 96.6 percent during the past ...

Commodities trader Trafigura Group Ltd. had contacts with an ex-Israeli Defence Forces officer who was later sanctioned by the U.S. over alleged arms sales in South Sudan, according to a report by a Swiss NGO. Trafigura’s head of oil trading, Jose Larocca, was sent an invitation letter in 2017, from the office of the President of the Republic of South Sudan, which referenced discussions between the trading house and the alleged arms dealer Israel Ziv, Public Eye said in a report on Monday. Ziv, a retired Israeli Major General, was ...

The Ministry of Steel has proposed setting up integrated steel hubs similar to the ones in Korea, China and Germany. The hubs would support the growth of the steel sector. According to a Draft Framework Policy-Development of Steel Clusters in India, “The Ministry is proposing creation of ‘Integrated Steel Hubs’ based on the principle of availability of raw material, logistics support and/or proximity to demand centres. It will enable capacity expansion through provision of a cohesive ecosystem, with presence of effective forward and backward linkages, single-window mechanism for swift approval ...

The London Metal Exchange is considering creating a new market for “green” aluminium, using warehouse ownership documents to identify low-carbon material instead of spinning off a new futures contract, its chief executive said on Wednesday. The 142-year-old LME said last month it was in discussions with the metals industry over how to support the transition to a low-carbon economy, especially in aluminium. “By Q1 of next year we want to define a clear route forward on green aluminium,” CEO Matt Chamberlain told Reuters on the sidelines of the Asia Copper ...

The Adani Group company financing the Carmichael mine in north Queensland has told shareholders to expect a first coal shipment in August 2021, but the project’s rail plans will still require unspecified additional investment from “the family”. In a conference call to discuss its financial-year earnings, executives from Adani Enterprises Limited – the ultimate parent company of the Carmichael mine – indicated the company may use “additional lines to fundraise”. The chief financial officer of AEL, Robbie Singh, said expected capital expenditure of US$1.7bn would be required to build the ...

Indonesia’s energy minister Arifin Tasrif said his ministry plans to maintain a price cap on coal being sold to state electricity utility, PT Perusahaan Listrik Negara (PLN) next year. The government capped the price of coal sold to PLN at $70 per tonne from early 2018 after the utility was told not to raise electricity tariffs for certain customers. The price cap was aimed at shielding PLN from cost fluctuations. PLN is expected to resume to adjusting its electricity prices every three months in 2020 for customers, such as industrial ...