South African coal loadings unaffected by strikes

Thursday 04 Aug, 2011 | By Montel

A week long coal miners strike in key producer South Africa, which was resolved on Monday, had no impact on coal shipments, with exports in fact rising during the action.

New York-based analysts Commodore Research & Consultancy said that “The now concluded strikes have not affected South African coal shipments.”

Mr Jeffery Landsberg MD of Commodore Research & Consultancy in a note said that “Five South African coal fixtures came to the market last week, two more than the previous week and up from the trailing four week average.”

Mr Landsberg said that stockpiles of coal at the main coal loading port of Richards Bay have also remained firm at around 3 million tonnes, while inland stockpiles at domestic power plants are unchanged at about 13 million tones.

Australian Floods Affect 37% Of Global Coal, Macquarie Says

Rains and floods in Australia's Queensland state are disrupting tellurian reserve of steelmaking coal, with 37 percent of the world's traded prolongation affected by force majeure, according to Macquarie Group Ltd.
Force majeure, a authorised tenure which allows producers to miss contracted shipments since of resources over their control, is inspiring 98 million metric tons of metallurgical coal prolongation capacity, homogeneous to 73 percent of exports from Queensland, Macquarie estimated in a note to clients today.

BHP Billiton Ltd., Rio Tinto Group, Xstrata Plc, Peabody Energy Corp. and Anglo American Plc are between producers affected by the sleet in Australia, the world's greatest exporter of coal. The sleet comes after the nation's wettest September-to-November on record, with showers and storms foresee to go on across Queensland until at slightest Jan. 6, the Bureau of Meteorology said on its website.
Mining companies in Queensland's Bowen Basin and surrounds operate 50 mines, according to Queensland's Department of Employment, Economic Development and Innovation.
Contributor of this story: Elisabeth Behrmann in Sydney at ebehrmann1@bloomberg.net

Australian floods: cost to industry

How the floods will impact on coal mining and agriculture in Australia.

Australia is the world's largest coal exporter and the state of Queensland is the main supplier of the valuable commodity.
The floods have washed away key tracks linking mines to ports, shutting down several mines and costing the industry an estimated $1 billion in production so far.
With 75 per cent of mines in the state affected by the floods, coal prices have started to rise.
The price of Queensland coking coal has jumped to $253 (£164) per tonne from $225 in the past three weeks and are expected to rise further.

Saul Eslake, program director of the Grattan Institute, said the economic impact for the state would be devastating.
"It will hit in a number of ways, although it's perhaps too early to put a precise figure on the economic impact.
"The biggest short term impact in terms of dollars is the disruption to coal exports, and some figures put that at $400 million dollars a week."
Agriculture
Thousands of properties have been flooded and livestock left stranded on islands in the vast inland muddy sea.
Queensland also accounts for nearly all of the country's sugar production and export, but this year will need to buy more raw sugar from rivals Brazil and Thailand to meet sales commitments because of drenched cane fields.
The industry group Cane growers estimated up to 18 per cent of the 2010 cane harvest has been abandoned and early plantings for 2011's crop were under water.
Australia is also the world's fourth largest wheat exporter. Crop analysts and farmers said up to 50 per cent of the 2010-11 crop would be downgraded.
Widespread damage to crops in Queensland is also likely to push up fruit, vegetable and dairy prices by as much as 50 per cent due to the crop losses that are being experienced.
Tropical fruits are stranded in the wet.
About $4 million worth of pineapples are stranded in the Rockhampton area after floodwaters cut road access to the south of the city.
Around $500,000 worth of lychees and a similar amount in mangoes are also awaiting urgent distribution.

Courtsey article by Bonnie Malkin 12:41PM GMT 04 Jan 2011. Telegraph