Monday, 27 Feb 2012
It is reported that coal is being loaded again at the Port Kembla Coal Terminal after a weeks-long campaign of industrial action was called off on February 23rd 2012 and employees returned to work.
The industrial action came to an end after a deal was reached between coal terminal management and the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union over a new enterprise agreement.
The rolling stoppages shut down the terminal for seven days last week and more action had been planned.
But the deal means almost 100 employees are back at work and coal is again being loaded onto ships which had been waiting offshore.
It also means the threat by freight company Pacific National to stand down 61 Illawarra-based train drivers will not go ahead.
CFMEU district vice president Mr Bob Timbs said terminal management had agreed to a 4.5% pay rise per year for three years, plus job security provisions and the ability for all parts of the agreement to be arbitrated at Fair Work Australia if necessary.
Mr Timbs said that "From the outset, terminal workers themselves have driven this result; from deciding to take industrial action at the ballot through to showing the resolve in striking for their conditions.”
He added that "They offered to help out some of the smaller terminal users who were affected by the strike to avoid undue financial hardship."
Port Kembla Coal Terminal general manager Mr Peter Green welcomed the in-principle agreement and the end to the industrial action. He said he expected the CFMEU leadership would genuinely recommend the deal to members.
(Sourced from www.illawarramercury.com.au)
Showing posts with label resume operations. Show all posts
Showing posts with label resume operations. Show all posts
Monday, February 27, 2012
Monday, October 31, 2011
BHP Australia coal miners to resume work stoppages Friday-union
Mon Oct 31, 2011
Oct 31 (Reuters) - Union workers at four BHP Billiton's coal mines in Australia will resume work stoppages on Friday as part of a long-running industrial dispute with the miner, a workers' union said Monday.
The stoppages will occur at the Gregory, Peak Downs, Goonyella Riverside, and Blackwater coking coal mines as part of a campaign over job security and more pay.
The mines have a combined output capacity of more than 58 million tonnes per year of mostly metallurgical coal, representing about a fifth of annual global trade.
(sourced Reuters)
Oct 31 (Reuters) - Union workers at four BHP Billiton's coal mines in Australia will resume work stoppages on Friday as part of a long-running industrial dispute with the miner, a workers' union said Monday.
The stoppages will occur at the Gregory, Peak Downs, Goonyella Riverside, and Blackwater coking coal mines as part of a campaign over job security and more pay.
The mines have a combined output capacity of more than 58 million tonnes per year of mostly metallurgical coal, representing about a fifth of annual global trade.
(sourced Reuters)
Thursday, October 20, 2011
CIL resumes normal fuel supplies
Thursday, 20 Oct 2011
It is reported that Coal India Limited has resumed normal supplies of coal to power plants helping to lift power generation and reduce outages across the country.
Mr Nirmal Chandra Jha chairman of CIL said "The first 10 days of this month were bad. I hope electricity supplies will also improve in line with our dispatches."
An increase in the availability of rail wagons has enabled the company to raise its daily average supply to power stations from 900,000 tonnes to 1 million tonne. Coal India is now using 180 wagons rather than 140 wagon each days.
The recent shortages have caused major problems as half of the 182MW national power generation capacity runs on fossil fuels. Daily coal supply in the first week of October was down to 600,000 tonnes. Output was hit to mine flooding and a recent one-day strike by workers who demanded a higher annual bonus. Political unrest in a southern state has further impacted output.
(sourced ifandp)
It is reported that Coal India Limited has resumed normal supplies of coal to power plants helping to lift power generation and reduce outages across the country.
Mr Nirmal Chandra Jha chairman of CIL said "The first 10 days of this month were bad. I hope electricity supplies will also improve in line with our dispatches."
An increase in the availability of rail wagons has enabled the company to raise its daily average supply to power stations from 900,000 tonnes to 1 million tonne. Coal India is now using 180 wagons rather than 140 wagon each days.
The recent shortages have caused major problems as half of the 182MW national power generation capacity runs on fossil fuels. Daily coal supply in the first week of October was down to 600,000 tonnes. Output was hit to mine flooding and a recent one-day strike by workers who demanded a higher annual bonus. Political unrest in a southern state has further impacted output.
(sourced ifandp)
Thursday, February 3, 2011
Xstrata resumes some operations at Australia coal mines
PERTH, Wed Feb 2, 2011 10:11pm EST
PERTH Feb 3 (Reuters) - Xstrata said on Thursday that it has resumed operations at its Newlands coal mine, which was shut Wednesday night due to Cyclone Yasi, and is preparing to resume operations at its Collinsville coal mine where the cyclone knocked out power.
Collinsville mine will resume operations as soon as power is restored, an Xstrata spokesman said.
Abbot Point Coal Terminal, which is operated by Xstrata, was also affected by the power outage. (Reporting by Rebekah Kebede; Editing by Ed Davies,sourced:reuters)
PERTH Feb 3 (Reuters) - Xstrata said on Thursday that it has resumed operations at its Newlands coal mine, which was shut Wednesday night due to Cyclone Yasi, and is preparing to resume operations at its Collinsville coal mine where the cyclone knocked out power.
Collinsville mine will resume operations as soon as power is restored, an Xstrata spokesman said.
Abbot Point Coal Terminal, which is operated by Xstrata, was also affected by the power outage. (Reporting by Rebekah Kebede; Editing by Ed Davies,sourced:reuters)
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Orissa allows 6 iron ore mines to resume operations
Tuesday, 25 Jan 2011
India's top iron ore producing state Orissa said that it has allowed six mines to restart, three days after they were ordered to shut down in a crackdown on illegal mining.
The six were among 23 mines closed down on Friday pending submission of paperwork, adding to a total of more than 300 mines in Orissa shuttered since July 2009 as India tightens mining regulations.
Mr UC Jena Orissa's deputy director for mines told Reuters that production lost at the six mines was about 174,000 tonnes since Friday. All of the 23 mines have lost about 450,000 tonnes in output since being shut down on Friday, he added, amounting to a fraction of Orissa's annual output of about 75 million tonnes.
The shutdown last week was a procedural step and not related to a ban on iron ore exports the state wants to propose to boost local supplies.
Orissa is the third largest exporter of the steelmaking raw material in the country, the world's No. 3 supplier. India sells about half of its annual output of more than 200 million tonnes to top iron ore importer and steel producer China.
Tight supply of iron ore from India, largely due to a ban on exports from its Karnataka since July, had helped push spot prices to near record highs.
Mr Jena said that "I hope some more operators will submit their valid documents. If they submit we will issue permissions adding that the documents being sought include forest clearances and mining leases.”
(Sourced from Reuters)
Saturday, January 22, 2011
Australia govt: 20 pct of qtr coal exports lost to floods
* Gov't forecasts 20pct of Australia's quarterly coal exports lost to floods
* Around 7 pct of cotton plantings also lost
* Cockatoo, Aquila make headway at coal mines leave force majeure in place (Wraps ABARES data, Rio Tinto, Aquila)
By James Regan
SYDNEY, Jan 21 (Reuters) - Australia's devastating floods, which shut mines and damaged rail lines, could cut coal exports by around 15 million tonnes, or 20 percent this quarter, even as collieries show signs of recovery, the government's commodities forecasting agency said on Friday.
Coal ports in hardest-hit Queensland state escaped severe damage, but are still operating well under capacity as a result of lower coal receivals, Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences (ABARES) said.
ABARES estimates flooding due to monsoon rains that started in November could lower coal export earnings by A$2.0 - $2.5 billion ($1.97-billion-2.47 billion) during the quarter to March 31.
"Coal production at affected mines has been reduced because of a number of factors, including flooded pits and difficulties in removing the water, and a lack of access to mine sites because of flooded roads," it said.
Australia was forecast to export 160 million tonnes of metallurgical coal and 158 million tonnes of thermal coal in fiscal 2011, according to ABARES.
Cockatoo Coal and Aquila Resources on Friday partially resumed operations in hardest Queensland state as floodwaters continued to recede.
But in the aftermath of one of Australia's worst natural disasters on record, mining companies say operations are still far from normal: Vital rail corridors linking mines with export terminals are only slowing being reactivated and force majeure -- a legal let-out enabling miners to break sales contracts without penalty -- remain in place across Queensland.
COAL OPERATIONS
Aquila, which mines 2.8 million tonnes a year of metallurgical and thermal coals from its Issac Plains mine in 50-50 partnership with Brazil's Vale warned it would still take some time to resume full operations. Cockatoo Coal said mining at its Baralaba operations would not start before February.
The Baralaba mine suffered some of the worst damage during the flooding after a levy protecting the lode collapsed sending a torrent of water into the pit.
Flooding at other mines -- most concentrated in the inland Bowen Basin -- was restricted to rainwater.
"Whilst all equipment is in working order, resumption of full production rates will take some time while dewatering of the site is completed, Cockatoo said.
It only expects to restart mining in February once pit dewatering provides improved access.
"A phased program of dewatering/mining is then expected to continue for several weeks as the mine returns to planned production capacity (about 150,000 tonnes per quarter)," Cockatoo said.
Suppliers of pumping equipment needed to empty water from the mines have said they will be hard-pressed to meet demand and environmentalists are concerned the water may pose health risks.
The flooding has been blamed on rains triggered by a La Nina Pacific weather pattern that has devastated huge areas of the eastern seaboard.
Rio Tinto RIO.L> this week said its Queensland coal mines were operational but still constrained and left its force majeure declaration in place. .
BHP Billiton , the world's largest supplier of sea-borne hard coking coal via a joint venture with Japan's Mitsubishi Corp , is bracing for lower production over the next six months in the aftermath of the flooding, which trimmed December quarter output by a third.
The flooding has driven contract prices for coking coal as high as $225 per tonne for the first quarter of 2011, compared to $209 per tonne in the fourth quarter of 2010.
Spot prices have shot up to more than $350 per tonne and consultants Wood Mackenzie said prices could reach $500.
This will mean higher second-quarter contract prices, based on average daily spot prices over the previous three months.
But a quicker-than-expected return to production would likely end the upward trajectory in coal prices, according to Patersons Securities analyst Andrew Harrington.
"This happened after flooding in 2007/08 caused the price to go up and then fall back," Harrington said.
WHEAT QUALITY DOWN, COTTON HIT
ABARES also estimated flooding cut agricultural production by at least A$500 million to A$600 million in 2010/11.
It said the winter harvest, including wheat, barley and canola, in most of the flood-affected regions was either complete or near completion before the recent flooding.
But a wet harvest means Australia, usually the world's fourth biggest wheat exporter, could see more than 10 million tonnes of wheat downgraded in quality to low quality milling wheat or feed wheat. A wet growing season means a near record 26 million tonnes of the grain could be harvested nationally.
ABARES also estimated that around seven percent of Australian cotton plantings, valued at A$150 million in 2010-11 was destroyed and a further 2 percent were at risk if the crops did not have the opportunity to dry out.
The 2010/11 Australian cotton harvest could be 3.95 million bales, 8 percent below an earlier estimate but the July to June year harvest would still be a record, exceeding the 3.52 million bales harvested in 2001/02, Rabobank said in a report last week. (4.4 bales equals 1 tone)
The wet weather in Queensland has had a limited impact on other mineral and energy commodity production concentred further north of the coalfields
The one notable exception was Rio Tinto declaring force majeure at its Boyne Island aluminium smelter. Force majeure was lifted on Friday after road and rail access to the port of Brisbane was restored .
(Additional reporting by Bruce Hextall and Balazs Koranyi; Editing by Ed Davies, sourced Reuters)
* Around 7 pct of cotton plantings also lost
* Cockatoo, Aquila make headway at coal mines leave force majeure in place (Wraps ABARES data, Rio Tinto, Aquila)
By James Regan
SYDNEY, Jan 21 (Reuters) - Australia's devastating floods, which shut mines and damaged rail lines, could cut coal exports by around 15 million tonnes, or 20 percent this quarter, even as collieries show signs of recovery, the government's commodities forecasting agency said on Friday.
Coal ports in hardest-hit Queensland state escaped severe damage, but are still operating well under capacity as a result of lower coal receivals, Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences (ABARES) said.
ABARES estimates flooding due to monsoon rains that started in November could lower coal export earnings by A$2.0 - $2.5 billion ($1.97-billion-2.47 billion) during the quarter to March 31.
"Coal production at affected mines has been reduced because of a number of factors, including flooded pits and difficulties in removing the water, and a lack of access to mine sites because of flooded roads," it said.
Australia was forecast to export 160 million tonnes of metallurgical coal and 158 million tonnes of thermal coal in fiscal 2011, according to ABARES.
Cockatoo Coal and Aquila Resources on Friday partially resumed operations in hardest Queensland state as floodwaters continued to recede.
But in the aftermath of one of Australia's worst natural disasters on record, mining companies say operations are still far from normal: Vital rail corridors linking mines with export terminals are only slowing being reactivated and force majeure -- a legal let-out enabling miners to break sales contracts without penalty -- remain in place across Queensland.
COAL OPERATIONS
Aquila, which mines 2.8 million tonnes a year of metallurgical and thermal coals from its Issac Plains mine in 50-50 partnership with Brazil's Vale warned it would still take some time to resume full operations. Cockatoo Coal said mining at its Baralaba operations would not start before February.
The Baralaba mine suffered some of the worst damage during the flooding after a levy protecting the lode collapsed sending a torrent of water into the pit.
Flooding at other mines -- most concentrated in the inland Bowen Basin -- was restricted to rainwater.
"Whilst all equipment is in working order, resumption of full production rates will take some time while dewatering of the site is completed, Cockatoo said.
It only expects to restart mining in February once pit dewatering provides improved access.
"A phased program of dewatering/mining is then expected to continue for several weeks as the mine returns to planned production capacity (about 150,000 tonnes per quarter)," Cockatoo said.
Suppliers of pumping equipment needed to empty water from the mines have said they will be hard-pressed to meet demand and environmentalists are concerned the water may pose health risks.
The flooding has been blamed on rains triggered by a La Nina Pacific weather pattern that has devastated huge areas of the eastern seaboard.
Rio Tinto RIO.L> this week said its Queensland coal mines were operational but still constrained and left its force majeure declaration in place. .
BHP Billiton , the world's largest supplier of sea-borne hard coking coal via a joint venture with Japan's Mitsubishi Corp , is bracing for lower production over the next six months in the aftermath of the flooding, which trimmed December quarter output by a third.
The flooding has driven contract prices for coking coal as high as $225 per tonne for the first quarter of 2011, compared to $209 per tonne in the fourth quarter of 2010.
Spot prices have shot up to more than $350 per tonne and consultants Wood Mackenzie said prices could reach $500.
This will mean higher second-quarter contract prices, based on average daily spot prices over the previous three months.
But a quicker-than-expected return to production would likely end the upward trajectory in coal prices, according to Patersons Securities analyst Andrew Harrington.
"This happened after flooding in 2007/08 caused the price to go up and then fall back," Harrington said.
WHEAT QUALITY DOWN, COTTON HIT
ABARES also estimated flooding cut agricultural production by at least A$500 million to A$600 million in 2010/11.
It said the winter harvest, including wheat, barley and canola, in most of the flood-affected regions was either complete or near completion before the recent flooding.
But a wet harvest means Australia, usually the world's fourth biggest wheat exporter, could see more than 10 million tonnes of wheat downgraded in quality to low quality milling wheat or feed wheat. A wet growing season means a near record 26 million tonnes of the grain could be harvested nationally.
ABARES also estimated that around seven percent of Australian cotton plantings, valued at A$150 million in 2010-11 was destroyed and a further 2 percent were at risk if the crops did not have the opportunity to dry out.
The 2010/11 Australian cotton harvest could be 3.95 million bales, 8 percent below an earlier estimate but the July to June year harvest would still be a record, exceeding the 3.52 million bales harvested in 2001/02, Rabobank said in a report last week. (4.4 bales equals 1 tone)
The wet weather in Queensland has had a limited impact on other mineral and energy commodity production concentred further north of the coalfields
The one notable exception was Rio Tinto declaring force majeure at its Boyne Island aluminium smelter. Force majeure was lifted on Friday after road and rail access to the port of Brisbane was restored .
(Additional reporting by Bruce Hextall and Balazs Koranyi; Editing by Ed Davies, sourced Reuters)
Rio and Aquila resume operations after Queensland floods
Saturday, 22 Jan 2011
Reuters reported that miners Rio Tinto and Aquila Resources have resumed some operations in Australia's flood ravaged Queensland state as waters receded and the region's vital mining and metals sector slowly returned to work.
Rio Tinto terminated force majeure at its Boyne Island aluminium smelter as it could resume transportation while Aquila restarted production at its Isaac Plains coal mine, a joint venture with Brazil's Vale.
But Queensland's coal industry, which suffered losses of over USD 2 billion according to some estimates, is still far from normal and Aquila warned it would still take some time to resume full operations while Cockatoo Coal said mining at its Baralaba operations would not start before February 2011.
Aquila said that "Whilst all equipment is in working order, resumption of full production rates will take some time while dewatering of the site is completed. Force Majeure remains in place on a number of sales contracts."
Australia accounts for around two-thirds of the world's coking coal exports and Queensland share is around 90 percent of that figures.
Gladstone Port, Queensland's second largest coal export port, earlier this week said it would take until the end of March 2011 for exports to return to normal while mining services companies said it could take three to six months to pump out all the water in mining pits.
(Sourced from www.reuters.com)
Reuters reported that miners Rio Tinto and Aquila Resources have resumed some operations in Australia's flood ravaged Queensland state as waters receded and the region's vital mining and metals sector slowly returned to work.
Rio Tinto terminated force majeure at its Boyne Island aluminium smelter as it could resume transportation while Aquila restarted production at its Isaac Plains coal mine, a joint venture with Brazil's Vale.
But Queensland's coal industry, which suffered losses of over USD 2 billion according to some estimates, is still far from normal and Aquila warned it would still take some time to resume full operations while Cockatoo Coal said mining at its Baralaba operations would not start before February 2011.
Aquila said that "Whilst all equipment is in working order, resumption of full production rates will take some time while dewatering of the site is completed. Force Majeure remains in place on a number of sales contracts."
Australia accounts for around two-thirds of the world's coking coal exports and Queensland share is around 90 percent of that figures.
Gladstone Port, Queensland's second largest coal export port, earlier this week said it would take until the end of March 2011 for exports to return to normal while mining services companies said it could take three to six months to pump out all the water in mining pits.
(Sourced from www.reuters.com)
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