EU bosses are pushing to resolve a clash between industry and environmental policy with a new strategy to phase out funding to export coal technology to developing nations, ahead of a meeting of leading economic powers on the issue.

The European Commission, the EU executive, urges tougher rules on when subsidies, known as coal export credits, can be used in a paper seen by Reuters, ahead of interim talks this week.

Political pressure is growing to reach agreement on restricting the coal subsidies before United Nations climate change talks in Paris at the end of the year. But opposition is also strong.

Negotiations at the Paris-based Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in June ended in statemate as Japan, the biggest user of export credits that help companies such as Toshiba Corp to sell coal plant and mining technology abroad, led resistance.

Another OECD meeting on the issue is scheduled for September.

Experts from EU member states will meanwhile meet in Brussels on Wednesday to debate their position to take to the OECD talks, EU sources said.

An unpublished paper from the European Commission says the proposal from the chairman of the OECD export committee, which failed to produce a deal in June, was "in principle" balanced, but the EU should strengthen it.

Changes could include shortening the time period to repay coal export credit preferential loans and reducing the number of countries that could benefit.

The World Bank, for instance, says there is an argument for exporting coal technology to the very poorest countries that have no other fuel options, while the coal industry says export credits ensure cleaner, more efficient technology is used than would otherwise be the case.

Environment campaigners disagree and want an early end to all fossil fuel subsidies, especially for coal.

The European Union, which accounts for around two-thirds of the OECD grouping of major economies, could have a big impact on negotiations. Environment campaigners, however, have voiced concern it might fail to agree a stronger position.

Despite EU aspirations to be at the helm of any U.N. deal on limiting global warming, some in European industry also oppose an abrupt end to coal export credits and say proposed requirements on carbon capture and storage (CCS) to neutralise emissions have to be realistic as the technology is still in its infancy.

The Commission paper raises the possibility of allowing coal export credits for plants suitable for CCS, a step back from a previous suggestion they can only be permitted for plants with operational CCS.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/07/27/eu-coal-idUSL5N10724H20150727

China's coal output delivered a year on year drop of 5.8% to 1.79 billion tons in the first half of this year, according to figures released by the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC).

In the first half of this year, China's coal imports plunged 37.5% year on year to 99.87 million tons.

As of the end of Jun, coal storage at major ports of China shrank 16.4% to 39.67 million tons. Meanwhile, China's national coal storage at major power plants stands at 65.41 million tons and will be available for 22 days by the end of Jun.

In the Jan-Jun period, total electricity consumption rose a meager of 1.3% to 2,662.4 terawatt hours, 4.1% lower than in the same period of 2014 and hit the lowest level since 1980.

http://en.chinamining.com.cn/News/2015-07-28/1438052768d73058.html

China’s coal mining and washing industry witnessed a year-on-year slump of 67% to 20.04 billion yuan ($3.27 billion) over January-June, showed data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on July 27.

During the same period, the coal mining and washing industry realized revenue of 1.26 trillion yuan, down 13% from a year ago.

Total profit of the country’s entire mining industry registered a drop of 58.8% on year to 139.6 billion yuan in the first half of the year, data showed.

Meanwhile, profit in ferrous and non-ferrous metal mining industry dipped 47.5% and 17.4% on year to 18.64 billion and 21.39 billion yuan, respectively.

However, the power and heat generation industry saw its profit climb 17.7% from the year before to 233.88 billion yuan, attributed largely to the slump in coal prices.

http://en.sxcoal.com/0/127445/DataShow.html

A coal stacker has collapsed at the Mozambique port of Nacala, dealing a blow to Brazilian miner Vale's effort to start coal shipments from the African nation in the third quarter, sources told Reuters on Monday.

The giant piece of machinery, which is used to handle coal and other bulk materials, buckled last week, according to a mining industry source with knowledge of the situation.

"The contractors are investigating and an official report is expected within a couple of weeks," the source said, adding that no one was hurt in the accident.

Another source said it could take months to fix the equipment.

In an emailed statement Vale confirmed that the coal stacker, which was in the final stages of construction, collapsed last week. A team is studying the cause of the accident, the company said.

Vale is reliant on the port and connecting railway, together known as the Nacala Corridor, to reach capacity at its Moatize coal mine in northwest Mozambique.

Vale expects Moatize's production to reach 11 million tonnes of coal per year by mid-2016 and 22 million tonnes by 2017. Current output is around 7 million tonnes.

A third source said Vale had been experiencing problems with its wash plant at the mine site, an issue that could see it miss its production target for this year. In its statement Vale said the outage was due to scheduled maintenance and that processes were working normally.

Vale's Moatize project has been beset by logistical problems, with the difficulties in building and expanding the Nacala railway and port holding back production increases at the mine.

The rail line runs for 900 km (560 miles) through land-locked Malawi to the port of Nacala on the Indian Ocean. Vale had originally said it expected to ship coal from the new port in the first quarter of 2015.

Last December, it sold a stake in the project to Japanese trader Mitsui & Co Ltd in order to share the cost of getting it up and running. Mitsui bought a stake of just under 15 percent in the mine and 35 percent in the rail and port.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/07/27/mozambique-coal-stacker-idUSL5N10738O20150727

An Indian state company has agreed to sell high-quality iron ore pellets to Iran, its chairman told Reuters, in what could be a $200 million annual deal that signifies expanding business ties between the countries as sanctions against Tehran ease.

India had remained one of Iran's top oil buyers despite trade curbs over Iran's nuclear programme and the two countries are now exploring partnerships worth billions of dollars in ports, steel, aluminium and power.

Iran and India started talks on the pellet deal even before the United States, European Union and United Nations earlier this month agreed to lift sanctions on Iran, in exchange for Tehran agreeing to long-term curbs on its nuclear programme.

KIOCL Ltd, owned by India's steel ministry, could sell as much as 2 million tonnes of pellets to Iran to meet substantial local demand, Chairman Malay Chatterjee said.

Keyvan Ja'fari Tehrani, head of international affairs at the Iranian Iron Ore Producers and Exporters Association, said a final agreement was yet to be struck. But he agreed the demand was there.

"The production of pellets in Iran is not sufficient," Tehrani said, adding there's a need to import between 7 and 8 million tonnes a year. Iran produced 21 million tonnes of iron ore pellets last year while demand reached 28 to 29 million tonnes, he said.

KIOCL has been in talks with Tehrani as well as Iran's state-owned mines and metal holding company IMIDRO and the Iranian Mines and Mining Industries Development and Renovation Organisation, said Tehrani.

Negotiations are also going on to bring in 1 million tonnes of low-quality iron ore from Iran, process it at KIOCL's coastal facilities in India, then export pellets to Iran, said Chatterjee.

A senior steel ministry official confirmed the talks.

KIOCL will initially buy 80,000 tonnes of high-grade concentrate containing 67 percent iron from Anglo America's Brazil operations by September, convert it into pellets and then sell to Iran for about 500 million rupees ($7.8 million), Chatterjee said.

Based on that figure, the value of a 2 million tonne deal would be about $200 million.

Most of Iran's iron ore is low grade and needs to be converted to pellets to be used to make steel. It is targeting annual steel output of 55 million tonnes by 2025, up from about 16 million.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/07/27/india-iran-iron-idUSL3N1071W320150727

Sohar Max, the first-ever fully laden Valemax, discharged iron ore at North China's Dongjiakou port over the weekend, according to local media reports Monday.

The vessel, of 400,000 dwt, had a draft of 23 meters when she entered the port indicating she was fully laden at the time, according to Platts' vessel tracking tool, cFlow.

She loaded iron ore from Ponta Da Madeira port in Brazil from June 2-4, and headed directly to Dongjiakou port, without calling at Vale's transshipment hubs in Philippines' Subic Bay or Malaysia's Teluk Rubiah.

Up to February this year, fully-laden Valemaxes were banned from docking into Chinese ports by the Chinese officials citing safety concerns.

The ban was lifted by the Ministry of Transport when an amendment was made to the Design Code of General Layout for Sea Ports, allowing the enlistment of dry bulk cargo ships of 400,000 dwt.

http://www.platts.com/latest-news/shipping/singapore/first-ever-fully-laden-valemax-discharges-iron-26159358