The European Court of Justice has come to a conclusion on the complaint made by BP North America against the Council of the European Union (EU).

Five years ago the European Biodiesel Board (EBB) lodged a complaint against dumped and subsidised biodiesel imports from the US. In March 2009, the European Commission imposed extensive anti-dumping and countervailing measures of imports of US biodiesel, which are due to expire this July.

It is claimed circumvention of these measures began either as transhipment of US biodiesel into third countries or through exports of artificially-designed blends containing less than 20% biodiesel. In May 2011, the EU Council set retroactive anti-circumvention measures for imports consigned from Canada, as well as for imports of US biodiesel blends below the previous 20% threshold.

BP North America directly challenged the EU Council by requesting the annulment of these measures by claiming exports of B15 starting in 2010 could not be considered as a slightly modified pure biodiesel. It further argued if B15 was to be considered as a like-for-like product, then it did not meet the conditions for circumvention, explaining that by claiming no change in trade patterns occurred.

But the EBB, despite the EU duties contributing to re-establishing more favourable market conditions overall, was still concerned to see cheap imports from the US continuing to ‘injured European industry’.

A judgement, published 16 January, rejected BP claims to be excluded from anti-circumvention duties for biodiesel originating from North America. It also obliges BP to pay for the legal expenses of both the EU Council and the EBB.

‘The signal is clear: biodiesel duties against the US and, per extension, Indonesia and Argentina, are well defended also by the European Court of Justice against any kind of circumvention. The legal basis of EU biodiesel duties is even more solid after today’s judgement,’ says EBB secretary general Raffaello Garofalo.

EBB provided technical and market information to support the defence led by the Council and claims this decision is ‘extremely important’ since it confirms ‘a definitive judgement to a legal halt on any kind of circumvention practice to import biodiesel in Europe via biodiesel blends lower than 20%, or via triangular trade’.

The Court of Justice dismissed the legal action and rejected BP North America’s request to annul anti-circumvention regulations, arguing ‘the applicant played a significant role in the circumvention proceedings’.

- See more at: http://www.biofuels-news.com/industry_news.php?item_id=7305#sthash.P2IOnnGO.dpuf

Wednesday January 15 2014

Ukraine is expected to export large amounts of sunflower oil this season, the USDA's Economic Research Service (ERS) said in its latest oil Crops Outlook.

In last week's WASDE report, the USDA raised its estimate for Ukraine's sunflower seed harvest in 2013/14 by 1 million tonne to 12.5 mln, thanks to a record harvested area of 6 mln acres and yield improvements of 15%.
 

Indonesia's mining ministry on Wednesday sought to ease a looming mineral export ban by proposing a regulation that would allow shipments of mineral ore concentrates to continue until 2017.

"The (mining) ministry proposed that miners will be given flexibility to export concentrate or processed minerals until 2017," Sukhyar, director general of coal and minerals, told reporters.

"After 2017, they will only be allowed to export metal or refined mineral."

The proposal has been submitted to the chief economic minister and President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono for approval.

Under a ban due to take effect on Sunday, mining companies must process their ore before shipping it overseas, a measure initially passed in 2009 to boost the value of exports from Indonesia, the world's top exporter of nickel ore, thermal coal and refined tin.


Reuters 8th January 2014 

* Mining is major contributor to government revenue

* Gold sector says wants taxes reduced as prices fall

* Ghana is Africa's number two gold producer (Adds background, industry comment)

By Matthew Mpoke Bigg

ACCRA, Nov 19 2013 (Reuters) - Ghana plans to present a mining windfall tax bill to parliament, Finance Minister Seth Terkper said on Tuesday, in a move likely to set up a clash between a hard-pressed industry and government's need for increased revenue.

Ghana is Africa's number two gold producer and the commodity accounted for 27 percent of the country's foreign exchange in 2012 and contributed more than $700 million to state coffers, according to data from Ghana Chamber of Mines.

But the government of President John Mahama is under pressure to show investors it can control a budget deficit forecast at 10.2 percent by the end of 2013 and which the government wants to reduce to 8.5 percent next year.

Terkper's announcement came during Tuesday's annual budget speech to parliament in which he described how government could raise revenue and curb spending.

"A committee is reviewing all stability agreements, incentives and the windfall profit tax that could not be passed in 2012," Terkper said.

"In due course the government will re-introduce the bill in parliament after completion of the consultations with all stakeholders," he said.

A previous bill that sought to impose a 10 percent mining windfall profit tax was introduced in 2012, Terkper said, but it was not considered by parliament and later withdrawn.

The West African state's economic boom is often attributed to its new oil wealth but its gold exports were worth $5.6 billion last year, nearly as much as oil and cocoa combined.

Even so, the industry is feeling the strain this year as a result of a slump in gold prices. 

Two of its leading mines, AngloGold Ashanti's Obuasi and Gold Field's Demang mine, operate at a loss. Other mines have closed while the level of mining exploration has dropped, industry leaders say.

To redress the situation, mine executives have urged the government to reduce corporate taxes from 35 to 30 percent and assess royalties on a sliding scale related to profitability so companies that do not make a profit don't pay royalties.

The announcement will hurt an industry that already faces a heavy tax burden because of royalties, income tax, Value Added Tax increased on Friday by 2.5 percentage points to 15 percent, and steep power prices, one mining executive said.

"It would be a disaster. Nobody would come to open a mine in Ghana," said one industry executive who declined to be identified because he is not authorised to speak publicly.

Razia Khan, head of Africa research at Standard Chartered, described Terkper's announcement as "positive" for the overall economy hough she wanted to more detail about its implementation in the context of lower gold prices.

"Ghana has long grappled with how to improve the fiscal take from the mining sector, given the stability agreements in place," Khan said in an email. (Additional reporting by Kwasi Kpodo; Editing by Emma Farge and Daniel Flynn)
source reuters.com 

Clive Palmer’s $6.4 billion coal and rail project in Queensland’s Galilee Basin has been approved by the federal government.

Waratah Coal’s ‘China First’ project will include the construction of a coal mine and infrastructure project located near Alpha in Queensland’s central west.

The mine will be linked to the Abbot Point coal terminal near Bowen by a new 453km heavy haul railway line.

Environment Minister Greg Hunt approved the project with 49 conditions including the contribution of $100,000 a year for 10 years for a ''strategic fund'' to help threatened species and the development of 10,000 hectares of protected land as an offset.

Source miningaustralia.com.au 
Image ABC.com 

Moil Ltd, a miniratna PSU, has increased prices of its manganese ore or the quarter January-March 2014. Moil, formerly Maganese Ore India Ltd, informed BSE that in line with company’s business practice of quarterly revising the prices of manganese ore, it has fixed price of various grades of manganese ore for the quarter January-March 2014.
 
The price of the Ferro grade manganese ore has been increased by 3% and price of SMAGR & Fines have been increased by 7.5% over the prices for October-December 2013. The prices of Electrolytic Manganese Dioxide (EMD) have been increased by 5% over the prices for October- December 2013.

MOIL ( Manganese Ore India Ltd. ) 
Source www.business-standard.com Jan 4 2014 

Port Hedland and two other ports in Western Australia that account for a major portion of the global seaborne iron ore trade reopened and miners started to return to work on Wednesday after cyclone Christine caused a more than two-day shutdown.

Tropical Cyclone Christine, a category three storm which reached the Pilbara region of Australia late Monday forcing the closure of iron ore mines and halting shipments caused only minor infrastructure damage.

Port Hedland exports iron ore from mines owned by BHP Billiton (LON:BHP) and Fortescue Metals (ASX:FMG) , the worlds number 3 and four exporters of the steelmaking material.

The port handled a near-record 22.3 million tonnes of cargo in November which was also a 37% increase over the year before.

Rio Tinto (LON:RIO), number two iron ore miner behind Brazil's Vale (NYSE:VALE), which is ramping up its annual capacity to 290 million tonnes, exports via the Dampier and Cape Lambert terminals north of Port Hedland.

China consumes close to 70% of the 1.1 billion tonne global trade, half of which is exported from Australia. Iron ore is the world's number two seaborne commodity trade after crude oil.

The benchmark CFR import price of 62% iron ore fines at China's Tianjin jumped to $134.20 a tonne in anticipation of the weather disruption. The raw material is up sharply since hitting lows of $110.40 a tonne in May last year according to data supplied by The Steel Index.

The Sydney Morning Herald reports  that the impact of the cyclone on a longer term basis would in all likelihood be negligible:

“Cyclones in the Pilbara are part of what happens and disruption to shipping is built in to market expectations at this time of year,” Ric Spooner, a chief analyst at CMC Markets in Sydney, said by phone. “To be more concerned, the market would need to see a more protracted delay to shipments and production, or serious damage to infrastructure.”

Source mining.com 
Image bluecloudspatial