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Showing posts with label Australia. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Australia. Show all posts

Saturday, 4 February 2017

08:32

Coal imports by India to go end in next few years

Coal imports by India to go end  in next few years

A 25% drop in imports in 2016 leads minister to declare independence from foreign coal

India’s energy minister has pledged to end India’s imports of coal within a few years.

On Wednesday, Piyush Goyal tweeted the news that India’s imports had dropped by a quarter in 2016 and said the country “aims to eliminate coal dependency in the next few years”.2

The import drop comes as state-owned Coal India ramps up domestic production, despite the government drawing back on a short-lived billion tonne per year target in September last year due to slack demand.

The news will hearten campaigners in Australia who oppose the building of a massive new coal mine by Indian company Adani. The economics of the Carmichael mine have been justified by claims of sustained demand in India. The Australian government has pledged $1bn to support the mine.

But the minister’s pledge does not include imports made by private companies, according to Swati Dsouza, ‎associate fellow at Delhi-based The Energy and Resources Institute. Adani has its own fleet of coal power stations in India that it could seek to supply.

“This is regarding the government of India imports and not directly related to Adani’s coal mine. Indirectly it may impact coal imports from the Adani mine due to higher availability of domestic coal and therefore lack of other consumers,” she said.

Goyal was also championing India’s clean energy ambitions this week, telling a renewable energy conference that presidential developments in the US would not forestall the country’s progress.

“Irrespective of what other countries do or do not do, India stands committed to being part of green energy,” he said.



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Thursday, 11 February 2016

07:43

India's foreign investment into Australia is worth $11 billion.

India's foreign investment into Australia is worth $11 billion.

Australia hopeful of securing free-trade agreement with India: Minister

MELBOURNE: Australia is hopeful of securing a free-trade agreement with India "sometime this year", trade and investment minister said today after the country signed the historic Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement with 11 other nations.

Andrew Robb, with his counterparts from 11 other nations signed the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP) deal in Auckland in New Zealand.

He said the agreement brings 'enormous promise' across both traditional areas of trade and investment and so-called 21st century areas like e-commerce and increasingly important global value chains.

"The tariff cuts will deliver material gains for our exporters across the board and place downward pressure on the cost of imported goods for households and businesses, but the benefits that will flow from the creation of a more seamless trading environment are not well understood," Robb said.

The minister expressed hope of securing a free trade agreement (FTA) with India 'sometimes this year', a local TV channel reported.

He said "there are some quite sensitive issues but we are making good progress," the report said.

According to a feasibility study conducted by both the countries jointly, the comprehensive FTA is likely to result in India gaining between 0.15 and 1.14 per cent of its GDP, while Australia would end up with the gains between 0.23 and 1.17 per cent of its GDP.

The two-way trade between India and Australia stood at $12.12 billion in 2014-15.

India's foreign investment into Australia is worth $11 billion. While, Australia has invested only $649.37 million during April 2000 and January 2015 in India.

Robb further said the TPP would see the elimination of 98 per cent of tariffs among the 12 states.

"The tariff cuts will deliver material gains for our exporters across the board and place downward pressure on the cost of imported goods for households and businesses, but the benefits that will flow from the creation of a more seamless trading environment are not well understood," he said.

"The embrace of paperless trading, streamlined customs procedures and trading rules, assistance for SMEs, more seamless data flows and greater flexibility with data storage, are all features of the TPP," he added.

The agreement also contains provisions to help stimulate new investment and as experience shows, when you deepen trading relations increased investment inevitably follows, he said.

The US-led TPP agreement sets in place common rules for labour, the environment and for the first time in a trade treaty, rules to combat bribery and corruption. It will also ensure private companies and businesses are able to effectively compete against State Owned Enterprises.

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Friday, 5 February 2016

15:43

Australia has imported six metro train coaches from Mumbai Port, India.

Australia has imported six metro train coaches from Mumbai Port, India.

The Government of India confirmed, sending a consignment of “Made in India” metro train coaches to Australia on Friday. The consignment of six coaches has been built in Baroda along with a promise to export around 450 similar coaches to Australia over the next two and a half years.

“The maiden consignment of six metro coaches built in Baroda for export to the Australian government were shipped from Mumbai Port,” a statement from Ministry of Shipping confirmed. It added that Mumbai Port “holds supremacy” in managing export of oversized cargo.

The size of each coach is 75 feet long and 46 tonnes in weight which demanded for a more superior and specialised loading process. “The entire stevedoring operation (loading into ship) of these prestigious oversized metro coaches has been done in-house by Mumbai Port Trust unlike any other port in India where private operators carry out such operations,” the statement claimed.

According to The Better India, the export is the first of its kind since Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the “Make in India” campaign. Modi government’s initiative to engage foreign investments in Indian railway infrastructure projects compelled Canada’s transportation ace Bombardier Transportation to help manufacture the best metro coaches in India, according to June 2015 reports.

According to the Economic Times, the Queensland authorities gave the Canadian transport company an order in 2015 to manufacture rail coaches in India for Australia. The order was worth US$4.1 billion (AU$5.8 billion) and Bombardier’s share at approximately US$2.7 billion (AU$3.9 billion) with a promise of manufacturing and supplying 75 new six-car trains to be manufactured in Gujarat.

Bombardier decided the coach model based on the Adelaide Electrical Multiple Units (EMU) train design. According to the transportation giant, the new trains to be manufactured for Australia will have improved accommodation capacity and better security and passenger flow.

The Mumbai Port from where the consignment was exported has also taken up the assignment of constructing a passenger jetty at Kanhoji Angre Island in India with an aim to develop it as one of the tourist attractions with a lighthouse

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Tuesday, 8 September 2015

09:48

Australian partner UGL mulls exiting Texmaco Rail Joint Venturre

Australian partner UGL mulls exiting Texmaco Rail Joint Venturre

Mumbai: Rail freight car manufacturer and engineering services firm Texmaco Rail & Engineering Ltd today said its Joint Venture partner Australia-based UGL Ltd has initiated a discussion to exit from the Joint Venture due to drying up of orders in the Australian market.

“In view of downturn in locomotive sales in Australia impacting throughput volume of UGL, the JV facility, Texmaco Rail Pvt Ltd, which was set up in India primarily for catering to the requirements of Australian market through UGL, is starved of orders and not able to operate to its potential,” Texmaco Rail & Engineering Ltd said in a BSE filing.

It further said: “In view of the above, UGL has initiated discussion about the future of the project, including their view to exit from the joint venture. The matter is under active consideration.”

Texmaco Rail & Engineering Ltd added that there will be “no material impact on the company as the unit was commissioned on April 1, 2013 and in view of the market conditions in Australia, the unit has been operating below capacity.”

In December 2010, UGL Ltd hd announced that it has formalised a joint venture agreement with Texmaco Rail & Engineering Ltd. Texmaco and UGL decided to jointly establish a manufacturing facility at Texmaco’s facility at Belgharia in Kolkata. Texmaco and UGL had commenced commercial production in 2013.

Texmaco Rail stock price

On September 07, 2015, at 12:53 hrs Texmaco Rail and Engineering was quoting at Rs 111.00, down Rs 1.2, or 1.07 percent. The 52-week high of the share was Rs 170.75 and the 52-week low was Rs 75.95. The company’s trailing 12-month (TTM) EPS was at Rs 0.83 per share as per the quarter ended June 2015. The stock’s price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio was 133.73. The latest book value of the company is Rs 28.97 per share. At current value, the price-to-book value of the company is 3.83.
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Wednesday, 8 July 2015

09:28

Netherlands-based Strukton Rail acquires Dutch Railways’ Industrial Sidings firm NSS

Netherlands-based rail technology company Strukton Rail has acquired NS Spooraansluitingen bv (NSS) from the Dutch Railways.

NSS manages and maintains 130km of track and 391 switches at industrial sites belonging to around 100 companies.

As part of the transaction, the NSS operations will continue under the name of Strukton Rail Short Line, which will soon contact the companies in the Netherlands owning an industrial siding or having an interest in an industrial track.

Dutch Railways has decided to divest the track connections between industrial tracks and the public railway network because they no longer part of its core business.

Strukton noted that the acquisition secures the future of the track connections and it fits well within its strategy of improving rail transport.

A sustainable solution is provided by rail transport in order to solve the problems that industrialisation and urbanisation tend to bring.

Strukton Rail invests in long-term railway management and maintenance in order to develop answers to the current and future infrastructural issues in passenger and freight transport.

The company is responsible for the maintenance of more than 2,700km of track in the Netherlands and more than 2,400km of track in Sweden.

Apart from the Netherlands and Sweden, Strukton Rail is located in Denmark, Belgium, Italy and France.

Strukton Rail Nederland managing director Jacob Zeeman said: “We are taking this next step to reinforce or actually fulfil our belief in the role that railways can and will play in infrastructure. A step that leads to full management and ownership.”

Earlier this year, Strukton Rail had opened a new office in Australia focusing in the field of operational asset management.

The company also also has activities in India, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Algeria, South Africa, Surinam and Brazil.
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