FILE PHOTO: A ship waiting to be filled with a load of coal can be seen behind a surfer riding a wave at Merewether Beach in Newcastle, located north of Sydney in Australia, August 14, 2018. REUTERS/David Gray/File Photo
February 18, 2019
BEIJING (Reuters) – Chinese coal traders are halting purchases of Australian coal and coking coal as clearing times through China’s customs have at least doubled to 40 days or more, four traders at major buyers told Reuters on Monday.
The traders said only cargoes from Australia, the biggest supplier of the fuel to the world’s top consumer, were affected.
“We have stopped ordering coal from Australia because it is unknown how long the restriction will last,” said a manager at a Shanghai-based trading company who usually buys around 400,000 tons of Australian coal every month.
Customs clearance typically takes five to 20 days. Now it can be as much as 45 days, said the manager, asking not to be identified as he was not authorized to speak to the media.
It was not clear why China had stepped up checks on Australian imports but tension between Beijing and Canberra has grown in recent months over issues of cyber security and China’s influence in Pacific island nations.
China’s General Administration of Customs did not respond to a request for comment. There was no immediate response from the Foreign Ministry to a faxed request for comment.
Authorities at some ports notified importers verbally this month that Australian thermal coal and coking coal would take longer than usual to clear, the Shanghai-based manager said.
A Beijing-based coal trader and a purchasing manager at a coke plant received similar notifications. None of the buyers were aware of the reason.
China has curbed coal imports in the past to support domestic coal miners and reduce consumption to tackle air pollution. It restricted Indonesian coal imports in 2017, citing high impurities and low energy efficiency.
The Beijing trader said the restrictions on Australian imports were “the first time for Beijing to curb coal imports from a specific country but without a reason.”
Reuters reported in January that dozens of ships carrying coal and iron ore were waiting to unload outside ports due to possible customs delays.
The most-active thermal coal futures on China’s Zhengzhou Commodity Exchange hit 594 yuan ($87.79) a ton on Monday, just shy of the three-month peak of 595.6 yuan, although the contract closed down 1 percent 583.8 yuan a ton.
Benchmark Newcastle high energy thermal coal prices have dropped to $88 a ton, the lowest level in 19 months, consultancy Wood Mackenzie said.
The Shanghai trader said he had stopped buying from Australia and would purchase more from Indonesia and Russia.
The Beijing trader said she would reduce Australian imports.
A coal broker at state-backed mining group Minmetals said he had asked clients to put Australian imports on hold.
Refinitiv ship tracking data showed coal shipments departing from Australia’s Newcastle port to China fell 30 percent last month compared with December to 18.19 million tonnes.
As of Monday, shipments scheduled to leave in February were 12.78 million tonnes.
($1 = 6.7663 Chinese yuan renminbi)
(Reporting by Muyu Xu, Meng Meng and Dominique Patton; Editing by Edmund Blair)
A man from Bradford, West Yorkshire was convicted and sentenced to barely 13 years in jail for raping eleven-year-old and twelve-year-old girls The United States of America and all the countries in the world really needs to get it together, thirteen years in jail will not make this man stop trying to have sexual relationships with middle school aged girls in Yorkshire People like this need to be […]
It’s pretty annoying that the traitor and genetic male Bradley Manning got an early release from prison for telling everybody he was really a girl, and it’s even more annoying that he’s been embraced as a martyr by the mainstream media. But even more annoying than that is his use of emojis.
Every tweet of his is like that. I find it irritating, and I want to respond in kind, but there’s no emoji for “traitor.” So I’ve come up with a brief sequence of emojis to express what I think about Bradley Manning:
Here’s a screenshot, in case Twitter forces me to delete that:
If you can’t make that out, it’s a pair of scissors, a pair of nuts, and a clown. In my opinion, that describes Bradley Manning to a T.
I’ve been using that series of emojis for the past month or so, and Twitter just locked my account (@jtLOL) for 12 hours because of it. I’m not banned, and my account is still there, but I can’t tweet anything or reply to anybody. They made me delete a couple of tweets with that series of emojis before even granting me the suspension. If I hadn’t deleted them, I’d be locked out for good. (Apparently, whoever complained to Twitter didn’t see the above tweet from August 19. Yet!)
Twitter has right to do that. It’s a private platform and can enforce its own rules, even if it seems arbitrary to the rest of us. I’m just amused that the SJWs are now punishing people for using the wrong emojis. I hurt a traitor’s feelings with a few emojis.
Bradley Manning is a designated victim. He’s protected. Watch what you say to him. Including the word “him.”
Well, at least I got a blog post out of it.
I’ve got a sabbatical from the Internet planned soon, and stuff like this is going to make it a lot easier. Social media has driven everyone insane. You can all be hysterical idiots without me. I’m gonna party like it’s 1994.
President Trump declares a National Emergency at the southern border because of “invasion”
OAN Newsroom
UPDATED 8:56 AM PT — Friday, February 15, 2019
President Trump said the U.S. is confronting a crisis at home, while declaring a national emergency over the issues at the border.
During a speech at the White House Friday, the president said the U.S. must handle what he described as the national security crisis at our southern border. He said he isn’t taking the action to fulfill a campaign promise, but rather because the country needs it.
The president said there’s an invasion of drugs, gangs and people coming into our country, and by signing the national emergency he is doing his part to try and stop it.
President Donald Trump speaks during an event in the Rose Garden at the White House to declare a national emergency in order to build a wall along the southern border, Friday, Feb. 15, 2019, in Washington. (AP Photo/ Evan Vucci)
“We’re talking about an invasion of our country, with drugs, with human traffickers, with all types of criminals and gangs,” explained President Trump.
Democrat leadership responded to the declaration by calling it unlawful. The president indicated it’ll likely get challenged in court, but he said he’s dealt with that before.
President Trump Speaks on the National Security & Humanitarian Crisis on Our Southern Border https://t.co/FqdfFORbv5
Sometimes crime does pay. Local inmates worked alongside deputies in 70 degree heat outside the West Pasco Judicial Center in New Port Richey, Fla., to save Dallas, a 1-year-old trapped inside a Chevy Tahoe.
Those low-risk, work release inmates just happened to be repairing roadway medians right outside the Judicial Center when they came over to help. Using a wire hanger, they were able to pry the door open within minutes and save the infant from the heat, per local Tampa affiliate WFTS.
"Surprised when somebody had a wire coat hanger, Deputy Richard Stanger, of the Pasco County Sheriff's Office told WFTS. "We were able to get the door open enough to get it in there."
Dallas' mother told ABC News that her husband tossed the car keys in the front seat and buckeledin the infant. That's when he realized the car was locked and their child was trapped.
A crowd eventually formed outside the car and, in the video, per WFTS, you can hear a woman yell "thank god!" and "honey that was stressful!" when they eventually got it open.
Pasco County Sheriff Chris Nocco understood how a situation like this just doesn't happen every day. He also feels like most inmates just want to live a better life.
“There’s only a very small percentage of those criminals out there that want to fight us and want to attack us," said Nocco. "But a lot of them, like these individuals, they know they made bad mistakes, bad choices, but they want to do the right thing in life.”
Nocco belives the inmates "unique" skill set saved the day and in case you were wondering, they can only get permission to use those skills when a deputy is around, he told WFTS.
MATRIX 101!!!! LUCIFER ENTERPRISES <——- Ok guys… Yesterday, driving to work I saw an interesting business sign… Caught my interest, due to its name… “Lucifer Enterprises” WHAT??? I found it really an inquisitive name so I googled it…. I have said in other posts I have found it interesting how “Scripture” has much more meaning […]
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