Krishna N Das News

A Chinese military survey ship that docked at Sri Lanka's Chinese-built port of Hambantota despite opposition from neighboring India left on Monday after a week-long stay, the port company told Reuters.Analysts say the Yuan Wang 5 is among a group of Chinese ships that monitor satellite, rocket and intercontinental ballistic missile launches. India, Sri Lanka's northern neighbor, fears China could use the port as a military base.Sri Lanka, facing its worst economic crisis in decades and in need of financial support from both China and India, had delayed the ship's arrival after India raised its concerns but gave in to Chinese demands later.The ship has now left the southern Sri Lankan port…

India is trying to boost sales of its low-quality coal by offering more of the fuel at home and initiating steps to lower freight costs, while global prices are high, with the government hoping the moves will help cut imports. State-controlled Coal India, the world's largest miner of the fuel, has sharply boosted output in the past two years but has struggled to sell all of that due to softer domestic demand and the availability of superior-grade foreign coal at competitive rates, until recently. Benchmark Australian coal prices have more than doubled this year, helped by reduced Chinese mining and strong demand across Asia and Europe just when exporters cut output. But prices have begun to recoil this month as China eased restrictions on domestic mining.

A cyclone battered coastal Bangladesh on Saturday, killing at least 21 people and injuring many more, but has now weakened into a depression that the weather office said could still bring brief periods of violent wind or rain. Authorities in low-lying Bangladesh have moved about 500,000 people into 3,500 shelters, the disaster minister said. Cyclone Roanu has killed people in house collapses, landslides and a storm surge that broke embankments at two places in the Chittagong port city in the southeast. "We've shifted most of the people who are vulnerable," said Disaster Management and Relief Minister Mofazzal Hossain Chowdhury Maya, adding that people were working "all-out" to contain and tackle the damage.

India's exports to Iran could jump by over a third to $6 billion this fiscal year as an easing of sanctions against Tehran would help boost sales of agricultural commodities though competition for non-farm items would rise, a leading trade body said. Iran has been buying most of its basmati rice and sugar from India in the past few years using rupees for its oil due to restrictions on its dollar trades. On Tuesday, Iran and six major world powers reached a deal that will see the Islamic nation curbing its nuclear programme that the West has suspected was aimed at a nuclear bomb. "It's true that some of our exports, especially non-agricultural ones…

Cairn India Ltd has invited initial bids for exports of its oil from the desert state of Rajasthan, according to a copy of the tender notice seen by Reuters, despite a government ban on overseas sales of locally-produced crude. A government official said there had been no change in the ban and that Cairn India might simply be trying to establish a price for its oil via the tender process ahead of negotiations to sell it to local buyers. Cairn India, backed by billionaire Anil Agarwal, did not respond to telephone calls and an email seeking comment about the export notice. India is the world's fourth-biggest oil consumer and imports about 80 percent of its oil needs, leading it to place restrictions on the export of locally-produced oil.

India's coal imports are expected to jump 19 percent to a record of about 200 million tonnes this fiscal year, Coal Secretary Anil Swarup told Reuters, as power companies add capacity to meet rising demand even as millions go without electricity. Shipments into the world's third-largest coal importer are, however, likely to slide back to about 160 million tonnes next year starting April 1 as state-run Coal India Ltd and private companies ramp up output, Swarup said on Tuesday. India, which buys most of its coal from Indonesia, Australia and South Africa, is targeting to stop imports of power-generating thermal coal in the next few years though purchases of high-grade steelmaking coal will continue.

Indian police have won court approval to hold five company officials for 72 hours as they investigate an alleged scam to steal documents from the oil ministry to sell to consultants and private companies. The officials from Reliance Industries, Essar , Cairn India, Jubilant Energy and Reliance Power were arrested on Friday along with seven other people, Ravindra Yadav, Additional Commissioner of Delhi Police, told Reuters on Saturday. One of the arrested people is former journalist Santanu Saikia, who now runs websites about the oil, power and fertiliser sectors. Saikia said he was doing an undercover investigation into what he called a 100 billion rupees ($1.6 billion) scam.

Rail system needs more tracks and wagons; Not enough coal gets from port to power stations. India is targeting up to $1 billion of private investment by 2017 to build rail lines linking ports and national networks to ease growing congestion, which has delayed coal imports for power plants and contributed to a power supply crisis. Such investment would more than double the $400 million that India's state-owned railways have attracted in the decade since they allowed limited private participation and help fund crucial "last mile" links to ports. Cash-starved, India's British-built rail system has added just 11,000 kilometres (6,800 miles) of track in the 67 years since independence, and the network has come to symbolise the poor state of India's infrastructure.

India's coal imports fell 9 percent to 15.33 million tonnes in October from a month ago as cyclone Hudhud exacerbated congestion at some ports, according to provisional data from online trader mjunction. Shipments into the world's third largest coal importer are, however, expected to jump to as much as 17 million tonnes this month due to lower international prices and as fuel-starved power companies order more. Sixty one of India's 103 power plants had enough coal for less than a week as of last Sunday because of lower supplies from state giant Coal India. This has forced even financially stressed power firms to place import orders. "We understand that the material against deals struck in October will arrive in November," mjunction Chief Executive and Managing Director Viresh Oberoi said.

Congestion at Paradip expected to ease in a week if rains stop; higher-than-usual congestion at some other ports too. Indian power and steel companies are importing shiploads of coal due to a severe shortage at home, leading to heavy congestion in one of the country's busiest ports that now has twice the number of vessels waiting than its available berths. The over-crowding at Paradip port in eastern Odisha could derail India's efforts to prevent a shutdown of more than half of its power plants which are running on stocks of less than a week in the worst deficit since a massive blackout in 2012. While Power and Coal Minister Piyush Goyal has urged power firms to bring more coal into India - already the world's No.

India's Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has closed a coal scam case against billionaire Kumar Mangalam Birla and a former top bureaucrat that emerged in 2012 after an auditor's report on revenue loss to the exchequer from allocations of coal blocks. The CBI filed the case against Birla and former Coal Secretary P.C. Parakh last year in relation to a block allocated in 2005 to Hindalco Industries, part of the $40 billion Aditya Birla Groupled by Kumar Mangalam Birla. "The evidence collected during investigation did not substantiate the allegations levelled against the persons named in the FIR (first information report filed in the case)," the CBI said in a statement late on Friday.

India said on Tuesday it may appeal against parts of a World Trade Organization ruling against countervailing U.S. duties on some of its steel exports, despite being partly vindicated in a trade dispute. States impose countervailing duties, or punitively high import tariffs, when they suspect another country of gaining an unfair trade advantage through subsidies. The WTO, ruling on the April 2012 case, said on Monday that the United States had acted wrongly in claiming some Indian subsidy programmes had given steelmakers such as Tata Steel an unfair advantage. "Important issues have been in our favour but there are still some issues on which we are not happy," India Commerce Secretary Rajeev Kher told reporters. "There are several procedural issues which are in U.S.

JSW Steel, led by billionaire Sajjan Jindal and India's third-largest maker of the alloy, will import 6 million metric tons of iron ore this fiscal year compared with no shipments a year earlier due to production cutbacks at home. JSW's return to the sea-borne iron ore market after a gap of more than a year could further support prices that seem to be recovering after sliding to 21-month lows in mid-June. India's Supreme Court in May ordered the temporary closure of some iron ore mines in top producing state Odisha pending renewal of their licences. This has cut output from the state that produced more than 70 million metric tons last fiscal year. A previous court clampdown on illegal mining in Karnataka and Goa states have also stifled supplies.

India's major state-owned ports handled 17 percent more imported coal in the fiscal year ended March, according to data from the Indian Ports Association (IPA), as its coastal power firms stepped up generation to meet growing demand. A rush to add power capacity after years of under-investment has forced Indian generators to increase coal imports as state-run domestic monopoly Coal India Ltd has struggled to meet demand. Coal-based power generation rose 8 percent to 587.64 billion kilowatt-hours in April-January. The rising demand from India, Asia's third-largest economy and the world's No. 3 coal importer, has helped coal producers in Indonesia and Australia cope with global oversupply and a price slump.