Star Entertainment gets notice to end project stake selloff deal with HK shareholders
The agreement was entered into by the parties with the embattled casino operator on March 7, with the termination set to take effect five business days from June 30, unless withdrawn earlier.
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The Guardian
9 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Australia's biggest battery now on standby to prevent NSW power blackouts
The biggest battery on Australia's energy grid is now on standby as a shock absorber to prevent blackouts in New South Wales. The Waratah Super Battery will also allow NSW to use and transmit more energy, applying further downward pressure on electricity prices, experts say. The battery, built on the site of the former Munmorah coal-fired power station on the Central Coast, has added 350MW of battery capacity to the energy grid since plugging in last September. Waratah's backstop system was brought online on Friday, making it the largest energy system integrity protection scheme (SIPS) in the country. Sign up: AU Breaking News email The NSW energy minister, Penny Sharpe, said the battery was a crucial addition to state infrastructure. 'As it comes online, it will help power our homes and businesses while stabilising the grid to avoid blackouts,' she said. In the event of blackout risks or power surges from bushfires, lightning strikes or other disruptions, the battery would activate as a shock absorber and steady the state's energy supply, Ahmad Ebadi, a senior project manager at Transgrid, said. '[The battery system] monitors 36 transmission lines in real time across NSW, detects overloading and responds in seconds … to increase generation,' he said. More power could be transmitted and used across NSW once the battery's full capacity of 850MW comes online; that is expected by the end of 2025. Operating at full capacity, the battery would ease the urgency of building more energy transmission, said Dylan McConnell, an energy systems researcher at UNSW. 'By increasing the utilisation of your existing transmission network, you can actually reduce the need to build more transmission in the future,' he said. 'Ideally, it [means] lower electricity prices in the long run.' An agreement with the NSW government will mean the battery reserves 700MW of its capacity for the system-protecting service during the day in summer. Waratah can store and discharge energy like other big battery projects. The project was one of 12 battery systems to enter the national energy market in the year to June – more than doubling grid-scale battery discharge, the Australian Energy Market Operator (Aemo) reported in July. Sign up to Breaking News Australia Get the most important news as it breaks after newsletter promotion Investment in big batteries has accelerated in 2025. More projects are under construction, including one at Eraring, the site of the nation's biggest coal-fired power station, and another at former coal plant Liddell. The NSW government in 2024 extended Eraring's operations to 2027 after Aemo in 2024 warned its retirement would increase blackout risks. More coal-fired power stations are scheduled to retire in coming years. Anna Freeman, acting chief policy and impact officer at the Clean Energy Council, said the Waratah battery would help reduce the state's reliance on coal. '[It] is capable of holding as much energy as half an Eraring coal-fired power station and plays a pivotal role in ensuring that NSW can push ahead with confidence to a future powered by renewables,' she said. Tim Buckley, the director of Climate Energy Finance, said the battery's delivery could help bring energy prices down by supporting more green energy projects to completion. 'It will [help] more wind and solar and firming capacity into the grid, all of which means we will see electricity prices stabilise and then progressively, hopefully come down over time,' he said.
Reuters
39 minutes ago
- Reuters
Asia thermal coal imports rise in July as Japan, South Korea buy
LAUNCESTON, Australia, Aug 5 (Reuters) - Asia's imports of seaborne thermal coal ticked up in July, but the increase was driven by the developed economies of North Asia and not heavyweights China and India. Total seaborne imports of the fuel used mainly to generate electricity rose to 70.66 million metric tons in July, up 12% from June's 63.02 million tons, according to data compiled by commodity analysts Kpler. The rise in July imports comes amid a weaker trend for Asia's seaborne thermal coal shipments, as top buyers China and India trimmed purchases amid plentiful domestic supplies and rising generation from renewables. July's arrivals were down 7.8% from the same month in 2024 and Asia's imports for the first seven months of the year were 8.4% lower at 479.54 million tons, according to Kpler data. The recovery in volumes in July from June was driven by higher imports in the developed economies of North Asia, namely Japan, South Korea and Taiwan. Japan, the world's third-biggest coal importer, saw arrivals of 10.0 million tons of thermal coal in July, up from 6.16 million in June. However, it's worth noting that June was the lowest month for seaborne thermal coal imports for Japan in Kpler data going back to January 2017. South Korea, the fourth-biggest coal buyer, saw imports of 7.49 million tons in July, up from 5.49 million in June and the highest monthly total since August last year. Taiwan's imports were 3.91 million tons in July, up from 3.72 million in June and the most since November last year. The stronger imports in North Asia reflect higher demand for electricity during the northern summer, but also likely show the cost competitiveness of thermal coal compared to liquefied natural gas. Japan, South Korea and Taiwan predominantly buy higher-grade thermal coal benchmarked against the Newcastle Index in Australia. This weekly assessment by price reporting agency Argus has been rising in recent weeks, ending at $112.06 a ton in the seven days to August 1. It has rallied 22.4% since hitting a four-year low of $91.58 a ton on April 25, reflecting the stronger demand from North Asia. While higher-grade thermal coal prices have risen, they are still competitive against spot LNG , with cargoes for delivery to North Asia being assessed at $12.10 per million British thermal units (mmBtu) in the week to August 1. The LNG price is down from its recent four-month high of $14 per mmBtu, but even at its current level it is still above $11.20, which is the upper end of the range at which a Japanese utility would find it more economical to burn coal, according to LSEG data. In contrast to the robust gain in prices for higher-grade Australian thermal coal, the lower-energy fuel preferred by China and India has seen much more modest increases. Coal with an energy content of 5,500 kilocalories per kilogram (kcal/kg) ended last week $67.49 a ton, up slightly from the recent four-year low of $66.00 in the week to July 11. Indonesian coal with an energy content of 4,200 kcal/kg ended at $41.20 a ton in the week to August 1, also up slightly from its four-year low of $40.45 in the seven days to July 4. The relative weakness in the lower-quality coal from the world's two biggest exporters reflects soft demand from the top importers, China and India. China's imports of seaborne thermal coal rose to 22.78 million tons in July, up from 18.21 million in June, according to Kpler. But it's worth noting that June's imports were a three-year low and July's arrivals were also down from the 26.99 million tons from the same month in 2024. China's seaborne thermal coal imports have dropped 17.1% in the first seven months of 2025 from the same period last year, according to Kpler data. Rising domestic coal output, which was up 5% in the first half of 2025, and a greater share of electricity generation from renewables have trimmed China's demand for imported coal. Renewables are also behind some of the weakness in India's coal imports, with analysis of official data showing coal-fired generation dropped nearly 3% in the first half of 2025, while renewables surged 24.4%. India's seaborne imports of thermal coal dropped to 11.51 million tons in July, down from 13.93 million in June, making it the weakest month since November last year, according to Kpler. Enjoying this column? Check out Reuters Open Interest (ROI), your essential new source for global financial commentary. ROI delivers thought-provoking, data-driven analysis of everything from swap rates to soybeans. Markets are moving faster than ever. ROI can help you keep up. Follow ROI on LinkedIn, opens new tab and X, opens new tab. The views expressed here are those of the author, a columnist for Reuters.
The Guardian
39 minutes ago
- The Guardian
‘Absolutely the best ship': Japan wins $10bn contract to grow Australia's war fleet
Japan's Mitsubishi Heavy Industries has beaten a German rival in the race to build Australia's new fleet of warships, with the federal government expecting the first to be ready for service by 2030. Australia will spend $10bn over a decade to buy three Mogami-class frigates, part of a wider deal to replace the ageing Anzac-class frigates and give the navy a bigger and more lethal surface combatant fleet. The first three will be built in Japan by 2034, before construction moves to the Henderson naval precinct in Western Australia. Sign up: AU Breaking News email The Mogami operates with about 90 crew, down from about 120 on the current generation of warships. It is currently in service for the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force. The defence minister, Richard Marles, and defence industry minister, Pat Conroy, would not say what the estimated total cost of the program will be, citing upcoming commercial negotiations with Mitsubishi. Marles said geopolitical tensions with China did not play a role in the decision, which was signed off on Monday night by cabinet's national security committee. 'The Mogami is absolutely the best ship and that was very clear in all the advice that we received,' Marles said. 'It is a next-generation vessel. It is stealthy, it has 32 vertical launch cells capable of launching long-range missiles, it has a highly capable radar, it has a highly capable sonar.' German firm TKMS – previously branded as ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems – had been considered for the deal, but its Meko A-200 vessel was considered second best to the Japanese model, including over concerns about the timeline for delivery and putting the ships into service. Japan has not previously manufactured frigates for other nations, while TKMS has sold to navies around the world. Both bids included heavy lobbying of the federal government. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese met with his Japanese counterpart, Shigeru Ishiba, on the sidelines of the G7 summit in Canada in June, as well as with Germany's chancellor, Olaf Scholz. Defence is expected to enter into binding, commercial contracts for the deal by 2026. Marles said Japan beat out the German option based on capability of the new vessels. 'We do have a very close strategic alignment with Japan. There's no other country in the world that is quite as aligned with Australia as Japan.' Sign up to Breaking News Australia Get the most important news as it breaks after newsletter promotion The Mogami frigate has a range of up to 10,000 nautical miles, is fitted with surface-to-air missiles and anti-ship missiles and comes with sophisticated vertical launch capability. 'In terms of cost, capability and meeting our schedule of delivery, the Mogami-class frigate was the clear winner,' Conroy said. He said the US-made Lockheed Martin combat system and a Japanese-made radar system would be replaced with Australian systems, but no other changes would be permitted without approval of the Defence department boss and chief of the defence force, in consultation with the federal government. 'This is a lesson we've learnt from previous acquisitions and guarantees speed to capability,' Conroy said. This will help make good on our commitment to deliver four times as many warships in the next 10 years, compared to the Coalition's plan.' Marles and Conroy also announced plans for a new strategic shipbuilding agreement with a new arm of the government-controlled shipbuilding company, Austal Defence Shipbuilding Australia Pty Ltd. Based at Fremantle, Austal is the only major shipbuilder with operations in Australia. It will build 18 new medium landing crafts for Defence, as well as eight heavy vessels. That deal is currently being negotiated with the federal government.
