China’s strong demand for coal and iron ore is adding to the upward pressure on freight rates, which have risen sharply as the ship line-up builds in Australia after storm disruptions early this month.
Industry officials and traders said there was no sign of a slowdown in Chinese iron ore demand, despite Beijing imposing tax changes [...]

“In terms of its economic and geopolitical impact, what is happening in Asia today is probably most akin to the Industrial Revolution, when the world’s leading economies replaced manual labor with mass-scale manufacture of machinery, railways began to criss-cross the continents, the steam engine revolutionized the world, and later, skyscrapers first poked at the skies. [...]

A mixed day yesterday for some locally owned coal miners with Excel Coal Co confirming the rightness of the $1.8 billion offer from Peabody of the US, Centennial and Macarthur Coal both showing the strains of operating in a resources boom.
Centennial said it has cut its 2006 profit estimate 20 per cent or more; from [...]