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Mongolia’s largest coal miner sees 20% rise in revenue
MONGOLIA
MONGOLIA’Slargestproducerandexporterof coal, Mongolian Mining Corporation (MMC), recorded total revenue of $325.6mn in the rst half of 2019, up by 20% year on year.
e company said in its unaudited interim results that it sold approximately 2mn tonnes of hard coking coal in the period, up by 14% year on year.
Mongolia’s coal sector has bene ted greatly from China’s coal demand in the past couple of years since Beijing replaced North Korean coal with Mongolian coal in the wake of North Korea’s nuclear weapon tests that led to sanctions.
In March, Fitch Ratings for the first time assigned MMC a long-term foreign-currency issuer default rating (IDR). It issued a ‘B’ with a stable outlook. The company’s gross profit amounted to $129.9mn in the period, rising 20.1% y/y, while profit attributable to equity shareholders surged up by 59.4% to $47.1mn.
“We are pleased to report sound financial and operational performance for the period,
highlightedbynearly20percentrevenuegrowth and over 59 percent growth in pro t attributable to equity shareholders,” Battsengel Gotov, CEO of MMC, said.
“Building on the strong rst half of the year, we look to continuously push our production and sales volumes by utilizing our existing coal mining and processing capacity, optimizing our transportation and logistics e ciency and expanding relations with our end-user custom- ers’ base. Also, we shall remain focused on our commitment to safe and responsible mining operations.”
As well as exports to China, coal is consumed by Mongolia’s 1,130 MW of generation capacity, of which 88% consumes coal and only 6% comes from renewable energy plants.
Electricity demand in Mongolia is rising sharply, especially in Ulan Bator and surround- ing areas, amid high economic growth. But most of the country’s power generation and transmis- sion facilities are ageing.™
GAS-FIRED GENERATION
Shenzhen Gas to start up LNG terminal
CHINA
SHENZHEN Gas has said it would launch oper- ations at its wholly owned lique ed natural gas (LNG) import terminal in southern China’s Shenzhen City this week as increased power generation fuels gas demand growth.
e general manager of Shenzhen Gas unit Sino-Benny, Qiu Lihua, told Reuters that the new 800,000 tonne per year (tpy) facility at the port of Yantian would receive a commissioning cargo of 65,000 cubic metres on August 19 from Italian major Eni.
“ is will be our own facility that will be con- nected to the existing municipal grid that takes in piped gas from [state-run] CNOOC and Pet- roChina,” Qiu said.
Sino-Benny will operate the terminal, which has an 80,000 cubic metre storage tank and was built next to the company’s existing LPG import facility.
While Asian spot LNG prices are at a near three-year low, Shenzhen Gas is aiming to secure a three-to- ve year term supply contract, with Qiu saying: “As our berth is not of a standard size, we can’t really rely on random spot supplies, as the cargoes available may not t our berth.”
Qiu anticipates Shenzhen’s gas demand will maintain double-digit growth in the com- ing years, led by residential use and power
generation. e executive said the number of households using piped natural gas would dou- ble by the end of 2020 from 2.1mn at present.
e outlook for the city’s economic growth is certainly bright, a er state broadcaster CCTV revealed that the government intended the city to be a test centre for reforms in the legal, nan- cial, medical and social sectors. Under the plan, which Beijing unveiled on August 20, Shenzhen is to become a leader in terms of innovation, public service and environmental protection by 2025. e plan also aims to turn Shenzhen into and a global “benchmark” for competitiveness, innovation and in uence by the middle of the century.™
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Week 34 27 •August•2019