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Posco to build Queensland railway for coal miner Adani

Korean steel company Posco is continuing to increase its presence in Australia, with one of its subsidiaries set to build a 388km railway in Queensland for Indian coal producer Adani, according to the Sydney Morning Herald.

Adani is developing a $16 billion coal mine, rail and port project in Queensland’s Galilee Basin, and the railway will account for $3 billion of that.

Adani is understood to have struck a binding agreement with Posco E&C for the Korean company to be the procurement and construction contractor on the railway, as well as participate in the financing of the project. The railway is believed to be capable of hauling 60 million tonnes per year.

Carbon tax removal to hit AGL Energy earnings

Energy utility AGL has warned the removal of the carbon tax will cut heavily into its profit for fiscal 2015, although operational gains from other parts of the group are expected to offset the impact, according to the Australian Financial Review.

In total, AGL has flagged as much as $200 million in hits to the pre-tax profit outlook for the year to June 2015, with the carbon tax accounting for the bulk of this.

Removing the tax would slice $186 million off the pre-tax profit for the new financial year, with $100 million of this stemming from the impact of the loss of subsidies for the heavy level of carbon pollution of the Loy Yang A power station in Victoria.

Revival seen in uranium sector

The uranium price slump after the 2011 tsunami destroyed the Fukushima nuclear reactor could eventually work in Australia’s favour and provide a billion-dollar boon to uranium producers, according to The Australian.

Labor frontbencher and former resources minister Gary Gray said projections of a doubling of nuclear power generation to 2035 and contraction of uranium production after Fukushima were positive for the local uranium industry.