ABN Newswire

Asian Activities Report for February 9, 2012: Pacific Basin Shipping Limited (HKG:2343) Forms Alliance with Crowley Maritime Corporation

newsroom@abnnewswire.net — Thu, 9 Feb 2012 12:34:33 GMT

Pacific Basin Shipping Limited (HKG:2343), one of the world's leading operators of modern handysize and handymax dry bulk vessels and a global provider of diversified shipping services, has formed business alliance with US-based Crowley Maritime Corporation. The alliance aims to provide comprehensive project management, project cargo transportation, logistics, offshore support, and other services to Oil and Gas, Mining, and Engineering, Procurement and Construction Management customers undertaking major infrastructure projects in Southeast Asia and Oceania. The alliance will also provide customers with representation and a seamless marine cargo and logistics solution in and around the United States and Southeast Asia and Oceania.

Renesas Electronics Corporation (TYO:6723), a Japan-based semiconductor manufacturer, has opened a wholly-owned subsidiary in Sao Paolo, Brazil, to further expand its operations into South America. The new company will provide local sales promotion and technical product support, as well as regional systems solution development expertise.

Akebono Brake Industry Co., Ltd. (TYO:7238), a Japanese manufacturer of automotive and industrial brakes and related components, has announced the establishment of a new manufacturing facility in Mexico. The new production facility and supply base will facilitate a shift to localized production of Akebono Brake's components which have been exported to Mexico from Japan and elsewhere, to meet the increasing demand from automakers in Mexico.

Nikon Corporation (TYO:7731) announces the release of the Nikon D800 FX-format digital SLR camera, which offers a noteworthy effective pixel count of 36.3-million pixels. The camera has superior image quality and a number of new functions, including multi-area mode full HD D-Movie that enables movie recording using either the FX-based movie format or the DX-based movie format.

Qiubei Fu
Asia Business News
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Asian Activities Report for November 22, 2011: Courage Marine Group (HKG:1145) Acquires Second Supermax Vessel to Meet Rising Dry-Bulk Shipping Demand in Asia

newsroom@abnnewswire.net — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 12:00:03 GMT

Dry-bulk shipping company Courage Marine Group Limited (HKG:1145) has signed an agreement with Zhejiang Zengzhou Ship Building Co., Ltd for the purchase of a newly-built Supermax-sized vessel for US$26.6 million. This is the second new Supermax vessel acquired by the Group within a month, part of its strategic move to meet the growing demand in the raw materials transport business in Asia.

Blackwood Corporation (ASX:BWD) announces a JORC exploration target of 2.1-3.2 billion tonnes of thermal coal at South Pentland Project in Queensland, following the completion of Phase 1 and 2 exploration programs, which demonstrated potential for significant quantities of export quality thermal coal. Next Phase of project development is planned in the first quarter of 2012 with enlarged exploration efforts to explore a number of priority projects concurrently.

Invictus Gold Limited (ASX:IVG) announces the first results of the maiden drill programme at the Scartwater Prospect at its 100%-owned Drummond Basin Project in Central Queensland. Drilling indicates the presence of considerable gold mineralisation at depth. A further drill hole is in progress to test the mineralisation to a depth of about 150 metres below surface.

Yellow Hat Limited (TYO:9882) and Idemitsu Kosan Co., Ltd. (TYO:5019) are currently discussing the formation of an alliance in wholesale, retail sales, and development of automotive accessory, with the final agreement expected by the end of March 2012. Yellow Hat has launched new stores for the expansion of its wholesale operations within its core automotive accessory sales business. The alliance is expected to boost its wholesale operations as well as new store development.

Asia Business News
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Asian Activities Report for November 7, 2011: Austal Limited (ASX:ASB) Acquired a Philippines Shipyard to Expand its Manufacturing Base

newsroom@abnnewswire.net — Mon, 7 Nov 2011 11:30:34 GMT

Austal Limited (ASX:ASB) has acquired a shipyard in the Philippines for A$7 million, with vessel construction expected to commence in the first quarter of 2012. The acquisition of the Philippines shipyard is an important milestone in Austal's corporate strategy to regain its competitiveness in key commercial vessel markets by further regionalising its shipbuilding operations, while its Australian and United States manufacturing operations focus on defence vessel construction.

Palace Resources Limited (ASX:PXR) has signed a binding agreement to make a share placement to professional and sophisticated investors to raise A$1.33 million. The funds will primarily be used to finance the exploration and development of the Company's Lumpo coal project in Western Sumatra in Indonesia.

Golden Gate Petroleum Ltd (ASX:GGP) announces a second oil and gas discovery at the SRH-A # 8A well in the Permian Basin Project in Reagan County, Texas. The first discovery was at the SRH-C # 6H well. Log results along with gas shows and oil recovery from both wells are above initial expectations.

Chalice Gold Mines (ASX:CHN) reports further high-grade gold intercepts from the Koka South and Debre Konate prospects, located immediately south of the flagship Koka Gold Deposit at its Zara Project in northern Eritrea. The new results have confirmed and extended previously intersected high-grade mineralisation at Koka South and identified a significant new mineralized zone at Debra Konate, about 2.5 kilometres south of the Koka Deposit.

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Australian Market Report of December 20, 2010: IMX Resources (ASX:IXR) Sailed First Shipment of Iron-Copper Ore to China

newsroom@abnnewswire.net — Mon, 20 Dec 2010 13:30:00 GMT

IMX Resources Limited (ASX:IXR) has sailed its first shipment of iron-copper ore from the Cairn Hill mine to China. The first shipment of 68,053 tonnes departed from Port Adelaide on Sunday, 19 December and is expected to arrive in Yingkou in Liaoning Province in northeast China on or around 3 January 2011. The second shipment is anticipated for late January 2011 and expected to arrive after the Chinese New Year. At full production Cairn Hill will be shipping ore at the rate of approximately 2 vessels per month or approximately 1.7 million tonnes per year.

Phylogica Limited (ASX:PYC), an Australian drug discovery company, has entered into a collaboration and licensing agreement with Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) to discover novel peptide-based vaccines. Phylogica will employ its proprietary Phylomer(R) drug discovery platform to identify Phylomer peptides suitable for further evaluation. Phylogica has now entered into three alliances with global pharmaceutical companies within the last 12 months.

Copper Strike Limited (ASX:CSE) has received strong copper/silver/cobalt results from the Walford Creek Project in Northwest Queensland. The results extend the thick high grade portion of the deposit by 200 metres to the east where it remains open at a shallow depth. Best results included 17.1 metres containing 1.94% copper, 2.41% lead, 0.71% zinc, 29.0g/t silver and 0.43% cobalt. The Project has a calculated Inferred Resource of 6.5 million tonnes containing 0.6% copper, 1.6% lead, 2.1% zinc, 25g/t silver and 0.07% cobalt.

South American Ferro Metals Limited (ASX:SFZ) said today that, under its agreement with LGA Mineração and Siderurgia ('LGA'), a total of 428,208 tonnes of run of mine (ROM) iron ore has been produced from its Ponto Verde Iron Ore project in Brazil. From this production a total of 77,631 tonnes has so far been sold to LGA for beneficiation and on sale to Vale (NYSE:VALE) and Brazilian steelmaker Gerdau (NYSE:GGB). The Company expects the production agreement with LGA to produce a total of approximately 550,000 tonnes of iron ore, providing approximately U$1.7 million in net contribution.

Asia Business News
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Australian Market Report of October 29, 2010: Red Hill Iron (ASX:RHI) Resource Estimates Increase To 472 Million Tonnes

newsroom@abnnewswire.net — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 13:30:00 GMT

Red Hill Iron Limited (ASX:RHI) announced significant resource upgrade at its Red Hill Iron Ore Joint Venture. The Mineral Resource estimates for the project has increased by 50 million tonnes to a total of 472 million tonnes. The project has advanced rapidly with an expected production rate of 30 million tonne per year for at least 15 years. Red Hill Iron's share of annual production is anticipated to be approximately 4.5 million tonnes per year.

Alchemy Resources Limited (ASX:ALY) has started a 15,000m drilling program, which will operate continuously until mid-December at the Company's five key gold prospects and one prospective copper-gold target in Western Australia. The program will involve Reverse Circulation and Aircore drilling rigs following-up successful preliminary drilling and surveys. Results of 1m samples at Central Bore Prospect reveal mineralisation over substantial widths and robust grades.

Coventry Resources Limited (ASX:CVY) has received additional analytical results from the 20,000 metre drilling program at its 100% owned +1 Million oz Cameron Gold Project in Ontario, Canada. Eighty nine diamond core drill holes have been completed for a total of 13,223 metres. Drilling continues to intersect shallow high-grade mineralisation. There is considerable potential to discover additional resources at these targets.

Mineral Resources Limited (ASX:MIN) yesterday dispatched its first shipment of iron ore through the newly commissioned Utah Point berth in Port Hedland, destined for steel mills in China. This first shipment of 71,500 tonnes over Utah Point represents a milestone for Mineral Resources in achieving its expanding production targets for both manganese and iron ore sales from Western Australia. Concurrently, at the adjacent No 1 berth, Mineral Resources was also loading a separate Panamax vessel with iron ore for the Chinese market.

Asia Business News
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Australian Market Report of October 26, 2010: Territory Uranium Company Limited (ASX:TUC) Exciting Rare Earth Discovery In The Northern Territory

newsroom@abnnewswire.net — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 13:30:10 GMT

Territory Uranium Company Limited (ASX:TUC) has reported Total Rare Earth grades of up to 9.7% from recently conducted RC drilling at its Quantum Prospect in the Northern Territory. Drilling has intersected a 5-12m thick uranium-rare earth-gold mineralised zone, adding further potential to this significant discovery. Further exploration is being planned to test the undrilled +4km strike length for Rare Earths Elements.

Kangaroo Resources Limited (ASX:KRL) has resumed barging operations at its Mamahak Coking Coal Project in Indonesia. 49,000 metric tonnes of coal is being transported to an intermediary stockpile point facility awaiting full shipment under the terms of an initial coal off-take agreement between the Company and a Japanese customer. The first export sale is expected to be finalised within the current quarter. The Company is targeting a production ramp-up to a steady-state level of 50,000 tonnes per month (annualised target of 600,000tpa).

Elementos Limited (ASX:ELT) has discovered a previously unrecognized, high-grade, polymetallic vein zone at the Santo Domingo project in Argentina. First assay results from rock chip sampling has returned grades up to 3,552 g/t silver, 9.5% lead, 16.4% zinc and 7.3g/t gold. Mineralisation is identified over 2.5 kilometres and open in all directions. On-going exploration will focus on this new discovery, which is potential for a low tonnage, high-grade deposit amendable to underground mining.

BC Iron Limited (ASX:BCI) has received final mining approvals from the Department of Mines and Petroleum for the Nullagine Iron Ore Joint Venture Project with Fortescue Metals Group Limited (ASX:FMG) in the Pilbara region of Western Australia. Construction and operations at the Stage 1 Nullagine Project have already commenced and construction of the haul road is well underway. Mining at the Project will commence in the last week of October 2010 adding to the 66,000 tonnes of test pit ore currently stockpiled on site. The Joint Venture partners remain committed to achieving first ore shipment in December 2010.

Asia Business News
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Australian Market Report of September 14, 2010: Sundance Resources Limited (ASX:SDL) and China Harbour Engineering Enter Into Memorandum of Understanding (MOU)

newsroom@abnnewswire.net — Tue, 14 Sept 2010 13:30:02 GMT

Sundance Resources Ltd (ASX:SDL) and China Harbour Engineering Company Ltd ("CHEC") have entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to establish the scope, cost and delivery programme for the proposed bulk materials port at Lolabe, Republic of Cameroon. The Port is needed to support Sundance's Mbalam Project in Cameroon and Congo, West Africa. The MOU's key agreement commits the Parties to work together to establish a scope, cost and programme for delivery of the Lolabe Port Project and terms of an EPC Contract under which CHEC would deliver the Port Project.

New Hope Corporation Limited (ASX:NHC) has agreed to acquire an initial 25% equity interest in a 25 year, exclusive worldwide, licensed technology, creating high value carbon products using a direct coal liquefaction process. The process has superior environmental performance over many of the competitor technologies and can be upgraded to produce synthetic crude oil (SCO) and high grade synthetic coke with high carbon conversion rates from a range of coal types. NHC's initial equity investment will fund the commercialisation program and NHC has the right to acquire up to 51% equity in the technology at agreed costs.

Nucoal Resources NL (ASX:NCR) (PINK:NCKLF) today announced a project update on the Doyles Creek Project. The initial coal quality analyses for the four initial deep holes (DCM001, 002, 003 and 004) have been completed. The results confirm that the main target seams - Whybrow, Redbank Creek, Whynot and Woodlands Hill can all be produced to satisfactory marketable specification with yields within, or better, than Industry expectations. The Whynot Seam quality is exceptional - a very high yielding (>93%), very low ash, semi soft coking coal product. Three drill rigs are now operating at Doyles Creek, these will provide the relevant geological and hydro-geological information needed to meet the announced project timeline.

Australian resources and investment company, Cape Lambert Resources Limited (ASX:CFE) is pleased to announce assay results from eight (8) of the first nine (9) diamond drill holes from the recently completed drilling program at its 80% owned Mayoko Iron Ore Project, located in the Republic of Congo. Assay results confirm supergene hematite cap and enriched banded iron formation (BIF) extending up to 40m and 75m below surface respectively. Drilling shows additional supergene hematite present outside of previously reported Inferred Mineral Resource including 20m at 56.1% Fe from 4m in drill hole MKDD001.

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ASF Group (ASX:AFA) Eyes on Long Term Relationship with China Power Plants

newsroom@abnnewswire.net — Tue, 22 June 2010 12:30:02 GMT

ASF Group Limited (ASX:AFA) said today that its wholly owned entity ASF Energy has entered into an agreement with Shanghai Time Shipping Co Ltd for the supply of coal for shipment to China. Shanghai Time is an associate company of China Huaneng Group Ltd, one of China's largest power conglomerates.

The agreement with Shanghai Time is for the supply of a trial coal shipment of approximately 45,000 tonnes, scheduled to occur in July 2010. ASF Energy has contracted to supply coal from Australia and the agreement with Shanghai Time notes that the intention of the parties is to engage in the long term supply of Australian coal for use in power generating plants in China, ASF Group says.

The Group formed a strategic relationship with China Huaneng in September 2009 through a cooperation agreement with a Hong Kong subsidiary of China Huaneng.

Michelle Liang
Asia Business News Asia Bureau
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Australian Market Report of June 11, 2010: AVJennings (ASX:AVJ) Sells Contract Building Division to Sekisui (TYO:1928)

newsroom@abnnewswire.net — Fri, 11 June 2010 13:30:14 GMT

The encouraging Asia and US economic news overnight gave a strong lift to Wall Street. The Australian shares delivered a firm opening on Friday and the market is expecting more upbeat data from China today.

The benchmark S&P/ASX200 index and All Ordinaries both surged approximately 1.4 per cent in early trade. Major mining stocks also rose despite Prime Minister Kevin Rudd dismissed speculation that a compromise on the resources super profits tax is imminent.

Yesterday Asian bourses were inspired by a bunch of positive economic news in the region, including China's better-than-expected exports, fall in South Korea's unemployment rate and Japan's GDP growth. The Australian stocks market was more than 1 per cent higher on the encouraging Asian data and Australia's employment figures.

Company News

AVJennings Limited (ASX:AVJ) has entered into a conditional contract to sell its contract building division to the Japan's Sekisui House Limited (TYO:1928). The two companies will also form an alliance around land and the use of the AVJennings brand, ownership of which will remain with AVJennings Limited. The Australian residential development company will sell the assets of the contract building division on an "as is" basis which include the division's freehold and leasehold displays, house designs and the right to manage all existing construction contracts. AVJennings will receive payments under the deal equivalent to the net asset value of the business on the completion date.

Neptune Marine Services (ASX:NMS) says it expects to report normalised earnings before interest and taxes for the year ending June 30 of between A$5.5 million - A$6.5 million, as a result of a significant improvement in performance in the second half of FY2010. Neptune said this confirms its recovery in profitability during the second half and the expected return to growth from FY2011 onwards. The improvement is largely due to increased activity in the Australian offshore energy industry, contract awards and increasing tender activity in the Middle East, improved performance in the US and depreciation of the Australian dollar against the US dollar.

Goodman Group (ASX:GMG) has established two new co-investment vehicles with CB Richard Ellis Realty Trust in the United Kingdom and Europe. The co-investment vehicles will invest in pre-committed logistics development opportunities sourced through Goodman and will be funded on an 80/20 basis, with CB Richard Ellis Realty Trust holding the majority share. The target investment in total will be nearly A$1.3 billion over an initial term of three years.

Michelle Liang
Asia Business News Asia Bureau
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Samsung Heavy (SEO:010140) Secured KRW1.32 Trillion LNG Facility Order from Shell (LON:RDSA)

newsroom@abnnewswire.net — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 16:39:53 GMT

Samsung Heavy Industries Co. (SEO:010140), the world's second-largest shipbuilder, has received a KRW1.32 trillion order to build a floating natural-gas facility for Royal Dutch Shell Plc (LON:RDSA), said South Korea's Yonhap news agency. Samsung Heavy and Technip SA, a French oil and gas producer, will design, construct and install multiple floating liquefied natural gas (LNG) facilities.

In July 2009, Samsung Heavy signed an agreement with Shell to construct LNG facilities for up to 15 years. The order is the first deal of the supply contract signed last year. Samsung Heavy revealed the order last month saying that price may be decided later.

Shell expects to produce 3.5 million metric tons of LNG from a proposed floating LNG facility offshore Western Australia state for 2016.

Michelle Liang
Asia Business News Asia Bureau
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Email: michelle.liang@abnnewswire.net