According to The Australian Financial Review, Australia powers Japan, literally, supplying more than one-third of its energy needs. For decades, Japanese investment in energy projects and Japan’s energy purchases have helped build Australian prosperity. But that’s been in fossil fuels and the bilateral economic relationship will need a total transformation as both countries pursue transition to net zero emissions by 2050.
Australia has work to do in improving its investment environment, not just for Japanese companies. Australia has become a net capital exporter in recent years after consistently being a net importer of capital because domestic savings were insufficient to fund growth. Australia needs foreign capital to help build the infrastructure needed for population growth, domestic energy needs and to become a green energy exporter. The new complementarity in Australia-Japan energy trade won’t be realised through market forces alone because of the large-scale national investment in infrastructure needed in both countries. An elevation of leadership, investment in both capital and human networks by government and industry from both countries and close co-operation is needed to transform the energy relationship. Anything short of that is likely to frustrate the energy transition and see the withering of energy as a pillar of the bilateral economic relationship. The energy relationship between Australia and Japan has to be entirely re-thought. Instead of Australia shipping raw energy to Japan, it is becoming cheaper and cleaner to produce intermediate inputs, processing more minerals in Australia, and exporting the embodied energy to Japan and beyond. https://www.afr.com/companies/energy/why-australia-needs-a-new-energy-partnership-with-japan-20240319-p5fdh0
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According to The Australian Financial Review, CBH Group, the country’s largest co-operative, is preparing to derail GrainCorp’s ambitions of becoming a major biofuel player, closing in on a partnership with BP that would involve building its own large-scale oilseed crushing plant in Perth.
The move would also stymie GrainCorp’s push to extend its operations from its traditional base along the east coast into Western Australia. The ASX-listed group has outlined plans to spend several hundred million dollars on a plant in WA and has been in negotiations about securing a site, canola supply and a partnership with BP and others. BP has been weighing up a $1 billion-plus investment in converting an oil import terminal at Kwinana, south of Perth, into a renewable fuel production hub and will need feedstock from a major oilseed crushing plant. CBH has spare land at its Kwinana grain export terminal and could deliver canola to a crushing plant with its fleet of locomotives. https://www.afr.com/companies/agriculture/cbh-gatecrashes-graincorp-s-biofuels-strategy-closes-in-on-bp-deal-20240301-p5f90v
According to The Nikkei Asia, amid challenges posed by the weather, inflation-hit consumers and China, Japanese trading house Marubeni is attempting to increase its exports of beef to its home market from cows it fattens in the eastern part of Australia.
Three decades ago, almost all the beef Marubeni exported from Rangers Valley went to Japan; it now accounts for less than 10% of the company's sales. These days it mainly exports tongue and skirt steaks to Japan, which is one of the few countries that consumes these cuts. Faced with the global challenges of today, though, the Tokyo-based company is stepping up efforts to increase its beef sales in Japan. Beef from Rangers Valley, in the eastern Australian state of New South Wales, was praised for its palatability by visitors who tasted samples at Marubeni's booth at a food fair held in mid-February at the Makuhari Messe event hall in Chiba, south of Tokyo. The company displayed big hunks of red marbled meat that charmed visitors. https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Food-Beverage/Japan-s-Marubeni-looks-to-hook-its-home-market-on-Aussie-beef
According to The Australian Financial Review, Rio Tinto has bowed to sustained pressure from big investors to start reporting how much it spends on so-called green steel projects and other efforts to reduce carbon emissions for iron ore mined in Australia and turned into steel in China.
Rio said that in response to talks with investors and the Australian Centre for Corporate Responsibility (ACCR) it had agreed to beef up its reporting on efforts to reduce carbon emissions from the processing of iron ore by its mainly Chinese steel-making customers. The company intends to spend up to $US6 billion on decarbonisation across its business to 2030. That figure was reduced from $US7.5 billion in December largely based on Rio deciding the technology was not advanced enough to convert its iron ore fleet to electric power by the end of the decade. https://www.afr.com/companies/mining/rio-bows-to-investor-pressure-on-green-steel-spending-20240319-p5fdnt
According to The Australian Financial Review, Fortescue Energy boss Mark Hutchinson says Australia must get power prices down to about $US30 ($45.36) a megawatt hour if it wants to be a hydrogen superpower, under a goal that would effectively require a halving of power prices across much of the eastern states.
Mr Hutchinson’s power price challenge came as he warned that Fortescue and Incitec Pivot would find it “tough” to proceed with a plan to retrofit Queensland’s Gibson Island fertiliser plant towards a future in hydrogen and ammonia unless governments helped mitigate the high cost of clean energy. https://www.afr.com/business-summit/fortescue-says-hydrogen-hopes-rest-on-a-halving-of-power-prices-20240311-p5fbjk
According to The PV magazine, New South Wales has committed to reform the planning approvals process for renewable energy developments amid criticism that the current process isn’t fit for purpose and is slowing the state’s transition from coal-dominated generation to a renewables-dominated grid.
New South Wales (NSW) Planning Minister Paul Scully said the government is aiming for almost 50 large-scale solar, wind, and battery storage projects to be approved in NSW this year. “We have got a further 29 projects in the planning stage with an additional 20 projects expected to be submitted to the department or the coming months,” he said. “Most of these are expected to be determined this year.” https://www.pv-magazine-australia.com/2024/03/08/nsw-commits-to-improve-approvals-process-for-renewables-projects/
According to The Asahi Shimbun, Osaka Gas announced its medium-term management plan for the three-year period beginning in fiscal 2024. At the same time, the company also revealed its goal of increasing ordinary income from the current level of around 150 billion yen to 200 billion yen in FY30. In addition to expanding its domestic thermal power generation and liquefied natural gas (LNG) wholesale business, the company plans to focus on its overseas business.
Energy companies are under pressure to shift away from fossil fuels amid the global trend toward decarbonization. However, Masataka Fujiwara, president of Osaka Gas, explained at a press conference, "For the next 20 years or so, thermal power generation using LNG will be important. While focusing on sales of electricity and LNG, the company will further prepare concrete measures for the future of energy during the three years of the mid-term business plan. https://digital.asahi.com/articles/ASS376DW2S37ULFA01M.html
According to The Australian Financial Review, J-Power, one of Japan’s largest energy utilities, has lobbed a $375 million bid to buy Queensland renewables developer Genex Power, 14 months after Scott Farquhar’s Skip Capital and Stonepeak Partners walked away from their own takeover proposal.
Shares in Genex, Australia’s only listed pure-play renewables developer, surged as much as 32 per cent on news of the move, the latest in a string of deals between major Japanese groups and local energy companies. While agreements have historically focused primarily on Australia’s natural gas and coal sectors, clean energy has shot up the investment agenda. J-Power already owns 7.72 per cent of Genex and is a lender to the company, whose biggest project is the $777 million Kidston pumped hydro venture in Queensland. It is also Genex’s 50 per cent partner in the Kidston Stage 3 wind and Bulli Creek solar and battery projects in northern Queensland. https://www.afr.com/policy/energy-and-climate/japanese-utilities-giant-lobs-genex-takeover-bid-with-50pc-premium-20240304-p5f9ho
According to The Australian Financial Review, ABEL Energy has sent out its bankers to find fresh backers, just as it gets cracking on its much-talked-about $1.7 billion Bell Bay Powerfuels project.
The Bell Bay Powerfuels project wants to ship 300,000 tonnes of “green” methanol production annually, starting in 2028. The three-part process uses renewable energy to produce hydrogen via electrolysis, while forestry residues are processed via gasification to generate syngas. Putting the two together produces methanol. Prospective bidders have been told to register expressions of interest by March 8 to receive an info pack. The sell-side advisers will collect non-binding offers in mid-April, and final bids would be due six weeks later, at the end of May. ABEL is hoping to have a deal signed by the end of the financial year. https://www.afr.com/street-talk/tasmania-s-abel-energy-preps-raise-for-1-7b-green-fuels-project-20240229-p5f8se
According to The AuManufaturing, the South Australian government and the private sector have funded studies, planning and negotiations to lead to a final investment decision on the Northern Water project servicing BHP’s copper mines and refineries and the burgeoning green hydrogen and steel industries.
If progressed, Northern Water would see construction of a 260 megalitre a day desalination plant on the Eyre Peninsula, and a 600-kilometre pipeline to transport desalinated water to the Far North. A comprehensive business case has found the project has the potential to generate more than $5 billion in annual economic benefit and 4,000 ongoing jobs by facilitating development of industries including copper, hydrogen and green iron, along with defence, pastoral, and community uses. https://www.aumanufacturing.com.au/desalination-to-unlock-copper-green-hydrogen-and-steel-riches |
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