Copper futures traded on the Multi Commodity Exchange (MCX) have broken down from their ₹363-375 a kg range. The contract is currently trading near ₹361.50.
Key resistance is at ₹364. Immediate support is at ₹358, which is likely to be tested now. The contract is likely to reverse higher from ₹358, but a break past ₹364 is unlikely.
A decline below ₹358 will drag it lower to ₹353. A failed inverted head and shoulder pattern is visible on the daily chart. The neckline level of this pattern is poised at ₹364 which makes this level strong resistance.
Having said this, as long as the contract trades below ₹364, there is a strong likelihood of a break and fall below ₹358. Short-term traders can go short. Stop-loss can be kept at ₹365 for the target of ₹355.
The downside pressure on the contract will ease only on a strong break above ₹364. The ensuing targets on such a break will be ₹372 and ₹375.
Coal workers under the banner of All India Coal Workers’ Federation held a demonstration at Jantar Mantar in protest against the government’s move to ​get the Coal Bill passed, which they said ​will ‘denationalise’ the sector and usher in ‘contracterisation’ of mining.
In a statement, Jibon Roy, General Secretary of the federation, said hundreds of coal workers belonging to the United Platform of Trade Unions from 38 districts of the country, known as economically backward, protested to draw Parliament’s attention to the fact that denationalisation will gradually force public sector Coal India and Singarani group of collieries to privatisation.
The workers urged the Rajya Sabha not to give assent to any report from the Select Committee without taking the deposition of all trade unions and direct the government to reintroduce the Bill, while providing institutional guarantee that the spirit of 1973 Coal Nationalisation Act will not be encroached in any way, Roy added.
Mitsui O.S.K. Lines (MOL) has announced the establishment of a unified brand, ‘MOL Project & Heavy Cargo’, highlighting the MOL Group’s capabilities in the rapidly growing plant and heavyweight cargo transport sector. The new brand reflects MOL’s efforts to convey the unique logistics services of each group company and demonstrate its comprehensive capabilities. The group is united as a team and working to continually expand its services, emphasised a release.
The new brand logo will be displayed at the international trade show for the plant and heavyweight cargo sector, Breakbulk China 2015, on March 19-20 in Shanghai.
Since 2013, MOL Group companies have collaborated to share knowledge, technologies, and experience that each company has accumulated, and promoted the enhancement of various strategic themes to drive the further growth of the group’s logistics business. Plant and heavyweight cargo transport is one of the group’s major themes. Four MOL Group companies—Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, MOL Logistics, Utoc and Mitsui O.S.K. Kinkai—will jointly exhibit the MOL Project & Heavy Cargo brand.
The MOL Group offers not only logistics solutions that meet the needs of various kinds of heavyweight transport, but also a broad range of other services, including plant engineering, such as installation and assembly work. Its services also include a full range of heavyweight cargo ocean transport services involving conventional vessels, RoRo and containerships.
Besides, MOL offers total logistics services such as air and ocean forwarding, coastal and overland transport, and Customs clearance, in addition to plant engineering services such as installation and assembly.
Reuters reported that a state owned Chinese steelmaker will close most of its facilities after falling steel prices forced it to halt production and lay off workers, a sign of the damage that persistent overcapacity is doing to the sector.
Pangang Group Chengdu Steel & Vanadium Company, a subsidiary of Panzhihua Steel in China’s southwestern Sichuan province, will halt production later this month after suffering huge losses.
A mill official and industry sources said that Chinese steelmakers are expected to face more headwinds this year, due to soaring environmental costs, overcapacity and slower demand growth in the world’s top consumer. More inefficient mills are likely to shut down permanently.
After several months of talks, state-owned Cochin Shipyard Ltd has succeeded in getting South Korea’s Samsung Heavy Industries Co. Ltd to share technology for building liquefied natural gas (LNG) carriers at its yard in Kochi. The move prepares Cochin Shipyard to make itself eligible to bid for a tender to be issued by GAIL (India) Ltd in early April, at least two people briefed on the plan said.
GAIL needs nine LNG carriers to haul natural gas from the US to India beginning December 2017.
A spokesperson for Cochin Shipyard declined to comment. Samsung Heavy Industries, the world’s top manufacturer of LNG carriers, could not be reached immediately for comment.
With this, Cochin Shipyard becomes the second local yard to secure a technology tie-up for LNG ships from one of the three top shipbuilders in South Korea, the world’s top shipbuilding nation.
L&T Shipbuilding Ltd, a unit of Larsen & Toubro Ltd, has signed a non-disclosure agreement with South Korea’s Hyundai Heavy Industries Co. Ltd to collaborate on building LNG carriers, Mint reported on 5 February 2015.
The tie-ups are the result of hectic lobbying by India to get technology from overseas specialists in the field. India’s foreign minister Sushma Swaraj had lobbied at the diplomatic level with the South Korean government during a visit to Seoul in December 2014 to help inexperienced Indian yards get the technology to build the ships locally.
GAIL had decided on 17 February to scrap a tender to hire the LNG carriers from fleet owners due to lack of response from bidders.
The tender had stipulated that at least three of the nine LNG ships that GAIL planned to hire from fleet owners for 20 years must be built at local yards, a factor which shipping industry executives believe discouraged bidders from participation.
The tender condition, designed to help Indian yards enter the LNG shipbuilding business, was written in the wake of a directive issued by the government as part of the Make in India initiative of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
GAIL had given time until 17 February for bidders to put in their techno-commercial quotations.
Local yards, which have never built LNG ships before, need technological tie-ups with South Korean and Japanese specialists to become eligible for constructing the LNG tankers.
The Make in India campaign aims to transform the country into a manufacturing powerhouse, boosting exports by incentivizing import substitution.
GAIL is now considering splitting the tender into two with one tender for hiring six LNG carriers that are to be built at overseas yards and the second for three ships to be constructed locally, according to a shipping industry executive privy to the plan.