Poland - New Appointments & Coal Miners Strike

POLAND New Appointments #Poland - Grzegorz Schetyna appointed Foreign Min. / Radoslaw Sikorski candidate for speaker of the lower house - http://goo.gl/9ymZvr - hahahahaa .. Pres Komorowski favours 'continuity' of Radek ... Too bad. Suck it Radek!! President Komorowski has officially sworn in the new cabinet under Prime Minister Ewa Kopacz - http://goo.gl/9ymZvr Prime Minister Kopacz is to seek a vote of confidence in the new government in parliament on 1 October. Spot of Anti-Russian Propaganda 69th session of the #UN General Assembly / #Poland wants limit to #Russia's UN veto / http://goo.gl/ljl3p0  / Pres Bronislaw Komorowski Next to impossible: two-thirds of the General Assembly and the consent of all five permanent Security Council members. >> So it's an anti-Russian smear for the press? Massive US Arms Deal US sells mid-range missiles to #Poland - 40 SAMs AGM 158-missiles, low radar profile/1,000lb warhead/ http://goo.gl/ZdnrCj  43 miles "pounds €390 million package incls. upgrades to Poland's 48 F-16 jets" /Valery Heletey = Defence Minister / excuse Russian 'aggression' Spot of Trade Union Bother - Coal Mines  #Poland - Trade unions strike Warsaw 1 Oct - http://goo.gl/6GMGlE  - 4 biggest mines low revenue - want clear stance coal mining sector - Coal provides #Poland will over 55 percent of its primary energy consumption. >> #environment #energy >> 4 biggest running @ loss = state owned .. one sold off to Jastrzębska Spółka Węglowa - A privatisation lobby?? - JSW - holding company / US$ 1.78 billion revenue/ looks like it might also be state owned?? - http://www.jsw.pl/en/about-us/about-jsw/ … NO, JWS = private: >> x2 = state owned / x2 = private coys: Jastrzębska SW SA & Lubelski Węgiel Bogdanka SA. #Business - Coal - #Poland 2012-2013, market conditions worsened 4 largest players/cheap imports applied downward pressure on coal prices coal seams in Poland too deep to mine cost effectively / http://goo.gl/5e4n1A  / By 2030 will be10-15 working mines in Poland >> x2 State + x2 private coys = the 4 mining = account for about 92% of all coal mining in Poland. #Business - Slump in coal prices has hit New Hope Corp’s annual profit, which dropped 21.2 per cent to $58.4 million. [wikinvest] >> Noooo! Price slump!! -- Check out the PROFITS, will ya?!!! That's an obscene amount of money!! - Slump my ass. > So business whines when they're not making an even more obscene amount of money? No economic 'downturn'. Just GREED. #Business /coal slump / imports by China (1/4 of global trade in coal) fell for 2nd mnth - 6yr low - 1. slowed eco. 2. hydropower /reuters Fears #China policies 2 restrict imports - chill on industry - http://goo.gl/nv8Yc6  - uncertainty Hey, China did ban imports of poorer quality thermal coal & it sent WAVES .. it was ahead of UN Climate Change talks / SMH -- Hey, China did ban imports of poorer quality thermal coal & it sent WAVES .. it was ahead of UN Climate Change talks / SMH - China 2 get points for above ... but real reason is it is bailing out its local miners & pwer generators / eco slowing ------------------------------------------ COMMENT Above's probably not easy to follow. Not sure I'm in the mood to summarise.  Been a long day and I'm a bit perlexed about something, so I'm not much in the mood for going back to my 'coal study'. Should also point out that some of this stuff with the coal sounds familiar to me, so I might have covered the coal information before. Anyway, new appointments in government.  Tusk has gone to European Commission, looks like Radek's been demoted and there could be a touch of tension between the Prime Minister and the President -- either that or they often contradict in public.  Hey, maybe that's Europeans -- perhaps they like to talk. Not looking good for the coal miners.  Yes, there's a slowing of the market because a big hunk of the world's coal market is imported by China, which is having an economic downturn and looking to support its own coal industry.  Furthermore, Poland's coal mines have a limited life span because it becomes too expensive to extract (at some point, I don't recall & couldn't be stuffed looking up .. even if at the top of this page :)). From my perspective, there's plenty of profit to be made and the very nature of capitalism, which demands greater and greater profits, is obscene.  Basically, they're not making as much as they'd like to -- ie whatever it was 6 years ago (or more than that).  So what?  They're making plenty. The coal miners are working to survive. No idea about Polish coal mines in question that are presumably running unprofitably.  Odds are, their idea of unprofitable is the same:  just making less profit than they'd like to. The 4 big coal mines produce virtually all of the coal and two are state owned and two have been privatised. The first thought I had is that someone's got the miners to agitate so that it becomes too much to handle and the mines get privatised.  But I'm always looking for some negative angle and haven't read up any further on the reasons there's industrial action. So that's today's look at Poland covered, I guess.