b>Coal-mining lobby says anti-investment campaign may be illegal

A campaign to force banks and fund managers to pull capital from the coal industry could be in breach of the law and cost the economy billions, according to the mining lobby, reports the Australian Financial Review.

A paper to be released today by the Minerals Council of Australia says the campaign “may contravene the letter or the spirit” of the Corporations Act, and calls on the corporate watchdog to assess the potential breach.

The council commissioned Sinclair Davidson, a professor of institutional economics at Melbourne’s RMIT University, to write the paper, in its most aggressive push-back to the anti-coal collective’s urging investors to sell shares in coal companies.

Ramped-up steel supply only delaying inevitable

China’s steel production hit a new monthly record of 70.4 million tonnes last month, with the failure of central government efforts to shut down high-cost and polluting steel mills giving some support to the troubled iron ore and coking coal market, according to The Australian.

However, market analysts are taking little comfort from the continued strength of Chinese steel production, which merely is postponing an inevitable and painful contraction.

Trying to predict where iron ore prices will settle is “like trying to catch a falling knife”, says ANZ commodities analyst Mark Pervan, so many are the forces bearing down on it.

Repealing carbon law brings its own challenge

Companies in several industries are grappling with how to handle the retrospective nature of the carbon price repeal legislation, given that the repeal is intended to take effect from July 1 but the legislation may not be passed by parliament until weeks or months later, according to The Australian.