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This is a brief description of how to use Coalportal services. Additional help specific to the area of Coalportal that you are using is available by pressing the help button present on most pages.
Entering your username and password.
Throughout Coalportal, you will either see a full data set if you have a subscription and have logged in (entered your username and password) or otherwise a subset of sample data. To get a subscription, click on subscribe. To login, enter your username and password above the blue login button near the top left hand side of the screen. Then press login.
The Coalportal Home Page
When you first reach Coalportal, you will see the Coalportal home page. On the home page, you will see the latest Coal News and Coal Seam Gas news and potentially a weekly focus. Clicking on any news article will give your more information and, if you have a subscription to Daily News, the full text of the article.
There is also a chart of three indices: the BJ (Barlow Jonker) index, the SASC (South African Steam Coal) index, and the China Coal index. For more details and indices, subscribers can go the Indices section under Coal Data and Prices, on the left hand menu.
The Top Menu
At the top right hand section of the screen is a menu with options for About Us (information about Coalportal), Subscribe (to buy subscriptions), Shop (to buy other Coalportal and Barlow Jonker products), Contact Us, and Help. Above these menu options is a search box. Entering search terms in this box will open the site wide search, which will find information related to the search term throughout Coalportal.
The Left Menu
The majority of options for Coalportal are in the Left Menu, which contains: What is Coalportal, Daily News, Newsletters, Coal Data and Prices, Coal Statistics, Major Studies, and Tools and Links. This menu if located below the username and password boxes on the left hand side of the screen.
Clicking on a menu item may cause it to expand and show further options. Most options that were part of Online Members in the previous version of Coalportal are now under Coal Data and Prices while most of what was Free Information is under Tools and Links.
Daily News
There are two headings under Daily News: Coal News, and Coal Seam Gas News. Each contains a list of articles starting with the current news articles and going back several years. The list is searchable by keyword. For more information, click on the green help button in the Coal News or Coal Seam Gas News page.
Newsletters
Coalportal provides newsletters including Barlow Jonker's Australian Coal Report, Coalfax, China Coal Report, International Coal Seam Gas, International Coal and Power, the South African Coal Report, African Mineral Services, From the Coal Face, and more.
To read a newsletter, you must have a subscription to it. From this menu, all users can see what newsletters are available and a description of each, while subscribers can actually read newsletters and search for keywords in them. For more information, click on the green help button in the newsletters page.
Coal Data and Prices
This area of Coalportal provides information about the world's Coal Mines, Consuming Plants (such as Power Stations, Iron and Steel Works, Coke Works and Cement Plants), Prices and Forecasts, Coal Industry Tenders, Coal Stocks and Indices, Coal Quality and Consumer Specifications, Asset Sales, Transport and Ports, Freight Rates, World Coal Production, and more...
To view this information, first click the Coal Data and Prices option on the left-side-of-screen menu. The menu will expand to have items for all of the above information. Click on any item to see a page with the relevant data. Each page also has its separate help, accessible through a green help button.
Coal Statistics
This section provides a publication called 'Online Coal Statistics' with current and historical statistical data of interest to the coal market. For more information about it, go to Coal Statistics and click on the green help button.
Major Studies
Coalportal provides a range of major studies that are produced (mostly) annually, and can be purchased in the Coalportal Shop. This studies, many in the hundreds of pages, are written by experts with many years of experience in the world coal industry and cover such areas as new developments, production, future trends, government policies, geo political and economic issues, geology, reserves and resources, coal quality, transport and infrastructure, mining costs, and more.
To read a major study, you must first purchase it (or have previously purchased it) from the shop. You can then read it by clicking on major studies, and selecting the relevant study from the menu. If you need help, click on the green help button, or ask us for assistance.
Tools and Links
The tools and links section includes some coal industry articles, a link to the Australian Coal Association, Coal and Oil and Gas calculators, conversion tables, foreign exchange rates (via a third party web site), a Glossary, and a facility for paying existing Barlow Jonker invoices.
Also, there is a directory of Coal Industry related business throughout the world, and of Coal Industry conferences and events. Both of these are useful tools for staying in touch with your industry.
Graphical Performance
For the best results viewing Coalportal, we recommend one of the web browsers we have tested with: On Windows PCs, either Internet Explorer 6 and above or Mozilla Firefox 1.0 and above. On Linux, Mozilla Firefox 1.0 and above, and on Apple Macintosh computers, use OS X 10.3 and above and the built-in Safari web browser.
Macromedia Flash needs to be installed for some graphs to display, and can be downloaded from this link if you do not already have it. Also, some graphs of Coal Indices require that popup windows be enabled for Coalportal.com. This should be done in your web browser, and also in your firewall software if needed. If you need further help on this issue, please contact us.
Printing from Coalportal
If you wish to print from Coalportal, we strongly recommend that Microsoft Windows XP users download Service Pack 2 if not already installed, and Internet Explorer 7 (a free download from microsoft.com) as printed pages will look much better from this browser.
Quite a few pages with wide tables look better if printed in landscape mode. Another alternative, if you have a suitable printer, is to print these wide pages on A3 sized paper.
Logins and Sessions
For consistency in some areas of Coalportal, users may see a snapshot of information as it was when they logged in to the web site (entered their username and password). To see the latest information, it may be worth logging out (press Logout on the left menu), and logging back in again (enter your username and password and press Login).
Caching Issues
Some companies and Internet providers, and some web browsers with certain settings will make copies of web sites as they are viewed and show you their local copy to save of data transfer charges. This may present issues with getting the latest information on Coalportal. If you have this problem, you may need to do a "hard refresh", either by pressing CTRL-F5 on Internet Explorer on a Windows computer, or by closing and reopening your web browser.
You may also try going to the browser and clicking Tools/Internet Options/Delete Files and then click "Delete" to delete all files in the temporary Internet folder. If you are still seeing out of date data after that, you will need to contact your Internet Provider to ask them to put an "exclusion in their proxy server" for www.coalportal.com
Frequently asked questions about services on coalportal.
1. How do we authenticate subscribers and allow access to our online services?
We send each subscriber an initial temporary username and password, which he is asked to change upon first login. Once the user has changed his password according to the minimum requirement, the password is encrypted.
2. Is the user required to fill in a registration form?
Once the subscriber has contacted us or bought the service we send the customer a Subscriber Detail Form to fill in as well as terms and conditions.
3. How many subscribers can access the publication for the subscription price?
With each subscription to an individual product comes five logins or users within the one company. If the company goes above five in total it will need to take out a second subscription. For Premium, which gives access to everything on coalportal, we allow up to 20 within the one company. A check list of current company subscribers is sent with all renewal notices.
4. Are there different rates for different parts of the world?
No. We advertise in AUD (Australian Dollars) because we are an Australian company. We are happy to accept payment in other currencies at the exchange rate of the day. If people use our website to make secure payment, clearance will be in AUD.
5. How do we renew our subscription?
One month before the subscription is due for renewal we send the subscriber an invoice, which he can pay on www.coalportal.com through "Pay Existing Invoice" on the top left of Shop our Store or transfer the funds to our bank account, which will be on the invoice.
5. How does a subscriber know when something has been updated?
Barlow Jonker send an email with a link to the appropriate web page to all subscribers whenever we upload a new issue of a newsletter. The database of Industry data is being updated continuously. Upon request we will send out an email when we update parts of the database such as quarterly forecasts. We will also make announcements on the Home Page about recent updates.
6. Is it possible to search past issue of newsletters as well as Daily News?
Yes, all past issues of newsletters and Daily News are archived and made available.
7. Is the Database of coal related information complementary to the newsletters?
Yes it is. The database provides a complete easily searchable archive on many items reported in newsletters such as price indices, stock levels, tender results, contract prices, freight rates, asset sales and mine information. The database also contains a substantial amount of industry information not available in the newsletters.
8. Are there any software requirements?
Yes. We recommend a recent, mainstream web browser (latest versions of Microsoft Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox on Windows computers, Mozilla Firefox on Linux, and Safari on Macintosh OS X). Some features also require Macromedia Flash plugin.
99% of computers will already meet these requirements, and for those that do not, required software can be downloaded easily, for free, from the Internet. contact us if you need any help on this topic.
9. How can I purchase?
Go to the Coalportal Shop or click here. If you need help using the shop, press the green help button there, or ask us for help.
You will be able to pay online with your credit card using our secure e-commerce server connected directly to ANZ E-Gate in Australia. Alternatively, you can e-mail a completed order form to Barlow Jonker and proceed with payment off the Internet by other means.
More Help
If you are still unsure of what to do, please feel free to contact us by clicking here. Otherwise, we can be reached by phone on (your international code) + 61 - 2 - 9221 8977 or inside Australia on (02) 9221 8977.
