|
|
 |
|
Viewing report
|
|
|
|
China Mining Report Q1 2010
Business Monitor International, June 2010, Pages: 57
Business Monitor International's China Mining Report provides industry professionals and strategists, corporate analysts, mining associations, government departments and regulatory bodies with independent forecasts and competitive intelligence on China's mining industry.
Latest News China continues to acquire stakes in Australian metals producers, with news in November 2009 that Wuhan Iron & Steel is to acquire a 13.04% stake in South Australia’s Centrex Metals. At the same time, Baosteel was successful in its AUD287mn bid for a 15% stake in diversified miner Aquila Resources.
These two latest deals follow Hunan Valin Iron & Steel Group’s AUD1.2bn purchase of a 16% stake in Fortescue Metals, China Minmetals’ US$1.69bn takeover of OZ Minerals and Yanzhou Coal’s US$3bn takeover of Felix Resources earlier in 2009. Although Aluminium Corporation of China (Chinalco)’s US$19.5bn bid to increase its stake in Rio Tinto ended in failure in mid-2009, BMI expects China to maintain investment into the Australian mining sector during 2010.
The poor safety record of Chinese mines was brought back into focus during November 2009, when an explosion at a coal mine in Heilongjiang province killed more than 100 people. Although mine safety has improved in recent years, safety standards remain far below international norms. New Data
For 2010, BMI has made significant changes to the way in which BMI forecast mining data. As well as using local statistics agencies and associations, they now also draw on the expertise of the UN’s Industrial Commodity Statistics Database, the US Geological Survey and the World Bureau of Metal Statistics for BMI's historical export and production data. BMI then forecast this data using their own proprietary econometric model. Human intervention also plays a necessary and desirable role in their mining forecasting; experience, expertise and knowledge of industry trends and developments ensuring that they can spot likely future changes and anomalous data that a purely mechanical model would not.
Country Overview The People’s Republic of China is a natural world leader in terms of both reserves and the production of several metals and minerals. It joined the WTO in 2001, and has since become an economic force to be reckoned with, doubling its manufacturing output and in the process accumulating over US$1trn of foreign exchange reserves. Endowed with abundant mineral wealth, the country leads in the production of copper, coal, aluminium and gold.
China is also in the fortunate position of being cash rich at a time when many mining companies around the world are struggling to locate financing. So, in recent months, Beijing has been very active in buying up Australian mining assets.
The national government is taking active steps to make the mining industry more competitive. Although it is a communist state, China introduced market reforms in the 1980s and today only about a third of the economy is directly state-controlled. The government is encouraging mergers and acquisitions (M&As) as a means of ensuring optimal use of mineral resources, and barriers to foreign investment are gradually being removed.
The Chinese mining industry as a whole is suffering from the global financial crisis and the collapse in commodity prices. Yet the recovery of the domestic and international mining sector will be due, in part, to the success of China’s CNY4trn fiscal stimulus package. This should include investment in railroads, airports and power generation in 2009-2011, which will help drive demand for steel and other commodities. The government has also pledged to spend CNY900bn on affordable housing in the same period. It is estimated that these measures will boost demand for steel by as much as 150mn tonnes a year, which will help stimulate demand for iron ore.
Industry Forecast In 2008 China became the world’s largest supplier of gold, surpassing South Africa. China is also implementing its 11th Five-Year Plan (2006-2010), which emphasises securing the economy’s future metals and minerals resource needs. The focus is on further geological exploration of mineral reserves and increasing the supply of mineral products to fuel China’s rapid economic expansion. One area where China is especially keen to increase its reserves is uranium. With the country looking to rapidly increase its nuclear power generation, the government is seeking to secure a stable supply of raw materials. Uranium exploration is concentrating on Inner Mongolia and north-west China. BMI forecasts that the mining industry in China is expected to grow at a rate in excess of 8% per annum over BMI's forecast period, reaching US$505.9bn by 2014.
On the production side, BMI's econometric forecasting model is predicting strong increases for zinc (up nearly 40%), bauxite (up 21%), hard coal (up 20%) and copper (up 17%) over their forecast period. Conversely, BMI may see a slight plateauing in gold production, as reserves are fully exploited.
Product samples
A sample for this product is available. Please Login/Register to download this sample.
Customers who bought this item also bought
China Mining Report Q4 2010
China Mining Report Q2 2012
China Mining Report Q1 2012
Global Top 500 Mining and Metal Companies, 2010
Global Top 500 Mining and Metal Companies, 2011
Philippines Mining Report 2010
Gold Mining - Global Strategic Business Report
Mining Industry - Global Outlook
China Mining Report Q2 2010
China Mining Industry
|
|
|
|
