Date: Wednesday, 28th October 2015
BHP sees short life for US oil boom (English)
Source: Upstream, 27 Oct 2015
Mining giant BHP Billiton expects oil supply from unconventional resources to peak in the next decade, making other high-cost basins more attractive for development.
Iron ore softens as buyers hold back (English)
Source: PLATTS, 26 Oct 2015
Disinterested spot iron ore buyers let a raft of offers float by Monday, as the sinking steel market continued to dampen demand. Platts 62% Fe IODEX fell $1/dry mt on day to $50.75/dry mt CFR North China. Port stocks of 61% Fe Australian Pilbara Blend fines in northern China, were heard to have traded at Yuan 390-395/wet mt free-on-truck, including Yuan 30/wet mt in port charges and 17% value-added tax. This trade level was down slightly by Yuan 5-10/wet mt from last Friday.
Rio Tinto steals Vale’s iron ore crown ahead of Q4 decider (English)
Source: PLATTS, 27 Oct 2015
Rio Tinto’s new-found leadership status was confirmed by iron ore shipments stretching to a record 91.3 million mt in the third quarter, around 5 million mt more than Vale’s quarterly total for its fines. However, Vale stated that they have the lowest cost in the world. The outcome of lower costs aided by a weaker real may result in prolonged and even weaker global iron ore prices. A selloff in the real came as a result of political infighting, and slower Brazilian growth and with it steel demand, leaving Vale more exposed as its largest customers, China and Europe, fight over steel trade.
The future of China’s love of steel (English)
Source: PLATTS, 22 Oct 2015
This year China is on track to produce 809 million mt of crude steel, based on worldsteel monthly data through September and calculated at an annualized rate. China’s seemingly overnight steel demand erosion is happening in a country that produces more than half of all the steel made globally (more than 800 million mt of about 1.6 billion mt worldwide). This leaves some 100 million-110 million mt for China to export. No wonder there is now the prospect of even more steel trade cases being filed against China, cases alleging the country is unfairly dumping its steel.
China to commission two new nuclear units (English)
Source: News Base, 20 Oct 2015
China will add to its nuclear power capabilities in the coming months following sustained chain reactions at two new nuclear power units earlier in the month. News of both units achieving criticality was welcomed in Beijing by politicians and business leaders, who are aiming to have 100 nuclear reactors one day to help the country move away from an over-reliance on coal and the consequent international criticism of rising carbon emissions as well as the notoriously poor air quality in larger cities.
This brief summarises a range of publicly available news articles in both Chinese and English and AustCham takes no responsibility for the accuracy of the information in these articles. In addition, the views and opinions reflected in these articles are not necessarily representative of AustCham.
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