Dear Industry Colleagues,
As always I would like to promote some positive news that you may not have heard of as yet. What a start to 2011.
Rio Tinto Iron Ore $3.7B JV, Aquila $5.8B, Santos $16B, Thiess $2+B – let the money flow, BTW is this starting to feel like déjà vu?
Mining related Activity
Rio Tinto Group, Mitsui & Co and others will invest $3.78B to expand iron ore export capacity at their venture in Cape Lambert. Mr Masami Iijima president of Mitsui & Co Ltd approved the investment of $1.25B through its 100% subsidiary Mitsui Iron Ore Development
Aquila has reluctantly given conditional approval to its West Pilbara iron ore project to stop its JV partner American Metal & Coal International from buying the company out of the $USD5.8B project.
Coal & Allied has welcomed the decision by the NSW Govt to grant a mining lease for the Mount Pleasant Project, a greenfield open cut mine.
Xstrata Coal is investigating several options to expand its major Oaky Creek mining complex, reopen the United Colliery in NSW and work out the best port solution for its mammoth Wandoan project in the Surat Basin.
Anglo American may double output at the Grosvenor coal mine in Queensland. “We’re trying to compress the expansion of that so we can double capacity in fairly short order,” their CEO said in an interview. Anglo said last year the board would decide on approval for 4.3Mt of output from Grosvenor late this year.“We’re looking at over 8Mtpa by, say, 2015-2016, and then we’ve got further upside that we’re looking at in Australia,” Carroll said
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Mining related Activity contd.
Atlas Iron agreed to buy Giralia Resources NL in a deal that it said values the iron ore company at about A$828M to almost triple its potential supplies of the steelmaking raw material.
Pan Asia is a step closer to achieving its goal of becoming a major supplier to expanding Asian markets with the acquisition of a pipeline of thermal coal projects in Indonesia
QCoal seeks to join the Bowen Basin longwall sector through the Byerwen open cut and underground coal project immediately west of Xstrata’s Newlands mine
Whitehaven Coal has selected a short list of bidders to complete due diligence as it moves forward with plans to sell itself in a deal potentially worth over $3.5B. Sources close to the deal have said that China’s state-run coal producer Shenhua Group was expected to bid but some other potential suitors had dropped out of the process.
Clive Palmer announced that up to 10% of the workforce for his coal development will be sourced from China. This new fly in fly out force could be potentially as high as 600 in number, the majority engineers. Development of the mine, as well as access to rail lines and ports is being carried out by the JV partners – MCC. Three of MCC’s government owned subsidiaries will take charge of the development of the mine, railway and port facilities, with each sub-contracting to Australian firms. Palmer expects approximately 60% of the work to go to foreign companies with the remaining 40% to Australian firms. MCC is also working with Palmer on his multi-billion dollar Sino Iron ore project in WA.
Lanco Infratech is all set to acquire Griffin Coal Mining Co, owner of thermal coal mines in WA.
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- Performance manage their teams
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At the completion of the The SG Partners Sales Leadership Clinic, sales managers will know/have:
- A report discussing their strengths and self limiting beliefs via a 38 page full assessment
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- How to identify motivational drives in sales people
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- How to recruit sales people
- How to set up a systemised qualifying process to enhance sales
- How to increase your win/loss ratio in favouring of winning – do not tie up resources and time on non winable RFQ/Tenders
- How to position value selling – do not sell on price
- How to present to groups and audiences
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Brisbane March 2011
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Mining and Construction related Activity
Dampier Port Authority has released a 10-year master plan to provide a strategic framework for future planning, development and management of expected trade growth
Port Waratah Coal Services’ proposed multi-billion dollar Terminal 4 coal loader at Newcastle has been granted Major Project Facilitation status by the Federal Government.
The NSW Govt will earmark $A2B from the $5.3B sale of its electricity assets to develop the Cobbora mine near Mudgee and supply subsidised coal to the newly privatised power stations.
Watpac Construction will once again demonstrate its award-winning expertise in Sydney after being awarded the $350M construction contract for One Central Park and has been nominated as the preferred tenderer for the Eastern Plaza project at Melbourne Park.
NSW’s first solar farm will be built in the state’s west, covering some 200 hectares and generating enough energy to power 20,000 homes. Approval of the $300M project is a milestone in the state’s bid to promote renewable energy and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Located in a “hot and dry” area, in optimum conditions the farm will have a 100-megawatt capacity, Infigen Suntech Australia, the developer of the solar project, says.
Saudi Arabian Mining Company is to launch the financing for the Phase II of its $USD10.8B aluminium project in the Q1 of 2011 following the conclusion of funding for the Phase I of the project in late 2010.The Phase II will include a bauxite mine and an alumina refinery and is expected to cost up to $USD4B. Phase I included an aluminium smelter and a rolling mill. The project is JV of Maaden and the US based Alcoa.
Analyzing mining projects in Canada and the U.S. reveals that Western Canada, which includes the Canadian provinces of Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, Northwest Territories, Nunavut, Saskatchewan, and the Yukon Territories, has by far the largest amount of mining projects with 170 projects totaling more than $117B. About 40% of this consists of oil sands mining projects in Alberta.
More than 350 grassroots mines in the U.S. and Canada making the countries prime destination for equipment and service providers doing business in the mining industry. This includes 132 underground mines. The remaining 218 are above ground.
It is reported that during the Twelfth Five-Year Plan period (2011-2015), China aims to build 14 large scale coal bases, and annex and restructure 20 coal bases in order to help meet the country 5 year energy-saving goal. The 14 coal bases are expected to produce 90% of coal resources of the total national output and the total coal consumption is estimated to be within 4B tonnes in the Twelfth Five-Year Plan period.
Energy
Shells Arrow Energy has issued an Invitation to Tender ( ITT) for the front-end engineering and design (FEED) contract for the first phase of its proposed coal seam LNG. The consortia comprise KBR, China Huanqiu Contracting & Engineering Corp. and Leighton Holdings; Chiyoda Co, CBI and Saipem SpA; Technip SA, JGC Corp and Clough; and Foster Wheeler AG and WorleyParsons. Tenders close in February, the joint venture said.
Liquefied Natural Gas confirmed it has agreed to sell a 20 per cent stake to Chinese state-owned oil and gas giant CNPC for around $25.6M.LNG says CNPC subsidiary, China Huanqiu Contracting & Engineering Corporation, would become LNG’s largest shareholder after the purchase of the 19.9% stake.LNG says it would apply the proceeds to development of the company’s 3Mtpa LNG project at Fisherman’s Landing, near Gladstone.
Queensland Curtis LNG and Santos’ GLNG projects have already started operational works with an expected workforce of more than 5000 needing to be accommodated.
QCLNG are considering floating accommodation for workers on its project was something the company was looking at among a range of options. Coastels (floating accommodation) can house 200 to 500 people and come with onboard canteens or restaurants, recreation and leisure facilities, conference and training rooms, as well as office accommodation and laundry facilities. Heating and ventilation are standard with air-conditioning also available.
BHP Billiton is considering producing and selling coal-seam gas from its big Wards Well coking coal project in Queensland’s Bowen Basin. It has asked the Federal Environment Department to start the approvals process on a 55-hole exploration drilling program to test whether a 7Mtpa hard coking coalmine at Wards Well is feasible.As part of the investigation, 12 holes will be drilled to test for CSG.As well as the underground mine, BHP said it would look at building a gas-fired power station and at the potential to make money from the gas contained in the coal seams.
Korea Gas Corporation (Kogas) is negotiating to purchase a 15% stake in Santos’ GLNG coal seam gas project.
Origin Energy is in talks to sell stakes in its Queensland LNG project with China’s Sinopec,
QGC has signed a contract with a consortium of GE and Laing O’Rourke for the construction of a water treatment plant in southwest Queensland that will support the region’s rapidly growing coal seam gas industry.“GE will provide the technical expertise and the process equipment for the project, while we will bring our design experience and construction skills to the job,” said Stephen Wilson, Infrastructure General Manager for Laing O’Rourke. “Our engineering expertise, complementing GE’s expertise, was critical in securing the contract.”
Eastern Star Gas has committed to the $22.5M purchase of land in Newcastle harbour as it proceeds with plans for a $1B coal seam gas-fired LNG plant.
GDF Suez and Santos have taken a key step forward in developing the Bonaparte floating LNG project with the award of pre-front end engineering and design contracts. KBR consulting unit Granherne, Paris, has been selected by GDF Suez Bonaparte. This was a part of its efforts to execute the project’s upstream pre-front end engineering and design
Santos and its partners have approved the $US16B Gladstone LNG project allowing major works for upstream field development, pipeline and liquefied natural gas plant to begin. Orders for long-lead items such as pipeline, compressors and LNG plant components will now be placed.
CNOOC has furthered its investment in Australia’s unconventional gas resources with a $50M farm-in to Exoma Energy’s five Galilee Basin permits. The CSG and Shale Gas exploration program for its 26840 km² of acreage with Gas In Place is estimated to be greater than 100 trillion cubic feet
Fluor Corp.won a contract valued at $3.5B to help build a Santos LNG project.
Mitsubishi Corp. agreed to build a $2.8B LNG plant in Indonesia with Korea Gas Corp. and state oil company PT Pertamina. The companies made the final investment decision to proceed with the Donggi-Senoro project on Sulawesi island, which will produce 2Mtpa of LNG and 47,000 barrels a day of condensate starting 2014. Pertamina and PT Medco Energi Internasional, Indonesia’s biggest listed oil company, own two gas fields that will supply the Donggi-Senoro LNG plant.
Indonesia has approved a development plan for a LNG floating terminal project run by Japan’s biggest oil and gas explorer Inpex Corp. The floating LNG project will have capacity of 2.5Mtpa, lower than a previously proposed capacity of 4.5Mt.The project will cost an estimated $4.9B.
Daewoo Shipbuilding announced plans to build a floating processing, storage and offloading LNG facility for a $2.5B project in PNG. Daewoo will operate the LNG FPSO jointly with Petromin PNG Holdings, PNG’s state-run oil and gas company, and Norway’s Hoegh LNG, after the FPSO is deployed in 2014. Daewoo will construct the 3Mtpa LNG FPSO and processing systems at its shipyard in Geoje, Sth Korea.
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- Account Manager, Perth, Mobile OEM
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- Sales Manager, Mackay, Material Handling products
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Commodity News
Power station coal prices at Australia’s Newcastle port, an Asian benchmark, rose 1.1% in the week ended January 7th 2011.
According to the globalCOAL NEWC Index, coal prices at the NSW port climbed to AUD 129.90/t.
Taiwan’s steel pipe dealers have started offering the quotes for March 2011 where they have decided to increase the export prices of steel pipes by $USD30 to $USD50/t to reflect the rising raw material costs.
Iron ore shipments from Australia’s Port Hedland rose by 10.4% to 17.33Mt in December from 15.7Mt in November. According to port authority figures released, shipments to China increased to 8.1% to 12.76MT from 11.8Mt in November
According to China Mining Association, a total of 280 Chinese mining companies invested in 302 overseas projects in the past 18 months. Over 60% of overseas investments were made in Australia, Canada, The Philippines.
Queensland’s flood crisis has continued to push up the worth of coking coal, with spot prices heading towards $US400/t.
The steelmaker Baosteel Group, in the first 10 months of 2010 had its stainless steel output reached 218,600t marking a new record high for the company.
Sales and Marketing
We train our customer on how they behave towards us from the very first touch point, be it Brand, Brochure, Website or Sales contact.
- If your customers always ask for a discount, well you probably gave one to them the very first time they asked.
- If your customers do not pay within your agreed terms, then you probably did not ensure they adhered to those terms to start with.
- If your customers keep asking and receiving quotes after quotes, and then not buy, you probably trained them that you were OK with that, they could use you as a third pricing wheel time and time again.
- If any of these are hitting home, change the pattern of behaviour. How you may ask?
Well to start with, everyone in your company has to be congruent with the way you engage with your customers. Your brand, your sales engagement, your customer service, your warehouse people, your account people and your management.
I know of companies who have retrained their customers, and they grew marketshare because of it. You see the customers buy from people they like and trust. Respect is part of the trust equation.
Can your sale team create respect with your customer – if there is any doubt, time to train them accordingly – call us, it is what we do.
Mining Equipment and Services News
LogiCamms has secured a multidiscipline contract worth over $10M by BHP Billiton to execute delivery of a new process facility at the existing Olympic Dam Copper, Uranium and Gold production plant at Roxby Downs.
SKM has reported revenues in excess of $A1B for the third year in a row, according to its 2009-2010 annual review.
KBR has acquired Roberts & Schaefer for $280M, plus preliminary net working capital of $12M.
ESCO Corporation acquired Austcast. In recent months, ESCO has made a number of investments in Australia, including the acquisition of Swift Group in July.
Diversified Mining Services has completed the latest sale of two Atlas Copco Coaltram utility vehicles to underground mine contractor Mastermyne for use in Xstrata’s Oaky Creek complex.
Ampcontrol together with Xstrata and Joy Mining Machinery, have won an Australian Engineering Excellence award for the world’s first 11kV armoured face conveyor longwall system for installation in Zone 1 hazardous areas.
Custom Fluidpower’s new portable pressure-testing device could eliminate a lot of the hydraulic fluid injuries which occur every year in underground coal mines.
Sedgman’s solid pipeline of work has been further strengthened with a $145M contract to expand the CHPP at Lake Vermont mine. The contract, won by the Thiess Sedgman Joint Venture (TSJV), is to design, procure, construct and commission an expansion of the CHPP on behalf of Lake Vermont Resources (LVR). The upgraded CHPP is required to produce up to 4Mt of additional product coal per annum, utilising LVR’s existing train load out system.
Easternwell, a mining services company, will be sold for $575M to Transfield Services . The company currently operates 65 rigs with blue chip customers like BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto, Santos and Woodside. Transfield Services managing director and chief executive officer Peter Goode said the acquisition of Easternwell enabled Transfield to build out its existing suite of operations and maintenance services.
WPG Resources has chosen Kerman Contracting for the design and construction of the handling facility of its flagship Peculiar Knob direct ship iron ore project
Thiess has been awarded a $1.015B extension to its contract to operate the Mt Owen Coal Mine in the Upper Hunter Valley. The new agreement with mine owner Xstrata Coal runs from October 2011 until the end of 2015 and includes an option to extend by a further 6 months. Thiess will operate a total of seven mining fleets with annual material movements of around 40M BCM of waste and 8.5Mt ROM coal at Mt Owen.
Thiess has won a $136M coal seam gas upstream infrastructure contract for early works projects for QSG in the Surat Basin. It will begin work to install field compressor stations, HDPE gathering pipelines, intermediate pressure gas trunklines, water storage ponds and complete site preparation for additional compressor stations.
Thiess announced a 6 year $1.3B contract to extend mining operations at Peabody’s Burton Coal Mine. They will mobilise an additional Liebherr R9800 to work in tandem with the first excavator which has been operating at Burton for nine months. A fleet of Caterpillar 797 trucks, will service the two big excavators, emphasising the scale of the work.
John Holland has been awarded the contract to deliver works between Glenfield South and Leppington for the South West Rail Link project by the NSW Govt’s Transport Construction Authority. The design and construct contract is valued at approximately $550M.
SG Partners offers:-
- sales and customer focus training – refresh and focus people on being customer focused;
- sales team recruitment – ensure people can sell and can manage sales teams;
- sales team analysis – we can identify the hunters, farmers, strengths and weaknesses of qualifying and closing within your sales team and define the exact training and support requirements;
- sales process and engagement consulting – crm, remuneration programs, tender/rfq processes.
Please do not hesitate to contact us if you want to grow your revenue NOW. www.sgpartners.com.au
-27.444768
153.043053
