Rio Tinto upbeat on copper amid end of boom fears August 24, 2012 The positive long-term outlook for copper remains intact, the head of Rio Tinto’s copper division said today, adding his voice to a chorus of mining executives reluctant to call time on the resources boom. Debate over whether the decade-long bull run in commodities has ended has ramped up in recent days as China heads for [...]
BHP postpones Olympic Dam copper project August 22, 2012 MINER BHP Billiton has shelved plans for its $30bn (£18.9bn) Olympic Dam expansion, and said that no major new projects would be approved until next June. The delay to the Olympic Dam project in southern Australia, which is the world’s fourth-largest copper deposit and largest uranium source, came as BHP reported a 35 per cent [...]
Analyst Views | What do you think of BHP billiton’s annual results? August 22, 2012 JONATHAN JACKSON KILLIK & CO Although risks to global GDP growth remain, the current rating of the stock remains attractive and we therefore reiterate our positive recommendation on the stock, which provides exposure to the themes of urbanisation and industrialisation across the developing world. RICHARD KNIGHTS LIBERUM CAPITAL In the medium term we expect supportive [...]
Miners and Eurozone politicians take the shine off the FTSE 100 August 22, 2012 MINERS left Britain’s top share index nursing sharp losses yesterday after BHP Billiton’s results offered a bleak outlook for the sector, while other cyclical stocks were weaker as Greek and European officials met on the Eurozone debt crisis. London’s blue chip index was down 83.32 points, or 1.4 per cent, at 5,774.20. Cyclical stocks such [...]
BHP Billiton delays £12.7bn Olympic Dam project August 22, 2012 Top global miner BHP Billiton shelved its planned $20bn (£12.7bn) Olympic Dam copper expansion today as it reported a 35 per cent slide in second-half profit in the biggest sign of the pain inflicted by the slowdown in China’s economic growth. BHP reported its first annual profit fall in three years in the face of [...]
The car in front is a… What? A Kia? August 21, 2012 The car market used to be so much easier to understand. You used to be able to make a brand table that looked like a ladder, with value brands at the bottom and premium brands at the top. As a manufacturer you either made a lot of cars and sold them for less profit per [...]
Car talk August 21, 2012 Want one of these? Don’t hold your breath This unusual-looking beast is a one-off supercar built by McLaren Special Operations (MSO), the bespoke division within McLaren Automotive. Called the McLaren X-1 it is based on the company’s carbon MonoCell structure and has a unique, bespoke “timeless” and “classically elegant” body. It took two and a [...]
Market awaits public finance and GDP news August 19, 2012 HIGHLIGHTS for the economic week ahead will be tomorrow’s release of UK’s public finance data, followed by the revision of the second quarter’s GDP figures on Friday. While analysts fear there will only be a small surplus for the July finances figure – or possibly a loss – market watchers believe there will be some [...]
BHP Billiton cuts jobs down under August 16, 2012 BHP Billiton warned yesterday of job losses as rising costs and falling commodity prices continued to bite. It is understood that jobs will be cut from its Australian coal mines. It follows job cuts from fellow miners Xstrata and Rio Tinto. The prospect of job cuts raises doubts about the strength of Australia’s mining boom, [...]
BHP Billiton warns of job cuts in coal August 16, 2012 BHP Billiton said today that jobs could go at its Australian coal mines as the company faces a deteriorating market, the latest sign of global miners scaling back operations due to slowing industrial activity in China. The prospect of job cuts raises doubts about the strength of Australia’s mining boom, which has hinged on China [...]