Iron ore is Australia’s highest valued and most successful commodity export (see Figure 1). Throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, this mining industry played a key role in both Australia’s and the global economy. The change in the industry was brought about, particularly, by the many operations and movements resulting from globalisation that pushed Australia’s exports further than they had ever been. In 2007, “Australia produced around 16% of the world's iron ore and was ranked third behind China (32%) and Brazil (19%)” (Minerals Council of Australia, 2008). Although Australia is not the largest producer, it is currently the largest exporter of iron ore in the world (Australian Minerals Industry, 2008).
In 1997, Australia produced 158 million tonnes of iron ore. However, in 2007, this figure had more than doubled with a total of 320 million tonnes (U.S. Geological Survey, 2008). Such a significant change is partly attributed to the continuous expansion and diversification of the industry’s two key players, Rio Tinto Group and BHP Billiton, into the Pilbara region of northwestern Australia. Other sensitivities include environmental and social demands, technological advancements, and research and development amongst others. It must be noted that each of these factors can be drawn back to a single title that is a major influence on industries worldwide: globalisation. ‘Figure 2’ shows the production levels of iron ore over the 2006-07 period, and its export value compared to other mined minerals.
The driving forces of globalisation have a direct impact on the success of the iron ore mining industry in Australia in terms of the national and global economies. BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto Group, both as Transnational Corporations (TNCs), have further increased industry sales and exports, and reduced the costs of production by utilising economies of scale. Mine expansion and the opening of new mines in the iron-rich areas of Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria have resulted in great benefits for the Australian economy and rapid national growth in the global economy.
China, as the world’s largest importer of Australian iron ore, is considered one of the greatest influences on the success of the industry. If China were to reduce its purchases of Australian iron ore and rely more on its own sources and that of countries such as Brazil, India or Russia, Australia’s growth in the global economy would lessen and the Australian economy would be disrupted as a result of unexpected sales issues. “Growth in the Chinese economy and its demand for mineral resources, particularly base metals, iron ore and coal continue to play an important role in the outlook for exploration in Australia.
BlueScope Steel Australia and New Zealand (BANZ) is a manufacturing company that produces a range of flat steel products for the Australian and New Zealand domestic market. BANZ was formed in July of 2011 which saw the amalgamation of company sections; Australia and New Zealand Steel Making Business (ANZSMB), LYSAGHT and Distribution Business. This amalgamation was followed by a major organisational restructure which ultimately led to the closing down of Number 6 Blast Furnace and resulted in around 800 job losses at the Port Kembla works and 200 job losses at the Western Port works in Victoria. The aim of this project is to outline the rationale for the restructure and to provide a strategic analysis of the impact of the restructure on BANZ’s current market position. This will be achieved by first analysing the economic climate pre-restructure and evaluating the managerial decisions that led to the restructure. It will then explore the current economic climate in relation to BANZ to determine whether these strategic managerial decisions were sound. Finally the report will outline BANZ future developments and determine if the company will continue to be competitive in the future.
[3] "Industrial Metamorphosis." The Economist. The Economist Newspaper Limited, 01 Oct. 2005. Web. 9 Dec. 2013. .
Following the success of the American Gold rush, the Australian Gold rush attracted many migrants from all over the globe. The Chinese prospectors were perhaps the most controversial and the most interesting nationality to come to the goldfields
Roughly thirty years ago, iron started to become scarce across the globe. The value of iron rose considerably, and soon became more valuable than gold. As you know, we use iron to make steel, which builds buildings, roads, and basically any form of infrastructure you can
A consulting firm, Rhodium Group calculates that global steel production rose by 57% in the decade to 2014, with Chinese mills making up 91% of this increase.[7]
BHP Billiton is the most successful company throughout the world by using unchanged strategies in their business. They have a strategy to operate large, low cost, expandable, and upstream commodities by using raw materials, geography, different assets and market, which give them a superior marginal costs throughout economic and commodity cycles for several years. They put the security of their workers first and supporting them by providing various facilities (see appendix 1). Their diversification makes the easy cash flow system by reducing the exposure to any one commodity and give for more identifiable and great financial performances. To become more successful BHP have heaps of human resources or workforce which reflect their values and communities. They have aim to recruit and attract other people who make their organization successful and thrive on working in teams and going to their extra miles to give their best. Moreover, they are committed to meet the changing needs of their customers. They have world class portfolio of growth option that will make them able to plan for a short term and long term goals and continuing them to create value for their shareholders which BHP more powerful (BHP Billiton, 2014). By using these all measures BHP Billiton kept its solid position in the nine month period till the end of March 2014 with the record of production attained for four items and at 10 operations. In aggregate, processing expanded by 10% for throughout the period what's more is required to develop by 16% over the two years to the end of the 2015 fiscal year. For further development BHP having a plan to start new projects where they pursuing a higher rate of returns on incremental investment and increasing inter...
Over the past five years the Australian economy has gone through many changes experiencing both the peaks and troughs associated with business cycle.
Objectives • To evaluate the difficulty of mining and reclamation To calculate costs, expenses, income, and profit from a hands-on mining exercise. • To evaluate the effectiveness of reclamation and its added costs to mining. To describe the increasing rarity of some non-renewable mineral resources. Introduction Minerals play an important role in our day-to-day life, but we often do not contemplate how the minerals are obtained. Minerals are scattered all over the world, just like any other resource.
In the early part of this century was a time when industry was booming with growth around the installation of major railroads. With this growth came the transatlantic cable, the telegraph, and a whole lot of steel. Steel would be needed in the construction of these new transportation systems and communications were now possible between businesses and industries. (Wren, 2005)
We say that we are heading toward a more global economy because of the fact that competition in today’s markets is global. This means that corporations in the United States can compete in foreign markets and vice versa, therefore U.S. corporations and foreign corporations become interdependent and thrive off each other. This can have a good impact on the United States because it allows U.S. corporations to seek materials and labor outside of the U.S. in countries such as China, India, and Mexico, where workers are paid a lot less money than U.S. workers, thus allowing them to sell their products for significantly cheaper than if they were produced in the U.S.; however, the tradeoff is that many American workers in the industrial sector lose jobs due to this shift of labor to overseas. In the long run this will be beneficial for the U.S. and although some percentage of workers are losing work, new jobs in the services sector, in fields such as computer technology, telecommunications, and language skills are opening up and experiencing growth because of this change.
As recently as six years ago, while investors were still in thrall to a dotcom bubble that had yet to burst, steel was derided as one of the last bastions of the "old" economy. Many firms in the industry were state-owned or heavily protected by governments keen to preserve assets deemed vital to national interests. Globalization had left the steel business behind. It is a measure of the changes that have swept the business since the internet bubble popped that last week Arcelor, a company created through a 2001 merger of the top French, Spanish and Luxembourg steelmakers, made a hostile bid of C$4.
The mining industry is a billion dollar industry that has been around for years. In calendar your 2016 a net profit of $US20 billion was the aggregated profit for global miners. The year before, 2015, the mining industry had a record high gearing ratios, 49%. The industry took advantage of better operation conditions to pay down debt, reducing the gearing ratios to 41%. Many company front line executives took advantage to reduce debt and fortify their company balance sheets. The results of reducing company debts resulted in minimum funds for capital expenditure
Though it has had many negative impacts on the environment in the past, mining is a vital industry completely necessary to our economy and lives. Nearly every item we use or encounter in our day to day lives is mined or contains mined products. Without the excavation of such materials things like computers, televisions, large building structures, electricity, and cars would not be possible. Virtually every technological and medical advance uses minded materials, without which millions would suffer. Some examples of minerals in the home include the telephone which is made from as many as 42 different minerals, including aluminum, beryllium, coal, copper, gold, iron, silver, and talc. A television requires over 35 different minerals, and more than 30 minerals are needed to make a single personal computer. Without boron, copper, gold and quartz, your digital alarm clock would not work. Every American uses an average 47,000 pounds of newly mined materials each year, which is higher than all other countries with the exception of Japan, which is a staggering figure representative of our dependence and need for mined minerals. Coal makes up more than half of nation’s electricity, and will continue to be the largest electrical supplier into 2020 & accounting for some 95 percent of the nation's fossil energy reserves – nine of every ten short-tons of coal mined in the United States is used for electricity generation. As the population of the world grows more mineral resources must be exploited through mining in order to support the rising demand for such products. Though it may present a hazard to the environment and those physically located nears the mines, the materials extracted from mines...
Great Britain’s natural resources were a major factor in its early industrialization. One of the main resources was the abundance of both coal and iron. These two elements could be easily used in many different aspects of industrialization, and the amount of each led innovators to use them in all aspects of manufacturing in order to lower costs. Due
Warhurst, A. (1999). Mining and the environment: case studies from the Americas. Ottawa, ON, Canada: International Development Research Centre.