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Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Resource Nationalism is main business risk for mining sectors,E&Y SURVEY

Wednesday, 10 August 11 |By coalspot

Resource nationalism is top of the business risk list for mining and metals companies around the world, while supply capacity constraint issues continue to dominate the top 10 rankings in Ernst & Young’s annual Business risks facing mining & metals 2011-2012 report, released today.

Ernst & Young Global Mining & Metals Leader Mike Elliot says in the past 12-18 months at least 25 countries have increased or announced intentions to increase their government take via taxes or royalties. “Resource nationalism is taking other forms as well, including greater controls on foreign participation mandated beneficiation, use it or lose it demands and mandated government participation,” says Elliott.

Vietnam, for example, yesterday announced that export taxes on all kinds of coal would be increased from the current 15 percent to 20 percent as of September 2011, to limit the outflow of the natural resource, according to a new circular issued by Vietnam’s Ministry of Finance. Meanwhile, Indonesia is currently in the process of drafting a new regulation that could ban the export of low-grade coal (below 5100 Kcal/kg) by 2014.

“Resource nationalism reflects the expectation among governments that the sector should be contributing more for the right to exploit natural resources,” he says.

According Ernst & Young, the global skills shortage remains in second spot. Infrastructure access jump from the sixth position last year to the third position this year. The other risks are social license to operate (last year in the 5th position), capital project execution (new), price and currency volatility (9), capital allocation (1), cost management (3), interruptions to supply (new), and the last position fraud and corruption (new).

However, Elliot says it’s the myriad of supply capacity constraints that continue to dominate the risk list, accounting for six of the top 10-including the global skills shortage, capital allocation, infrastructure access, capital project execution, cost management, and interruptions to supply.

“The market is probably excessively optimistic about how much and how quickly new production is going to come on. All these supply capacity risks mean companies are unlikely to be able to capture the premium pricing as quickly. It also impacts the cost profile of projects, so there will need to be a higher rate of return to attract new investment and as a result commodity prices will need to be higher,” Elliot said.

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