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CHINA Sat 04/02/2012

China coal trains won’t drive prices down, says analyst

November 24 - 30, 2011

IT’S a theory that has gained more momentum as the current market malaise has dragged on: that China’s roll-out of rail networks throughout its key coal provinces will further lower the floor propping up thermal coal prices.

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Mixed views on China relaxing policy

November 10 - 16, 2011

THE latest data out of China suggests the issue of inflation has come under some sort of control. But analysts are divided over whether the easing inflation rate will lead to a loosening of the tight monetary policy that has hurt demand for commodities in recent months.

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Jitters overtake ‘constructive' China view

October 13 - 19, 2011

RUMOURS and speculation about the health of the Chinese economy appear to be causing as much angst among investors as the very real and very tangible economic crisis playing out in Europe. That’s the impression of Hong Kong-based Merrill Lynch economist Ting Lu, who has just returned home from the bank’s annual conference in Washington DC.

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Property symptomatic of broader China malaise?

September 29 - October 5, 2011

THE latest signs of a slow-down in the Chinese property market should be unnerving to followers of Australia’s resources sector for a number of reasons.

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Real trouble in little China

August 25 - 31, 2011

A CORPORATE scandal engulfing a Hong Kong-listed gold miner is doing little for the already embattled reputation of the Chinese-based companies listed there.

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Flaw in housing projection: Goldman

August 18 - 24, 2011

THE veracity of a wire story last week that said China may be lowering its target for 10 million housing starts next year by 20% has been questioned by the commodity team at Goldman Sachs. Hear, hear say the commodity bulls.

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One way is up

August 11 - 17, 2011

AMID all the speculation around the direction of China’s economy, one Australian has returned from a visit to the country with a very positive impression of China’s steel industry and its ongoing demand for Australian resources.

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China’s peddlers power Galaxy

July 7 - 13, 2011

Efforts by the Chinese Government to reduce its reliance on fossil fuels (and hence China’s generation of carbon dioxide production) may have more or less guaranteed a secure long term off-take arrangement for one of Australia’s latest niche mineral miners.

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Long-term players rarer still

June 30 - July 6, 2011

Of the 250 or so aspiring rare earths players around the globe, only four or five will reach their goal of becoming a producer.

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Does Australia risk being hit with the bamboo stick?

June 30 - July 6, 2011

AUSTRALIAN iron ore veteran George Jones knows a thing or two about China. And in his view there are two big risks when it came to the so-called Chinese economic miracle.

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China expert urges broader Asia focus

June 30 - July 6, 2011

CHINA’S dominance as Australia’s major resources trading partner and investor is a good thing, according to Chinese cross-border business specialist, Beijing Axis managing director Kobus van der Wath, but the rest of Asia shouldn’t be forgotten.

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China-Australia nexus written in stone

June 23 - 29, 2011

A LOOK at “Generation Next” suggests China is keen to build a national mining champion to rival the current western world heavyweights, and that Australia stands well and truly alone as the single most common location of major project developments globally over the next decade.

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China’s betterment causing concerns

March 17 - 23, 2011

LONDON-listed Griffin Mining has become a poster child for success in China yet its market value defies the production and growth profile at its Caijiaying zinc mine. The company has an enviable network of Chinese contacts and has earned the respect of both local and national authorities over 14 years, but may paradoxically be the victim of the Eastern giant’s push for a cleaner, safer industry.

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China a more complex factor going forward

December 8 - 14, 2010

AS CHINA’S Central government prepares its next five year plan, understanding how Australian iron ore fits into the bigger picture of Chinese growth remains a vital undertaking, especially for juniors concerned with accessing the country’s capital reserves.

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Many hands might make light work of commodity prices

October 6 - 12, 2010

SHOULD there be any concerns that almost every single week for the past few years a Chinese party has acquired another resources project somewhere around the globe? Is there any danger that in the not too distant future the resource sector may begin to look a sad and sorry space for investor returns as the Chinese instigate sufficient developments to ratchet down commodity prices?

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FerrAus gains another Chinese backer

June 30 - July 6, 2010

CHINESE group Wah Nam International Holdings has quietly established a position in two of the Pilbara’s up and coming iron ore plays, FerrAus and Brockman Resources. For FerrAus, the cash injection comes at a good time and implications about consolidation in the Pilbara are a welcome, if still indefinite proposition.

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Nickel producers look to iron out concerns

June 16 - 22, 2010

CONCERNS about nickel pig iron (NPI) production destroying the conventional nickel mining sector are misplaced according to industry players, who maintain NPI is high cost and essentially representative of swing production. Indeed it is set to be helpful in dampening the large price spikes that typically see nickel end users seeking substitutes.

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Safe as houses

June 9 - 15, 2010

CHINA’S emerging housing bubble and its wider ramifications for the Chinese economy have, alongside the Eurozone crisis and to a lesser extent Australia’s proposed resources super profit tax, unsettled markets around the world. But a puncturing of the Chinese housing bubble does not pose much of a risk for the mining industry, despite concerns it could drag the nation’s superheated economy down.

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China’s shopping spree slowing?

June 2 - 8, 2010

WHAT will China buy next? If Andrew Forrest’s predictions are accurate the country’s state-owned enterprises will swoop onto Australian companies, weakened by the Rudd Government’s new mining profits tax. But thus far, Chinese investment has actually been only a small part of global activity in the mining sector and Chinese companies seem to be taking a much more cautious approach than during the financial crisis, although securing supply remains a key concern.

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When in China ...

June 2 - 8, 2010

THROW away the MBA and ignore much of the basis of everyday business dealings in the West. Instead, adhering to “brutal pragmatism” and five key principles should be the guiding lights for Westerners hoping to capitalise on the Chinese thirst for natural resources.

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