Commodity crunch leaves miners gasping for air

The commodities crunch has now squeezed so tight that few miners have breathing space at these levels, according to the Sydney Morning Herald.

Analysts at Petra Capital estimate that up to 70% of the world's nickel mines are now loss-making.

In the copper market, close to 40% of mines are believed to be loss-making at Tuesday's price of $US2.07 a pound.

Orica profits hit after losing battle with Australian Tax Office

Explosives maker Orica will take a $36 million hit to its bottom line after the Federal Court found it had avoided tax by using “round robin” financing arrangement it put in place a decade ago to boost its profit and ward off takeover bids, according to the Sydney Morning Herald.

Orica battled with the tax office over the circular financing arrangements the explosives maker put in place in 2002 to improve profits for the then struggling group in October this year.

The ATO had originally slapped Orica with revised tax assessments for 2004, 2005 and 2006 years totalling $50.6 million, according to Orica's annual report.

China snaps up iron ore in November

The Australian Financial Review reports that China's iron ore imports rose 8.8% in November from the previous month to 82.13 million tonnes, customs data showed, although the spike must have been due to some “opportunistic buying” as prices fell, according to ANZ senior commodity strategist Daniel Hynes.

“We aren't seeing any restocking activity going on now but certainly the additional growth ... in capacity in Australia is lending itself to stronger imports and the continued closure of domestic iron ore mines in China is supporting that,” Hynes said.