Carbon tax repeal plan draws fire
Energy generation companies are split over Opposition Leader Tony Abbott’s plan to repeal the carbon tax, amid concern about its impact on the national energy market, according to the Australian Financial Review.
Their concerns have prompted independent senator Nick Xenophon, who may hold the balance of power after the election, to warn of the “unintended consequences” of repealing the carbon tax. He has flagged that his vote to repeal the scheme cannot be taken for granted.
It is understood some black coal generators have privately raised concerns that Victorian brown coal power stations will be unfairly advantaged by the repeal of the carbon tax because of the decision not to claw back more than $1 billion in cash payments to compensate them for the impact of the scheme.
Queensland closer to exporting uranium
The Queensland government has not ruled out exporting uranium through the Great Barrier Reef as it looks to reopen the $10 billion uranium industry, according to the Australian Financial Review.
An independent committee report has recommended the Liberal National Party impose a 5 per cent royalty on new uranium mines in the state, which is expected to deliver hundreds of millions of dollars of revenue.
Uranium was last mined in Queensland in the Mary Kathleen mine in northwest Queensland in 1982. It was banned by the Goss Labor government in 1989.
Premier Campbell Newman last year indicated he wanted to overturn the ban to allow the state to take advantage of new export markets, including India.
The committee tasked with looking at the best way to reopen the industry has made 40 recommendations including initially exporting uranium from Queensland from existing federally licensed ports in Adelaide or Darwin.
Metals demand to stay high despite China slowing
Leading commodities forecasters predict that the slowing in China’s economic growth to about 7.5% a year should not be overly concerning to miners because metals demand will remain at elevated levels, according to the Australian Financial Review.
But AME Group chairman Shaun Browne, Wood Mackenzie senior analyst Robin Griffin and CRU Strategies regional director for Australasia, Allan Trench, have told the Mines and Money Conference in Hong Kong that in bulk commodities in particular, it was clear that only high-quality projects were likely to be approved.
Browne said together, Vale, Rio Tinto, BHP Billiton and Fortescue Metals Group controlled 80% of the seaborne iron ore export market and were expected to maintain a supply oligopoly for the rest of the decade.
“With the concentration power in the industry, you would expect price volatility to be less because you will have a better match between supply and demand,” he said.
