Billionaires vie to build railroad to Australia’s $40bn coal region

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 26 Feb 2012 20:39:00 +0700

The race to open a $40 billion (R308bn) coal region in Australia is being led by billionaires Gina Rinehart and Clive Palmer. Victory depends on who wins approval to build a 500km railroad to the coast.

Rinehart, 58, Asia-Pacific’s richest woman, and Indian billionaire GV Krishna Reddy’s GVK Group are developing a $10bn mine, rail and port project in the landlocked Galilee Basin in northern Queensland state. Adani Enterprises, India’s biggest coal importer, has a competing $6.8bn plan to build Australia’s largest coal mine in the same area.

The proposed Galilee railroad will allow Australia, already the second-largest shipper of coal for utilities, to more than double exports as China and India compete for supplies. Palmer’s China First has threatened an A$8 billion (R66bn) lawsuit against a fourth rail proponent, QR National, the nation’s largest coal train operator.

“There is enormous money to be spent on connecting the mines to the port and everybody wants their own solution,” Andrew Harrington, a resources analyst at Patersons Securities in Sydney, said.

“There’s been strong tension between the Hancocks and the Clive Palmers and Adanis about where the line goes. And now QR National has come in as a fourth.”

Mining companies are being forced to dig further inland to profit from the rising consumption in China and India, the two fastest-growing major economies. China will account for 63 percent of the increase in global coal demand through 2016, the International Energy Agency said in a December report.

Electricity demand in Asia, excluding Japan, will triple by 2025, with thermal coal remaining the main fuel for generation, according to Royal Bank of Scotland. Australian thermal coal exports might rise 48 percent over that period, the bank said.

Rinehart, whose $18bn fortune tops Forbes Asia’s rich list, is set to become the world’s wealthiest woman this year, surpassing Walmart’s Christy Walton. She has spent two decades expanding assets inherited from her father, Lang Hancock, who discovered mines that made Australia the world’s biggest iron ore exporter. She now controls closely held Hancock Prospecting.

Palmer, 57, is the fifth-richest Australian, worth A$5.05bn, BRW magazine said in May. He amassed his first fortune in real estate before moving into resources. In 2010, he rewarded workers at his Queensland nickel refinery with bonuses including 700 vacations in Fiji and 50 Mercedes-Benz sedans.

“Clive Palmer and Gina Rinehart – I think the cast in this drama is the difficult part,” said Prasad Patkar at Platypus Asset Management in Sydney. “They may need a compelling reason to collaborate, and that compelling reason may be the government insisting on one set of infrastructure if they want to develop their tenements.”

The Queensland government wants only a single rail corridor, state co-ordinator-general Keith Davies said in a January 27 statement that revealed QR National’s A$2bn proposal.

Mark Hairsine, a spokesman for QR National, declined to comment on the threatened lawsuit. Hancock Prospecting, which asked that requests for comment to be sent in writing, did not respond to an e-mailed message.

Mining companies in the basin should build a jointly owned railway to save costs and speed development, Vale, the biggest exporter of iron ore, said in November. The company may build a $10bn project in the region. AMCI Capital, planning the $4.1bn South Galilee project, also said in November that the producers needed to co-operate.

Proximity to ports

“These basins are getting further and further away from the coast,” Tom Price, a commodity analyst at UBS in Sydney, said. “The freight factor becomes critical.”

The Galilee basin covers more than 247 000km2 and contains more than 14 billion tons of coal, according to Hancock’s website. Adani, controlled by billionaire Gautam Adani, 49, may spend as much as $6.8bn on its Carmichael project, which is expected to produce 60 million tons of coal. This would make it Australia’s largest coal mine, according to UBS.

“It’s not unnatural given the scale and the nature of the interest that there is a tension,” Lance Hockridge, the chief executive of Brisbane-based QR National, said over a week ago on a call with reporters. “I wouldn’t like to predict what will happen.”

UBS analyst Price said he was optimistic the area would be opened.

“This coal will get into the market because it’s better than anything the Indians are consuming, and it’s better than about a third of the Chinese market, and it’s on par to a little bit better than a big chunk of Indonesian exports,” he said.

In India, shortages of local coal have prompted power producers to rely on imported fuel for new plants. Since 2007, companies including Tata Power, GVK Group and Reliance Power have announced $4.4bn of coal-mine acquisitions in Indonesia and Australia, according to data.

Rinehart last year got the backing of GVK, which agreed in September to pay $1.26bn to buy the Kevin’s Corner coal project, 79 percent stakes in Alpha and Alpha West developments, as well as all of Hancock’s rail and port project.

“Our rail corridor is the most advanced in the Galilee basin,” GV Sanjay Reddy, the vice-chairman of GVK Power & Infrastructure, the group’s publicly traded unit, said on Thursday in Brisbane. “Who will be selected is up to open competition and given that we believe we’re the first, I don’t see why we should be in a disadvantageous position from that point of view.”

GVK shares declined 1.2 percent to 17.15 rupees (R2.6611) at 2.09pm in Mumbai on Friday. The company has dropped 33 percent in the past year.

Andrew Crook, of Crook Publicity, an outside spokesman for Waratah Coal, declined to comment.

Palmer’s Waratah Coal, which incorporates China First, says Metallurgical Corporation of China has arranged funding for 70 percent of the $8bn capital cost of the China First project, according to its website.

Hancock, which has sent trial shipments to China and South Korea, expects to see first coal in 2015, and Waratah forecasts first production in late 2014.

The Galilee is estimated to produce more than 200 million tons of thermal coal a year, mostly for export, from at least five major projects, QR National said in a February 16 investor presentation.

Global thermal coal exports during 2011 totalled an estimated 783 million tons, according to Morgan Stanley.

Australia shipped 143 million tons of thermal coal in fiscal 2011, as well as 140 million tons for steelmaking, government figures show, making it the world’s biggest steelmaking and second-largest exporter of thermal coal after Indonesia.

“Galilee is going to be a very significant challenge logistically, but I think the coal market will need coal from the Galilee Basin probably toward the backend of this current decade,” Peter Richardson, the chief metals economist at Morgan Stanley Australia, said. – Bloomberg

2012 Competition Guide

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 09:16:00 +0700

Welcome to the 2012 SSBC Competition Guide.

This guide has been developed by the National Rules Committee to supplement the official rules. This guide is considered to be an AID to competitors, hosts, and judges involved in the competition both at the ASCE student conference and national levels. The information presented here is not intended to supersede the rules. If there is a conflict, then the rules govern.

Competition Mission:

The mission of the ASCE/AISC Student Steel Bridge Competition (SSBC) is to supplement the education of civil engineering students with a comprehensive, student-driven project experience from conception and design through fabrication, erection, and testing, culminating in a steel structure that meets client specifications and optimizes performance and economy. The SSBC increases awareness of real-world engineering issues such as spatial constraints, material properties, strength, serviceability, fabrication and erection processes, safety, esthetics, and cost. Success in inter-collegiate competition requires effective teamwork and project management. Future engineers are stimulated to innovate, practice professionalism, and use structural steel efficiently.

Organization

The Student Steel Bridge Competition is sponsored by the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) and by the American Institute of Steel Construction (AISC) and co-sponsored by the American Iron and Steel Institute, the James F. Lincoln Arc Welding Foundation, the National Steel Bridge Alliance, Nucor Corporation, Nelson Stud Welding, the Canadian Institute of Steel Construction (CISC), the Structural Steel Education Foundation (SSEF), Bentley, and DSS Solidworks.
The Rules Committee is a joint committee appointed by ASCE Educational Activities and the AISC University Relations staff. In spring 2011 the committee consisted of nine members, most with considerable experience with the competition. Members on the committee come from both industry and academia. The names of the members of the rules committee are listed on page 4 of the 2012 rules.
Competitions are held both at a regional (at ASCE student conferences) and a national level.
The regional competitions are held in conjunction with ASCE Student Conferences. Each ASCE student chapter may enter the ASCE student conference competition in the conference of which they are a member.
Participation in the National competition is by invitation only. Invitations to Nationals are extended to the top performing teams in each ASCE student conference. See the rules for more details about the selection process.

Source : http://www.nssbc.info

Indosteel

Billionaires vie to build railroad to Australia’s $40bn coal region

2012 Competition Guide