RIO hoses down Forrest

Advertisement

From the Canbarra Times comes Sam Walsh who confirmed RIO will proceed with its looming expansion:

Responding to recent criticism from Fortescue chairman Andrew Forrest and WA premier Colin Barnett, Mr Walsh said Rio’s growth strategy and market share had scaresely changed over the past decade.

“A decade ago when I led the iron ore group, public commentary on iron ore was somewhat more moderate than it is today,” he said

“Rio Tinto’s well-flagged investments over many years, and the fact our market share today of 20 per cent, is the same as it was a decade ago…this invalidates suggestions that we are responsible for a perceived market dislocation.

“We take no comfort is what is happening to some of the smaller, higher cost iron ore producers that are finding it hard to compete.”

Very sensible. Take the heat out it. Hysteria is Twiggy’s only weapon.

Meanwhile, from The Australian:

“We’ve completely derisked our assets and therefore it’s a good time to be thinking about (sales), but we don’t have anything under active consideration and we’ll just take it as it comes,” chief executive Nev Power said on the sidelines of a Sydney conference.

“As you saw from our balance sheet, there’s no imperative for us to do anything,” he added.

Then don’t.

Advertisement
About the author
David Llewellyn-Smith is Chief Strategist at the MB Fund and MB Super. David is the founding publisher and editor of MacroBusiness and was the founding publisher and global economy editor of The Diplomat, the Asia Pacific’s leading geo-politics and economics portal. He is also a former gold trader and economic commentator at The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, the ABC and Business Spectator. He is the co-author of The Great Crash of 2008 with Ross Garnaut and was the editor of the second Garnaut Climate Change Review.