From the AFR this morning:
Packer family lieutenant Ashok Jacob, who runs fund manager Ellerston Capital, has likened the rise and fall of the iron ore price to the boom and bust of technology stocks and Japan’s 1980s bubble economy.
…“You are not going to move on to a new glorious outcome in terms of commodity prices…The big ticket capex [in China] has been spent. Now the marginal return on new capital spending is going to be pretty close to zero.”
…Fortescue Metals Group is shedding more than 1000 staff as part of an attempt to create a competitive cost base in the new price market.
“No one anticipated the sharp fall in iron ore prices and the prolonged nature of the fall,” Fortescue said in a note to employees last week.
Nobody anticipated the end of the iron ore boom…
It is going to be quite painful to listen to this refrain from the Australian elite for the next few years.
