From the Australian Fortescue Review (AFR) today:
At the Boao Forum in China, Andrew Forrest gestures to the river behind him and to the accumulation of apartments and trendy bars and restaurants, often constructed from old fishing boats, lining the opposite side.
…”When you move to a more consumption-led economy, people not only expect a higher standard of living, they demand it. Does it mean that we will see the same huge freeways and massive airports that are so visible to many analysts and the media? Not to the same extent. But people still want the bridges and the re-enforced steel and the houses for them and their children, as well as better services and high-quality food. That evolution is happening right across China.”
And for such a big economy to be growing at more than 6 per cent a year is “huge”, he says.
Not that it makes even Forrest, the eternal corporate optimist, anything like a bull on the iron ore price.
He still says the demand is “well and truly there” but it is not increasing, with the global oversupply of iron also taking a long time to work through the system.
“For every job lost, one should look to the loud critics of my warning about oversupply a year ago,” he says.
Jennifer Hewett is at the Boao Forum as a guest of Fortescue Metals Group
And on it drones with Andrew Forrest’s unedited and loopy clap trap about the major producer’s “iron ore vandalism” which is self-serving drivel, has nothing to do with real commodity economics, yet is presented without any dissenting voices or alternative expert views. Same goes at The Australian:
He said the uncertainty had also been having an adverse effect on foreign investors’ view of Australia.
“The two things which people constantly shake their heads about is the self-harm of the deliberate oversupply strategy (of iron ore),” which he said belonged to “an era which has passed”.
He added: “And what we need to consign to the dustbin just as urgently is unrepresentative macro influences by people who are totally unqualified and certainly unrepresentative to act for the Australian people.”
Mr Forrest also spoke out at what he described was the “dishonesty” in some sectors of the union movement.
“We cannot have an Australia which has dishonesty in industrial relations. It just can’t happen. Industrial relations has a real role to play,” he said.
“We have seen wanton dishonesty in the industrial relations system, right throughout the union movement.
“I have seen it with my own eyes and I know how destructive it is for the workers who are the ones who ultimately suffer.”
Glenda Korporaal is in China as a guest of FMG.
It’s not exactly cash-for-comment but it is junket-for-silence and for the life of me I can’t see what the Australian Fortescue Review gets out of the deal.
