Let's hope Trump gets his wish. The US will buy their steel from China, which will continue to push up the price of Iron Ore
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Trump facing infrastructure spending resistance as miners hopeful $1.3 trillion still on table
ABC Rural
By
Babs McHugh
24 Jan 2017, 1:14pm
After tearing up the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a promise from the campaign trail, Australian miners and service providers hope US President Donald Trump will get through another pledge — his massive infrastructure spend.
President Trump has
promised to allocate $1.3 trillion ($US1 trillion) in infrastructure spending across the United States for roads, rail, rolling stock, bridges, utilities, public transport, factories and pipelines.
He has already faced stern resistance, with the Associated Press reporting on Tuesday that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has informed the President that the plan needs to be paid for, and not added to, the existing debt of $26.4 trillion ($US20 trillion).
But if President Trump can make the deal, a national infrastructure program of this size would require an immense amount of bulk mineral commodities such as coal and iron ore, as well as base metals such as nickel, zinc, lead and copper.
Independent analyst and author of investor publication StockAnalysis, Peter Strachan, said Australian miners could well stand to benefit if it goes ahead.
"All those projects would need lots of steel and cement," he said.
"Yes, they do produce a lot of their own product, but looking at steel for example the Americans are more oriented towards manufacturing higher grade stainless steel products which use a lot of nickel.
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They generally import their commodity grade [structural] steel, such as long and rolled, from China and other Asian manufacturing nations.
"Australian miners have high quality coking coal (a key ingredient in steel making), and the iron ore out of Western Australia is very competitively priced."
Technology and engineering opportunities
Another resources-related sector that would benefit from a $1.3 trillion infrastructure stimulus would be the mining, equipment, technology and service sectors, known collectively as METS.
There are several thousand businesses under that banner operating in Australia and produce exports worth more than $15 billion.
"The fact is a lot of people think that Australia is just a quarry, which to some extend we are," Mr Strachan said.
"But we're also global leaders in the software that runs mines, for example. Software used extensively in planning and geology and exploration programs, and so forth."
Whether or not all of the infrastructure projects of the larger plan do get up, the case for the massive spend is certain to be pursued aggressively.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-01-...ollar-infrastructure/8207420?section=business
