I'm quite friendly with a guy at Afferro. AFF obviously monitor this situation - they will be huge winners from the Chinese commiting to the development of the railroad. I think the AFF guys are fairly friendly with the SDL guys. In his personal capacity [not official Co stuff of course], he is confident like you that the Chinese will complete but that they need to ensure suitable SOE partners with offtake needs & competence to build the project. He thinks that SDL shareholders understandably just want paid & out but that the Chinese are focused on getting everything right & for them the prior timetable has been a bit artificial & more driven by the pressure from the shareholders.
I think the Chinese tend to agree to unrealistic timetables because in their culture saying "no we can't do it by this time" is considered blunt & rude - so they say "we try our best" meaning no chance by that date! [I had some experience of this when trying to get factory production timetables agreed with Taiwanese / Chinese factories]. I think the extended timetable this time is because SDL might have said tell us realistically when you can deliver.
SDL Price at posting:
34.0¢ Sentiment: None Disclosure: Not Held
