JL I think your point is well made and backed up by ABARE report...

JL I think your point is well made and backed up by ABARE report today that capital spending in mining industry is up 58% this year and ANZ forecast that spending on major projects in energy mining and infrastructure will almost double by 2014.
For me the challenge is to determine which companies at which point will benefit.It seems at the moment that those companies with a more specialist offering (EHL, BOM etc) appear to be maintaining or improving margins and increasing revenue, whereas those with a braoder set of products may be facing intense prcing competition (This may reflect the point Mike is making).However I think in the short to medium term the AAXs etc will benefit. Personally I need to do a lot more study of the industry to work out which companies are best placed to benefit. But am grateful for your insight regarding how AAX may be perceived.
My decision to go short AAX was based mainly on what I thought was the market misreading the information provided the other day (and perhaps being deliberately misled). It was also a short term trading decision. I went short at $2.99 and exited half my position at $2.84 and the other half at $2.69 yesterday. In the $2.40 to $2.70 range I dont have a view. If it gets up to $3 agian in the very short term I might have another go at shorting but with pretty tight stop loss.