{"id":15900,"date":"2012-10-26T08:04:16","date_gmt":"2012-10-26T06:04:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/10\/rpt-update-1-bhp-calls-on-governments-to-help-with-cost-cutting\/"},"modified":"2012-10-26T08:04:16","modified_gmt":"2012-10-26T06:04:16","slug":"rpt-update-1-bhp-calls-on-governments-to-help-with-cost-cutting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/rpt-update-1-bhp-calls-on-governments-to-help-with-cost-cutting\/","title":{"rendered":"RPT-UPDATE 1-BHP calls on governments to help with cost-cutting"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n

(Repeats item from late Thursday, no change to text)<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

By Clara Ferreira-Marques<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

LONDON<\/span> Oct 25 (Reuters) – BHP Billiton ,
\nthe world’s largest miner, called on governments on Thursday to
\nsupport the industry’s efforts to slash costs in the face of
\ncooler demand, asking them to rein in demands on royalties,
\ntaxes and regulation.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Miners, their profits crunched by increased costs and softer
\nprices, have in recent months been scaling back expansions and
\nspending, particularly in high-cost locations like Australia,
\nraising concerns that the decade-long mining boom is over.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

BHP has been flagging for several months that demand growth
\nin China for steel making materials would slow over the next few
\nyears. It now sees China’s economy growing at a slower 7-8
\npercent this year and around that level over the next 10 years.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

“The reality is that we cannot do this heavy lifting on
\ncompetitiveness alone,” Chief Executive Marius Kloppers told
\nshareholders at the group’s annual general meeting in London,
\nreferring to job cuts, spending restraint and a re-evaluation of
\nits portfolio that in August prompted BHP to shelve two
\nAustralian expansion plans worth at least $40 billion.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

BHP blamed soaring development costs, a high Australian
\ndollar and falling commodity prices for pulling the projects.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

But last month Australia’s state of Queensland raised taxes
\non coal miners aimed at pulling in an additional $1.6 billion
\n($1.7 billion) for the state budget over four years, which BHP
\nsaid would affect its future investment decisions.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

“We accept that it is our role to carry the bulk of this
\ntask (of cutting costs) … Governments must also play their
\npart in ensuring that those elements of the cost environment
\nthey control provide a competitive framework within which future
\ninvestment is encouraged,” Kloppers said.
\n\u00a0 Continued…<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(Repeats item from late Thursday, no change to text) By Clara Ferreira-Marques LONDON Oct 25 (Reuters) – BHP Billiton , the world’s largest miner, called on governments on Thursday to support the industry’s efforts to slash costs in the face of cooler demand, asking them to rein in demands on royalties, taxes and regulation. Miners, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[830,2370,183],"class_list":{"0":"post-15900","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-news","8":"tag-reuters","9":"tag-south-africa-2","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15900","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15900"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15900\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15900"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15900"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15900"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}