Weir completes acquisition of ESCO Corp

The Weir Group has completed the acquisition of ESCO Corp, the world’s leading provider of ground engaging tools for surface mining and infrastructure markets, for an enterprise value of $1,285 million. It follows regulatory clearance for the transaction, which was first announced on 19 April 2018.

Commenting, Weir Group Chief Executive Jon Stanton said:“We are delighted to formally welcome ESCO to Weir. It is a great brand that is respected throughout the world for its quality, performance and reliability. ESCO’s strength in extraction complements our leadership in the mill circuit, meaning that together we will have a comprehensive offering for mining companies around the world.”

Current ESCO President and Chief Operating Officer Jon Owens will continue to lead the business as it becomes a division of the Weir Group. He will also join Weir’s Group Executive committee with immediate effect.

Owens said: “This is an exciting day for ESCO and all our people. As part of Weir we can create something that is genuinely unique that will help more customers improve their productivity and safety. No other mining equipment provider will be able to offer customers market-leading solutions from extraction to concentration supported by a service centre network that covers every major mining region in the world.”

ESCO has surface mining’s most extensive installed base of lip systems that house short-cycle consumables, such as teeth, shrouds, adaptors, blades and locking systems, with aftermarket sales representing about 90% of ESCO revenues. ESCO’s extraction products sit upstream from Weir’s traditional strength in slurry handling equipment with market leading brands including both Warman® and GEHO® pumps, Cavex® hydrocyclones and Linatex® rubber products.

ESCO was founded in Portland, Oregon, in 1913 and currently employs around 2,600 people with operations in 19 countries. In 2017 it generated revenues of $632 million.

Ricardo Garib, Division President of Weir Minerals, said the combination would be beneficial to customers around the world: “It is great to welcome ESCO to Weir. They are a business we have admired for some time. By working together we’ll be able to give customers easier access to more market-leading products and services. With our global network of over 100 service centres, that means customers will have more of the superior solutions they require, where and when they need them.”

Joe Weber, Vice President of Global Sales for Weir’s ESCO division agreed: “As mining markets grow customers are looking for partners they can trust to help them increase productivity and safety while also lowering their total cost of ownership. That requires a relentless focus on innovation, quality and close customer proximity, which are the hallmarks of the ESCO® brand.

“As part of Weir we’ll benefit from combining some of the world’s leading materials scientists, applications engineers and developing digital technology to deliver increased innovation in the future, ensuring ESCO remains surface mining’s preferred provider of ground engaging solutions.”

The paradox of India’s infrastructure – Is a lack of physical infrastructure holding India back?

Is a lack of physical infrastructure holding India back? Yes – and no.

While the physical amount of key elements of infrastructure in India benchmark well internationally, the on-the-ground perception for many is that its infrastructure is vastly deficient.

To see if this paradox could be resolved, we studied both the quantity of infrastructure in place and the quality of that stock.

The answer is nuanced.

India needs more infrastructure in some key sectors and better quality in others. Either way, the demand on public and private sector balance sheets to finance the required investments in greenfield projects and upgrading activities will be considerable. So too will be the associated demand for steel – with infrastructure demand expected to increase at an approximate rate of 8%, compound, between 2016 and 2025.

Does India just need more infrastructure?

India’s infrastructure has been much maligned, with descriptions such as ‘insufficient’ freely dispersed by both local experts and international observers. Popular consensus would imply that what the nation has achieved to date, such as halving the country’s poverty rate since the early 1990s¹, has been achieved despite its infrastructure.

On a per-unit land area basis, the volume of India’s transport infrastructure looks respectable. So why is the positive impact of these apparently expansive networks not being felt?

Our research brings a new perspective to the discussion. It is true, India’s infrastructure stock has many gaps. But to fully comprehend the challenge, we must differentiate between quantity shortfalls (i.e. simply not enough stock in place for efficiency’s sake) and lack of quality (i.e. simply not good enough to be internationally competitive).

India’s cumulative road network is 5.5 million kms long, the second largest in the world. That is despite having only the 8th largest land area. The nearest comparable networks are that of the US (6.7 million kms) and China (4.6 million kms). Note that both countries are approximately three times larger than India in terms of land area and have much higher rates of auto penetration. Similarly, India’s railway network is the 4th largest in the world at over 67,000 kms long, with only the US, China, and Russia (five times larger than India in land area) standing ahead of it.

On a per-unit land area basis, the volume of India’s transport infrastructure looks respectable. So why is the positive impact of these apparently expansive networks not being felt?

Why quality counts

The benefits of having an internationally competitive infrastructure base are self-evident. For India, increasing the quality of the integrated international logistics chain, and the quality of the integrated domestic logistics chain, would have two profound benefits. On the domestic chain, an enormous prize awaits in terms of reducing ‘needless’ food waste². This would be of tremendous benefit to the entire population, particularly its economically insecure rural population. Increasing the quality of integrated inward logistics will also support India’s ability to leverage its comparative advantages, allowing domestic resources to flow to their most productive uses. In the specific case of commodities, such as those produced by BHP, India lacks a large, high quality metallurgical coal endowment. Slow and costly logistics from port to mill though act as a constraint on some elements of India’s blast furnace fleet from accessing the best quality raw materials at an internationally competitive delivered price. For India’s steel industry to reach its true potential, competitive access to the best quality seaborne raw materials should play a major part – just as it has done in Japan, South Korea and China.

With that in mind, let’s turn to the quality discussion.

Of India’s total road network is 40% unpaved. The share of expressways in the overall road network is negligible, while national highways are less than 3%. That compares to around 40% in China. Of the highways that do exist, almost 75% are two-lanes wide or less (considering both sides of traffic flow). This drastically reduces not only the amount of traffic the network can handle, but also the ease of traffic movement. The nation’s road network, for its impressive length, is not presently capable of serving as the commercial logistics backbone of the continent-sized mega-market India aspires to be.

We anticipate an approximate 8% per annum compound growth rate for steel use in Indian infrastructure out to 2025.

In railways, the transition from narrow to broad gauge is only just being completed. Almost two thirds of the overall route length consists of single-lines. Less than half of the network is electrified, while large sections of tracks are near end-of-life and require significant maintenance. These factors remain a major drag on the efficiency of the network. The average speed of passenger and goods trains is constrained to 60 kmph and 25 kmph respectively. With the interaction between quality gaps in the road network, and quantity and quality gaps at sea ports, you have a logistics system that is not internationally competitive in terms of domestic commerce, imports or exports.

Once the quality of transport infrastructure is considered, the paradox of globally competitive size of networks coupled with to perceptions of inadequacy, is effectively resolved.

The graphic below details our estimates of the size and distribution of the quality and quantity gaps across the major infrastructure segments, alongside our mid-case view on the development of steel demand across all end-use sector.

We anticipate an approximate 8% per annum compound growth rate for steel use in Indian infrastructure out to 2025.

India’s infrastructure gaps and steel demand

Indian Infrastructure

Infrastructure development: from historical dissonance to contemporary coherence

The contradictions observed in Indian infrastructure are not a coincidence. They are the result of decades of political and bureaucratic incongruence in terms of infrastructure planning and development. A lack of coordination across levels of government allowed for an inefficient combination of project specific planning approaches, isolated project evaluation and top-down execution systems to co-exist. In addition, the complexities of land acquisition, clearances and approvals, project funding, state-federal grey areas, and a politicised infrastructure construction process resulted in significant inflation of cost and timelines. This has created a geographic and industrial distribution of infrastructure that produced pockets of progress (such as the heavy industrial cluster that rose up in Gujarat under then-Chief Minister Modi) sitting side by side with pronounced gaps across other regions, states and sectors.

Reforms to address the underlying causes of these historical issues have been initiated. The Modi-led government, with its pro-development agenda, has sought a more direct approach to planning and development. With planning more centralised, it complements the development of a strategic long-term national vision, taking into account an integrated view across sectors. The ‘Bharatmala’ program for highways and roads, ‘Sagarmala’ for ports and the ‘National Rail Plan 2030’ are three concrete examples.

In parallel, there are efforts to decentralise project execution to improve efficiency. This will include increased outsourcing and greater private sector participation.

These encouraging signs are an excellent start on the path to realising India’s long run economic potential. Realistically of course, it will take some time for these changes in planning and execution methodology to trickle down through India’s elaborate bureaucratic machinery and translate to discernible impacts on the ground. Count us as cautiously optimistic.

1 Based on World Bank data, India’s headcount poverty ratio has declined from 45.3% in 1993 to 21.9% in 2011 (the last available data).
2 http://www.fao.org/save-food/projects/study-fl-india/en/

(https://www.bhp.com/media-and-insights/prospects/2018/07/the-paradox-of-indias-infrastructure)

Drones on Demand: Should You Outsource?

Drone usage on construction jobsites is growing—as is another trend related to drones. Many construction companies are foregoing training their workers on how to operate drones, and as a result, they are outsourcing the task.

DRONE OUTSOURCING OPTIONS

One new example of this comes from DroneDeploy, which recently announced its Drone on Demand solution, which lets customers plan a flight mission using DroneDeploy’s cloud platform and then request a certified professional pilot from DroneBase.

The company will then go to the site, perform the flight, and collect aerial data. After planning a flight and requesting a pilot, photos, maps, and 3D models appear within 72 hours. This enables construction companies to make informed decisions based on the data—without actually having to fly the drone themselves.

As another example, Measure, a drone-as-a-service company, is providing turnkey and toolkit commercial drone solutions to acquire, process, and deliver actionable aerial data to enterprise customers.

Looking even further down the road, perhaps construction companies won’t need to outsource this area of the business at all, rather the drones will fly themselves autonomously. Skydio recently announced a self-flying camera for consumers. A service like this just might be invaluable to the construction industry as well.

Until that time, there are a number of services available for construction companies that want to outsource flying drones on projects.

A REINVENTION OF SALES, PRODUCTION, INVENTORY FORECASTS

Posted May 11, 2018 |

Quarry operations are moving away from messy spreadsheets and rethinking communication, production planning and sales forecasting to save time and improve productivity. One such medium that quarries worldwide are utilising is PlantDemand, a business intelligence tool.

The importance of collaboration and real time information sharing in today’s business climate cannot be overstated. It is even more important for quarry operations that are constantly trying to plan and match production levels to sales volumes.

Plant managers are challenged to maintain optimal quarry cash flow and inventory while preventing plant overbooking and co-ordinating with multiple suppliers for raw materials − all to schedule on-time deliveries that meet customers’ changing orders.

This is especially difficult because sales teams don’t often have insight into what materials are available to be produced and sold, and how a new order will affect production. It’s also challenging managers to produce accurate forecasts and get up-to-date information about the plant capacity and actual sales versus forecast sales.

The PlantDemand app allows plant managers to create summaries and run default and custom reports against actual sales or forecasts.

Modern business intelligence

The latest report by US Market research company Forrester Research predicts that 2018 will see enterprises refocus on leveraging advanced collaboration and communication tools across the enterprise.

It also predicts that in the coming years everyone within an organisation will become a data analyst, with the ability to leverage modern business intelligence (BI) tools to quickly sort, prioritise and visualise targeted information that is directly relevant to that individual’s line of responsibility. The hope is that better visual interfaces and real time reporting will actively support collaboration across operational teams and drive better decision-making at every level inside an organisation.

Not only that, the Millennial generation is expected to represent 50 per cent or more of the overall workforce by the year 2020.2 And collectively, not only are younger generations “digital natives”, meaning they grew up with technology, but they also value it greatly and see it as a differentiator and a “must have” for employers.

Each morning, it is easy to log into PlantDemand – from the office or remotely – to be appraised of the day’s deliveries.

If companies want to hire and retain top talent, they will need to continue to shift towards easy to use cloud-based tools and applications that support productivity and a collaborative environment.

It is out of this BI-focused landscape that Daniel Mekis began to unravel the communication, production and scheduling problems facing many quarries today. As an assistant plant manager in California, he struggled first hand with planning and scheduling of materials at various quarries, and he felt a lack of collaboration was a major part of the problem.

His team tried Outlook, Excel and even Microsoft Access and SharePoint solutions to compile sales information and plan and co-ordinate production.

“Back when I worked as a plant engineer, it was our job to know if we were going to make enough material to meet the demands of our customers,” Mekis said. “Even if you know you’re producing 250,000 tonnes of material throughout the year, the sales quantities change daily, with many orders changing multiple times before they actually ship.

“Other problems we ran into were plant overbooking, the quarry running out of materials, sourcing materials from multiple suppliers, or using incorrect materials. I used to spend at least three hours for each plant per week compiling sales information to build a forecast report – which would show materials demand in different time intervals.”

Real time planning

PlantDemand can colour-code by material in the sales calendar for better organisation and simplified viewing.

Quarries are beginning to take advantage of new collaborative tools that enable teams to move away from solving a problem on an individual island and move towards initiating well informed discussions between the various branches of an operational team.

One new approach that stands out is PlantDemand, an online quarry scheduling tool3, not just for planning and forecasting orders and production, but also for identifying issues and solving them before they come up.

“PlantDemand is a new concept for aggregate operations because it uses collaboration and real time information sharing,” Dennis Schaaf, the director of PlantDemand, said. “It provides a single source of truth to plan sales, production, material needs and inventory forecasts.

PlantDemand’s online calendar is described as:

A scheduler that lets plant managers drill down into scheduling plans.
A “single source of truth” that provides plant foremen, superintendents, engineers, sales and the back office with data on aggregate production, inventory planning and forecasting.
A “live sales calendar” that allows teams to adjust the plant, hours, modes and sales. As changes are reflected immediately, users can see how current production and future orders will be affected and how plant operations teams can solve inventory issues before they occur.

PlantDemand allows plant managers to create summaries and quickly run default and custom pivot-style reports against actual sales or forecasts. Automatic reporting features make it easy for the sales team to quickly enter orders and see exactly how much can be sold on any given day. Plant operators receive reports from inside sales or generate their own reports to see exactly what they need to produce, and how much raw material they need to order from suppliers.

“Most importantly for quarries, they can now forecast exactly what their customers want today and down the line, and they now have a big picture view to help them balance production, inventory and cash flow,” Mekis said. “That just wasn’t possible before because everyone was bogged down with getting the day’s orders out the door and keeping up with changes.”

Smarter scheduling

Ashlee Avila, the inside material sales representative for US aggregate company Granite Construction, was one of the first PlantDemand subscribers. Her department introduced strategic material purchasing by using the app to track how oil is billed for each product, allowing it to save time and vast amounts of money.

When out in the field or talking with customers, she can quickly log into PlantDemand and add notes to each order. This leaves a historical record of changes made, which might include noting last minute cancellations, indicating customers who left mix, changed the ordered tonnage or other variables. She also likes that she can see the sales calendar for the whole month in PlantDemand every morning, and it’s all colour-coded by material for better organisation and simplified viewing.

“Before PlantDemand we used spreadsheets, but they didn’t scale to the level we needed,” Avila said. “We didn’t have a good way to forecast for the month or week and tell our guys what orders were coming.

“Now, I can log in and within a few clicks I can see our sales calendar for the whole month, week or day. I also create a daily dispatch report every afternoon for our plant foreman, as well as a quality control report that tallies all our orders for the next day.

“We save it as a PDF and it’s in a very easy to use format, so we’re all working from the same schedule.”

Avila said PlantDemand’s mobile app is also extremely useful and she likes that she, the sales team and the plant manager can access it anywhere and at any time, with no software or hardware to install.

In fact, she can use her iPhone to make changes to order dates or tonnage needed while she’s in the field talking with customers. Sales also uses the mobile app when they’re with customers, to quickly see if the plant is running the next day and if so, what mix. This saves time calling the office each time a customer has a question.

A balanced cash flow

Using PlantDemand, plant personnel can also create a production schedule, production report and inventory forecast by tying in the live sales calendar with the plant’s production plan.

Users start by entering minimum and maximum desired inventories of each product, taking into account historical data, upcoming sales, volumes and demand.

April Scott, the material inside sales/materials dispatcher for Granite Construction’s Sacramento office, believes PlantDemand’s inventory planning and forecasting tools helps prevent stock run-out, keeps customers happy and maximises cash flow.

Scott said PlantDemand provides added visibility of the schedule and helps keep track of customers and orders. With more than 15 customer orders daily and thousands of tonnes of material in sales, her calendar is very fluid. Previously she had to manage changes manually by hand using an Excel report each day before sending out the daily schedule to the team.

Now she uses PlantDemand’s shared calendar to send out a daily schedule to the sales team, the construction department and billing department. PlantDemand also helps monitor materials inventories and identify issues before they happen.

“Before I’d find potential problems, but it was much harder because my schedule was on a clipboard or in a long-term schedule in Excel, not all in the same place,” Scott said.

“Now PlantDemand looks at how much oil and aggregates are needed for upcoming orders, which helps the plant and oil suppliers prepare. The app also highlights where we’re over our daily tonnages, and helps us prepare for potential overbooked days. That’s huge because we can fix these problems early before our customers even know there would have been an issue.”

Most successful quarries are taking steps to improve how they track and manage sales planning, production, material needs and inventory forecasts. At the crux of more efficient operations is a commitment to expanding visibility across the plant and empowering the entire team with online tools that support information sharing and collaboration.

When teams have the right technology and real time data at their fingertips, quarries can become more competitive and more responsive to customer needs.

Trimble is a software referral program approved member of PlantDemand.

Source: Trimble/PlantDemand

References & further reading

1. Press G. Ten predictions for AI, big data, and analytics in 2018. Forbes, 9 November 2017. forbes.com/sites/gilpress/2017/11/09/10-predictions-for-ai-big-data-and-analytics-in-2018/

2. PwC Global. Workforce of the future: The competing forces shaping 2030. pwc.com/gx/en/services/people-organisation/publications/workforce-of-the-future.html

3. PlantDemand. plantdemand.com/aggregate

浅析中国钢铁供给侧改革对铁矿石和冶金煤市场的影响

得益于中国供给侧改革的持续深化推进，中国钢铁行业产能利用率和利润率大幅改善，必和必拓预计这些改善的三分之二将会长期持续。生产高品质冶金原料的具有竞争优势的供应商将会从中受益。

在过去两年里，中国钢铁行业供给侧结构性改革无疑是影响大宗商品市场最重要的政策之一。在实施供给侧改革之前的数年里，全球钢铁行业严重供大于求，企业大面积亏损。如今改革成效显著，行业整体的盈利状况大幅改善¹。

钢铁行业供给侧改革是如何推进的呢？

2015年底
习近平总书记要求着力加强供给侧结构性改革。其中，钢铁行业的目标是到2020年，用五年的时间减少粗钢产能1.5亿吨。在初始阶段，主要着眼于淘汰闲置电弧炉和老旧转炉炼钢的产能2。
2016年
随后，中央公布第二轮举措：2016年内关停全国超过1.2亿吨中频炉产能。当终端需求仍较为强劲的情况下，这一举措使得钢铁市场的供需关系趋于紧张。
现阶段
随着供给侧改革的推行，中国钢铁产能利用率从周期低谷上涨了约15个百分点（从低于70%提高至85%左右）。尽管由于煤炭行业也受到供给侧改革政策的积极影响，冶金煤价格大幅上涨3，但是钢铁行业的利润率仍随着产能利用率的上涨有着飞跃式的提升。

现在我们需要思考的问题是：整个钢铁产业链受供给侧改革红利影响取得的进步，将会多大程度上持续下去？

必和必拓预估，钢铁行业产能利用率增幅的三分之二左右将会长期持续。这意味着，从长期来看，产能利用率将保持在80%上下。这与工信部发布的《钢铁工业调整升级规划（2016-2020年）》中所订立的目标相吻合。

这一结果的实现将有助于促进行业健康的盈利模式以及产生可持续的自由现金流，也将会帮助钢厂加强其资产负债表。在政府出台政策之前，钢厂的资产负债表早已呈现出了恶化状态。实现财务的可持续发展是供给侧改革的最终核心目标之一，钢铁行业将力争实现平均资产负债率降至60%以下的目标。

我们认为，在整个周期内，如果能达到80%的产能利用率，以及钢厂平均3-4%左右的长期净利润率，钢铁生产商就能够实现可持续健康发展，并且不会给下游终端用户造成过大的成本上升压力。

这种转变对钢铁冶金原材料市场造成了深远的影响。根据我们的经验，钢厂采购经理们在不同盈利情况下所考虑的因素与最终的选择也会各有侧重。

自2016年底以来，钢厂利润率的回升是导致优质原料溢价增加，以及低品质原料折扣扩大的关键因素。

去年冬季，京津冀及周边地区“2＋26”城市实施了错峰生产的环境保护措施，使钢厂利润率创下新高。受此影响，限产区域以外的钢厂则以接近满负荷扩大生产。在此期间，我们注意到62%品位铁矿石与较低品位铁矿石（包括58%品位及更低品位）之间的价差创下历史新高。

优质低挥发份炼焦煤（普氏PLV指数）和中等挥发份炼焦煤（PMV指数）与弱焦煤之间的价差也显著扩大。与此同时，块矿和球团矿溢价也大幅拉涨，其中块矿溢价在2017年9月当季创下纪录。目前一些极端的价差已经消退，但价差扩大是合理的市场趋势，而且与我们的中期展望完全一致。

中国钢铁行业未来：更大型化的设备，更靠近沿海地区，更加绿色环保。

我们相信中国将持续推进供给侧改革政策，接下来的战略重点将由去产能转向产业结构优化升级，通过更大容积，更高效的炼铁高炉和焦炉来生产出更高质量钢铁制品。

与此同时，中国越来越重视环境保护和生态文明建设。这迫使钢铁行业必须要探寻更绿色环保的生产模式，以满足日益严格的环境污染物排放标准要求4，特别是中国已颁布了超低硫氧化物（SOx）和氮氧化物（NOx）的大气排放标准。

种种趋势表明，未来对高品质海运资源产品的需求将持续强劲。从而继续支撑不同品质原料价差维持在接近于2017年的较大幅度，而不是早前环境限产措施出台以前低利润率时的较低价差。

我们一直认为中国钢铁行业在未来10年的发展蓝图是“更大型化的高炉”，“靠近沿海地区”，“更加绿色环保”。然而，中国积极实施的供给侧改革政策已将实现这一目标大大提前了。

我们也把这种飞跃式的发展模式融入到我们的战略思考中。通过了解我们主要客户未来需求的战略方向，为我们未来矿山的开发做正确的决策。

必和必拓一直在积极促进钢铁原材料市场健康、有序、稳定的发展，致力于采用更加透明, 更加合理且准确反应市场基本面的价格体系。

我们支持以铁矿石指数为结算基础的定价方式，支持完善更具公信力的铁矿石指数定价体系。一个价格得以充分发现的公平且透明的大宗商品市场，有助于买卖双方以科学的方法来衡量不同产品的使用价值，实时观察到市场变化。否则，我们现在根本无法有效观察到品种间的价差，而关于价差是否可以持续的讨论更是无从谈起。

通过科学的方法衡量使用价值（VIU）

必和必拓多元化的资产组合中拥有寿命长、可扩展、低成本的优质低挥发份（PLV）炼焦煤资产。

优质低挥发份焦煤用于生产高强度冶金焦炭（以“反应后焦炭强度”指标测量），能够在较低的外部能量要求下实现较高的高炉生产效率，这满足了先进大型高炉的生产需求。在日益严格的SOx污染物排放控制的要求下，低硫含量是另外一个优势。我们有大约3/5的冶金煤产量与PLV指数挂钩。

我们还拥有多种高品质的粉矿和块矿产品，可以让客户在不断变化的环境中，根据所需调节配比。

除了含铁量以外，铁矿石的使用价值（VIU）也与其含有的二氧化硅，氧化铝和磷元素（统称脉石）及其它微量杂质元素有关5；而这些成分会对炼钢成本和产品质量产生影响。我们意识到不同钢厂对这些杂质的敏感度不同，原因也不尽相同，比如有高炉容积和限制的原因，产品质量，或是当地矿石质量的影响等。

这些差异化的客户需求正是体现市场营销部门价值的机会，通过科学的方法衡量使用价值，从而将我们的产品销售给适合的客户。

必和必拓铁矿石的硫含量以及其它微量元素如钒，锌和砷都很低，这有助于我们的客户即钢厂在生产过程中减少污染物的排放量，降低生产成本，以及提高产品质量。

特别是我们产自西澳皮尔巴拉的纽曼块矿，含铁量非常高，且脉石含量低，能够提高高炉的铁水产量并降低能耗。块矿可直接加入高炉，和烧结和造球过程相比节约了成本，避免了污染物排放。烧结烟气是大气污染的一个重要成因，所以中国北方地区主要城市会时常发布烧结设备限停产的措施。2017财年，必和必拓块矿产量占总产量的24%

依托超过半个世纪的炼铁前工序的丰富经验，必和必拓将继续支持澳大利亚及海外高校和科研机构在钢铁冶炼方面的前沿研究。我们将继续努力，与客户更加紧密合作，最大限度地帮助其减少在生产过程中对环境所造成的不利的影响，并且实现成本效益以及生产效率的提升。

注释：

[1] 美国近期出台贸易保护主义措施，令人费解的是：目前钢铁行业发展环境利好。一般来讲，只有当行业面临压力时，贸易保护主义才会有所抬头。但是这一次，全球钢铁行业已走出低迷，行业目前正处于上升阶段，而关税举措却在这个时间点出台了。

[2] “电弧炉”与“转炉”是全球两个主要的炼钢技术。电弧炉的全球份额约占四分之一，转炉的份额约为四分之三。在中国，氧气顶吹转炉技术占比高达90%，其余10%是中频炉和电弧炉，这种情况直到中频炉被突然关停才有所改变。

[3] 海运贸易的供应波动也是促使价格抬升的原因之一。

[4] 在工业领域，尤其是钢铁行业中，最为有效的低碳技术是碳捕集、利用与封存技术（CCUS）。欲了解必和必拓资助北京大学和爱丁堡大学共同开展CCUS项目，以及更多相关信息，请访问必和必拓的官方微信。

[5] 杂质元素包括：钒，铜，砷，铬，铅，锌，硫，镉，汞，氟和氯。

备注：

[1] 预测不等于实际业绩或收益，本文不构成公司对未来业绩或收益的保证。

(https://www.bhp.com/media-and-insights/prospects/2018/05/iron-ore-met-coal-and-chinas-steel-reforms-chinese)

Energy and Mines Australia Summit: Australia becoming the global centre for renewables for mines

As recent project announcements show, the number of Australian mining operators seriously assessing and investing in renewables is growing rapidly. Driven by favourable economics and additional benefits including carbon reductions and social license, major and mid-tier Australian mines are adopting renewables.

South32 recently announced its 3MW solar farm for its Cannington mine in Queensland for which SunSHIFT is providing its re-deployable solar solution. Once complete, this will be the second largest solar project for a remote, off-grid Australian mine.

Similarly, Image Resources is investing in a 3–4MW solar farm adjacent to its Boonanarring mine and processing plant, which are currently under construction. This ‘behind the meter’ solution will deliver around 25 per cent of the facilities electricity needs. GMA Garnet, a leading supplier of garnet used in blasting and water jet cutting, has locked in energy prices for the next 13 years for its Western Australia operations through a long-term power purchase agreement for wind and solar.

OZ Minerals also recently announced plans to build a solar and battery storage facility at its Prominent Hill mine in South Australia, and is looking at further investments in renewables to support other projects in the region. The mine also became the first resource company to sign a transmission cost partnership with a renewables developer through its recent deal with SolarReserve.

Finally, New Century Resources is investing in SunSHIFT’s portable and scalable solar system to supply power for the refurbishment of its Century mine at $120/MWh which is a fraction of the $400/MWh it had been paying to run diesel during care and maintenance. And Copper Mines of Tasmania (CMT) has an ambitious plan to make Mt Lyell on Tasmania’s west coast Australia’s first zero emissions mine through investments in electrification and renewables.

In addition to these projects, there is quite simply a wealth of major mines and mid-tier leaders at various stages if assessing and approving renewable energy investments for remote and grid-tied sites. While these projects are not yet public, many will be showcased at this year’s Energy and Mines Australia Summit on June 27–28 in Perth.

This heightened activity has positioned Australia as the fastest growing market for renewables for mines. The main driver, of course, is economics. Depending on locally available wind and solar conditions, fuel savings from hybridisation can amount to up to 75 per cent, according to juwi Renewable Energies.

The cost of solar modules is also falling by 3–8 percent annually. Battery storage is also becoming more economical with Bloomberg New Energy Finance predicting lithium-ion batteries will be priced at $73USD/kWh in 2040 as compared to around $250USD/kWh in 2017.

Senior mining representatives will meet with global renewable energy experts in Perth this June 27–28 to discuss renewables integration. This 2nd annual Energy and Mines Australia Summit, features presenters from BHP, Sandfire Resources, Fortescue Metals Group, Rio Tinto, South32, Nyrstar, Oz Minerals, Australian Vanadium, Panoramic Resources, Montezuma Mining Company, Resolute Mining and Gold Fields.

Meanwhile, the business case for renewables integration is being underlined by successful landmark projects including Sandfire Resources’ DeGrussa Solar Project and Rio Tinto’s Weipa Solar Farm. Currently, the DeGrussa project is offsetting more than 450,000 litres of diesel per month, which adds up to more than 25 million litres of diesel saved over five and half years or around 20 per cent of the mine’s total fuel consumption.

For more details on these projects and the upcoming Summit visit Energy and Mines Australia Summit website and enter australianmining20 on the registration page for a 20 per cent discount off attendance.

AES 2018: Microgrids ensuring reliable remote power supply

Given many remote communities and Australian mine sites are moving to more renewable energy sources to reduce costs and provide environmental benefits, microgrids are becoming one of the most suitable solutions to ensure the reliable supply of power.

Microgrids can help increase the penetration of renewable energy without compromising the quality and reliability of power supply.

Having a localised source of energy, that could combine solar, battery storage and diesel, means there is less chance that supply will be interrupted, which is a key factor for remote applications such as isolated mine sites.

Mining companies are now considering how energy storage and microgrids fit into their long-term planning, in an effort to displace diesel.

Greg Allen, executive general manager at Carnegie Clean Energy directs all project operations and commercialisation activities for the company, and is currently working on The Aurora Project — a 150MW solar thermal energy project with storage — in Port Augusta, South Australia.

Allen will join a huge lineup of energy experts at the Australian Energy Storage Conference and Exhibition (AES 2018), running from May 23–24 at the Adelaide Convention Centre.

At AES 2018, Allen will explore Australian microgrid case studies that use battery energy storage technology in both network-connected and off-grid applications.

Energy systems in remote communities and pacific islands will also be explored at AES 2018 by speakers including Jiamao Wu, General Manager of Sungrow-Samsung SDI Energy Storage Power Supply, who leads the research and development, production and operation of the company.

Wu has participated in multiple “863 programs”, municipal technology innovation projects, and instructed the construction of multiple PV projects including Olympic nest, world expo and Hongqiao, as well as giving guidance to the third “Zhangjiang Hi-Tech Talents” program as a coach.

Hear from Jiamao Wu and Greg Allen, among other microgrid and energy storage experts, at the Australian Energy Storage Conference and Exhibition. To register for the conference or the free exhibition, visit www.australianenergystorage.com.au/register.

Copper to the World gets the scoop on growth trajectory

Australia’s copper sector is on the rise as global issues of energy, climate change and transportation become more urgent.

As the looming 2019 worldwide copper deficit steps closer to reality, high-calibre international copper experts from Chile, the United Kingdom and Australia will join leading copper miners and innovators in Adelaide next month for the Copper to the World conference (details here).

A sign of the times is that ongoing demand for the red metal means miners will need to produce as much copper in the next 25 years as has been mined in humankind’s history to meet growth in global industrial production and higher investment in energy infrastructure with emerging economies driving much of the growth.

As it stands, Australia is a major contributor to world copper stocks as the world’s 3rd largest exporter of copper ores and concentrates and the 7th largest producer of copper.

The South Australian Government has developed the Copper to the World program with a national and global copper audience in mind to deliver a global perspective on the future of copper, delving into trends, opportunities and developments across the copper value chain to address rising demand.

New sources of demand are moving at rapid pace. Take the increased global production of electric vehicles – containing more than three times the weight of copper compared to regular vehicles – that is expected to raise copper consumption by 300,000t alone in 2018 and 2019.

Filling the copper shortfall

Australian producers are working to supply a great big chunk of the emerging copper inventory gap, as they incorporate the latest technologies to drive success and productivity.

BHP is forging ahead with its investment plans to expand the worlds’ third largest copper deposit at Olympic Dam in the north of South Australia. This year the mine celebrated the completion of a $350 million smelter upgrade and upgraded works on the refinery, concentrator and other key infrastructure and site technology to further drive processing productivity. This follows the production of new ore from its Southern Mine Area – the expansion involving a quarter of a billion dollar investment and the scale of development and associated infrastructure work on par with five new standalone mines.

OZ Minerals has extended the life of its Prominent Hill copper mine. In April, primary approvals for its almost $1 billion Carrapateena copper gold project have been secured from the South Australian and Commonwealth Governments, clearing the way for Phase 2 of construction to commence for processing and above ground infrastructure. OZ is innovating across the board from analytics to aid decision-making in its field exploration programs to drive mining efficiencies by tapping into the latest communication and digital platforms.

Newcrest Mining, with Australian copper operations at Cadia Valley, NSW and Telfer, WA has also joined the program to share its insights into incorporating technological approaches to its operations.

More broadly Australia’s copper exploration sector is upbeat. Argonaut’s Torrens Exploration project holds promise as filling in South Australia’s copper inventory, with the company identifying 10 exploration targets, each with the potential to host an Olympic Dam-sized deposit.

Copper miners Havilah and Hillgrove will share presentations on copper mineralistion styles in a company segment at the conference.

Stretching thinking

Decision makers and thought leaders will stretch thinking across the value chain on ways to meet the growth trajectory with up-to-date analysis, case studies and technical know-how on big opportunities facing the industry.

Disruptive technologies are also bringing new opportunities for productivity and the conference will drive in-depth discussion. Speakers from CSIRO Manufacturing and the International Copper Association will discuss new technologies along the copper mining value-chain along with Hatch on advances in the smelting space.

Working towards strengthening environmental and social performance and community acceptance is an ongoing goal for the sector, to be covered by Kim Ferguson, chair of the International Council of Mining and Metals Closure Working Group.

The Discovery segment of the program will reinforce why Australia is the place to come for copper exploration – with the success rate for finding copper deposits over the past decades double the world average. The past year has seen companies bring forward a tranche of excellent drill intersections, resource upgrades, feasibility studies and advanced projects.

With slim pickings for outcropping ore bodies a challenge worldwide, improving exploration undercover remains a challenge. Answering the call to improve exploration performance will be speakers from the UNCOVER initiative and AMIRA. The UNCOVER initiative is pooling specialist expertise across the nation in a well-coordinated national effort in the ongoing effort to unearth economic mineral deposits.

View the full Copper to the World program and register here.

For further information: Charles Moore (charles.moore@sa.gov.au)

FLSmidth realignment to focus on mining and cement

FLSmidth will realign the global group from July, with focus on the mining and cement industries.

The organisation announced last week it would focus on the two industries, supported by a regional setup that would aim to strengthen customer focus and lifecycle solutions, combined with a new central digital organisation.

FLSmidth’s plan will realign the organisation from four divisions into the two aforementioned industries. From a country perspective, it will deliver an agile regional structure, according to FLSmidth.

With end markets recovering, group chief executive Thomas Schulz said FLSmidth’s customers were accelerating to invest in productivity enhancing and digital solutions.

“To support our customers’ growth, the two industries, cement and mining, will deliver integrated productivity offerings through the regions,” Schulz said.

“Our decentralised organisation will give us a strong point of entry to offer our customers key products, shorter delivery times and a strong service setup.”

The two industries will be supported by seven regions: Australia, North America, South America, Europe, Russia and North Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa and Middle East, Asia, and Subcontinental India.

According to FLSmidth, the regions will drive customer relations, sales and service for both industries. A central digital organisation will drive an enhanced, unified approach to digitalisation.

Schulz said this new way of working was a natural step forward for FLSmidth.

“We already have one of the strongest brands in the cement and mining industries. By enhancing our service level, investing in digitalisation and bringing stronger life-cycle offerings to the market, we will expand and grow our wallet share with targeted customers,” Schulz said.

Weir to acquire ESCO for $US1.28bn

Weir has entered into an agreement to purchase US ground engaging tools (GET) specialist ESCO for $US1.28 billion ($1.67 billion).

The transaction has been approved by Weir’s board of directors and is not subject to shareholder approval.

As part of the acquisition, Weir will gain access to ESCO’s 10 manufacturing facilities, six foundries and 22 service and supply centres, in 19 countries.

Weir hopes it can leverage ESCO strong position in the GET sector to prioritise upstream growth opportunities in the minerals and oil and gas sectors; around 40 per cent of large primary mover machines across the globe utilise ESCO product.

ESCO chairman and chief executive officer Cal Collins called the merger exciting, stating: “[It] combined two premium brands and positions us to better serve our customers around the world. The merger of ESCO into Weir is also a great fit, both culturally and strategically.”

GET parts include the likes of teeth (usually for shovels and drag lines), blades, shrouds, locking systems and other edge wear parts. ESCO brands include the Nemisys lip system and Ultralok mining tooth system, which Weir intends to bring to new territories via its extensive global network.

Weir Group chief executive officer Jon Stanton called ESCO a “leading global brand” that would allow Weir to pursue new revenue opportunities.

“Together, Weir Minerals and ESCO will create a unique customer proposition as the premium provider of mission critical surface mining solutions from extraction to concentration, built on proprietary technology superior wear life and supported by an unrivalled service network.”