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Anglo stays bullish on commodities Posted: Thu, 31 Jul 2008 [miningmx.com] -- DEMAND for the key metals and minerals produced by Anglo American will remain strong through to at least 2017 and the group intends increasing its production of them significantly over the next three to five years. That was the bullish message given by CEO Cynthia Carroll to analysts and financial media at today’s briefing in London on the group’s interim results. Carroll said world demand for copper was expected to rise at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 4% from 18Mt in 2007 to 27Mt by 2017. She also expected CAGR rates of 4% over this period for platinum and exported metallurgical coal. Anglo forecast that world demand for platinum will rise from 8Moz last year to 12Moz in 2017 while it expected demand for metallurgical coal to increase from 220Mt to 325Mt over the same period. The greatest increase in demand was expected for seaborne traded iron ore which was forecast to grow at a 7% CAGR from 772Mt in 2007 to 1,512Mt in 2017. Carroll said that attempts by the mining groups to increase supply to meet this demand were being constrained by a number of factors. These included: an increasing scarcity of basic commodities such as energy, skilled labour, water and infrastructure; long lead-times for the delivery of mining equipment; regular disruptions to supply from factors like weather, earthquakes and labour disputes and prolonged permitting processes for new projects. Anglo is currently spending US$700m annually on heavy mining equipment and, to deliver on its current project pipeline to the end of 2010, the group needs to buy 250 new large trucks, 120 track dozers, 50 shovels, 50 drills and 35 wheel loaders. Carroll said that, despite these constraints, Anglo would double its output of copper over the next five years from the 2007 level of 666,000t and achieve a CAGR of 9% in its production of the metal from 2008 to 2016. She expected Anglo’s production of nickel and metallurgical coal to double over the next three years. Anglo produced 45,000t of nickel in 2007 and forecast a CAGR of 22% for its output of the metal between 2008 and 2016. The group produced 11.3Mt of metallurgical coal last year and expected to achieve a 10.2% CAGR for the product during the period 2008 to 2016. She also predicted Anglo would grow its iron ore production five times over the next five years from the 2007 production level of 32.4Mt and achieve an 18.6% CAGR over the period 2008 to 2016. Carroll commented that, “Market share gains in all our major businesses will come from our production growth plans.” Click Here to subscribe to our daily newsletter
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