The article “Vale expansion puts Australia 's global mining market share at risk, Roy Hill head warns” is a rather simple business news piece communicating Vale’s decision to increase production with third party commentary responding to the announcement. At high level it focuses on the actions of firms in the iron ore production market and in doing so reveals a range of drivers influencing decision making by firms. These decisions can be described and understood through economic theory. Vale is not the only iron ore producer in the market so consideration of the market structure is important to understand firm decision making. In determining the market structure it is important to first clarify which market is being analysed. The market …show more content…
The chart provides information by four firms, Fortescue Metals Group (FMG), Vale, Rio Tinto, BHP (WAIO) and the rest of the world. According to this data set these four producers accounts for approximately 65% - 70% of iron ore produced for the export market. This suggests the market has medium level of concentration reflecting a scenario of monopolistic competition. Another aspect to consider when examining the iron ore export market is the degree of ‘product differentiation’ between iron ore producing firms. Product differentiation impacts the ability or preference of buyers to substitute products, in this case iron ore, produced by different firms. Iron ore is mined in a variety of different types; hematite, goethite, limonite and magnetite which contain different concentrations of iron. If the iron ore of a firm is considered to be of higher quality than other firms, then lower quality iron ore from other firms may be considered an ‘imperfect substitute’. Firms may undertake at additional cost beneficiation processes cost to improve their product. The article notes Vale will offer a 63 per cent blended product to the market which would compete directly with Australian producers. This implies consumers could easily substitute the iron ore from other produces in favor of Vale’s product. Over the last 15 years the demand of iron ore has steadily increased and then fallen. Figures 3.3 and 3.11 below outline the movements in the price consumers have
Slade’s competitive market is metal product market. It can be analyzed with the Porter’s Five Forces Model: risk of entry by potential competitors, rivalry among established companies, the bargaining power of buyers, bargaining power of suppliers, and threat of
Explain how prices of coal, steel rails, and copper in 1871, 1876, and 1879 relate to points on the graph of the business cycle. The graph shows in 1871 there was an industrial overexpansion boom that resulted in the production of railroads; this called for more materials and caused the increase in price for the steel rails in the Document F chart. In 1876 there was there was the secondary post war depression causing things to go under causing the price of items to decline, causing the lower copper and steel rail prices in the chart. And in 1879 there was the gold resumption boom caused the prices to go down. All in all the prices of coal went down because of the over expansion, which led to less money being made to pay the employees, causing the rates to go up and down.
I believe that the steel market is a very attractive market for the players that are already competing. I would not recommend new companies to try to integrate themselves in this market without substantial capital and very advanced technology. Globally steel demand is rising every year and companies are still vigorously competing for the extra market share. All firms are continuing to expand evolve and grow which means that profit are also very high in the steel market. The do have some protection issues even in
What are the primary competitive forces impacting U.S. steel producers in general and the producers like Nucor that make new steel products via recycling scrap steel in particular? Please do a five-forces analysis to support your answer.
Mining has strong increase in revenues and investment in the mining sector and for other industries aligned to mining and resources. Modelling undertaken for this document estimates that the mining increase has on average delivered 0.62 per cent to whole funding
First, Porter’s Five Forces analysis method is used as an “initial step” in evaluating new markets. This method is first introduced in the book during Justin and Scott Beckett’s, VP and General Manager of Oil and Gas division at HGS, meeting in which they discussed their analysis of the men’s white dress shirt industry. Beckett goes as far as using the Five Forces model to describe how all kinds of threats are high (Rivalry, Buyer Power, Substitutes, Entry, and supplier Power). Justin quickly buys into Beckett’s argument and how the men’s white dress shirt industry is not a viable option for Plastiwear to enter. This is an example of Justin deterring from his original views and altering them to agree with the other party, which cannot be necessarily correct in the situation regarding Beckett’s view. As senior director, Ken McCombs states, the most attractive industries according to the five forces approach would have no rivalry, no close substitutes, no threats, and no powerful buyers or suppliers. This type of industry makes us go with lower risk markets, which
In order to understand the environment of the mining industry and evaluate Dicore’s competitors and customers, this chapter will adopt some tools, such as PESTEL and Porter’s five forces, to analyze the external environment of Dicore International.
The competition of mining industry is medium to high. One major competition for mining industry is the competition for resources and mines, which is different from other industries. Since the resources are limited and unrenewable, together with the continues increasing demand for energy, such as coal demand of China and India, the battle of exploiting and developing new mines are intensive. Also, there are many competitors in the industry. However, since the exit barriers are high, the competition is limited within the existing companies. Companies in the industry might battle for larger market share but facing little threat of new entries. Thus, the competition in the industry is concluded as medium to high.
BHP Billiton Limited was founded in the year 2001 as a merger between Australian Broken Hill Proprietary Company and the Anglo-Dutch Billiton Plc. BHP Billiton is a dual listed company and well known as the leading global resources and the largest mining company in the world measured from its revenue. The headquarters is in Melbourne, Australia and a major management office in London, UK. They have more than 100,000 employees and contractors across the 25 nations. BHP Billiton is the major producers of commodities namely energy coal, aluminum, iron ore, minerals, copper, manganese, uranium, nickel, and mining in oil, gas, and diamond. They have more than 100 mining and
So, from my perspective, these are the main trends in the strategic environment that have influenced steel company profits over the past few years. Nevertheless, the fact that most steel companies operate largely within their national or regional markets, adapting their strategies only to them, was, obviously, the primary aspect that contributed for the worsening of the situation.
As mentioned above, Australian production in iron ore expected to be strong and Indian iron ore exports expected to take off in the next few years. I expect worldwide iron ore vessel shipments to
The report consists of three major parts, which are firstly divided into providing background information of Rio Tinto and its biggest competitors BHP and Vale in the mining industry. A SWOT-analysis takes into consideration the external factors of the market as well as the internal factors which may have an impact on the financial statements of Rio Tinto.
BHP Billion, a merging cooperation of BHP and Billion in 2010 (BHP Billiton, 2011), is a world leading company in mining and resource exploiting. According to ASX data, BHP Billion has the largest business scales in the Australian market, AU$166 billion of market capital and AU$71 billion of annual operating revenue in FY13 (Australian Securities Exchange, 2014). Over 128,800 employees and contractors work in 26 countries worldwide to create value for their shareholders (BHPB Annual Report, 2013). The core business has been classified into five units: petroleum, copper, iron ore, coal and aluminum, making 20%, 18%, 17%, 31% and 14% respectively in the revenue of FY13. It can be seen from Graph 1 that although iron ore was not the segment with the largest assets, it still returned with the largest revenue and highest ROA rate in 2013. The following paragraphs will focus on the strategy analysis on the segment of iron ore and how it can conquer possible threats
To create a competitive advantage, a mine has to properly manage its exposure to gold price fluctuations. This is not an easy thing to do since there are so many factors to consider: when, how much, and how to hedge the gold production. Firms in this industry differentiate themselves based on the risk management strategies they implement. Furthermore, mines should also be able to minimize the cost of gold production along with making large sunk costs. Operating in
Group Strategy:“Invest in and operate large, long-term, expandable, low-cost mines and businesses, driven not by choice of commodity or region but rather by the quality of each opportunity in the most attractive industry sectors”(Rio Tinto annual report, 2012)