Asian Urbanisation To Buoy Commodities Market: Kloppers
The Age
Thursday February 7, 2008
A US recession is unlikely to have much impact on the commodities boom that has fuelled Australia's strong growth, with BHP boss Marius Kloppers predicting emerging countries such as China and India will fill any breach left by the world's biggest economy.
A day after the Reserve Bank increased the official cash rate to an 11-year high, Mr Kloppers' comments may contribute to the case for a further clamp on inflation in coming months. He said that while BHP was now more reserved in its short-term outlook than a year ago, the company expected commodity markets to be resilient in the current volatility.Furthermore, Mr Kloppers said BHP remained "absolutely convinced of the long-term growth fundamentals of those emerging economies driving demand for our product"."For a number of years we've spoken about the industrialisation taking place in China and in India, how this has impacted our business and how we see the strong, long-term growth fundamentals."As I stand here today, I don't see any change to this long-term outlook and we continue to plan and execute our strategy on that basis."Mr Kloppers contrasted Beijing's underdeveloped railway subway system with those in Paris and Tokyo to highlight how much more work needed to be done to fully urbanise cities in China and India."Many people are now comfortable with the infrastructure build that is required to develop, for example, new cities as whole populations urbanise," he said."Even the most developed of cities in, for example, China, will still require substantial infrastructure development, creating the baseline demand for our products."
© 2008 The Age