BHP’s Colombian coal takes on Australian miners in Asia market switch – by Peter Ker (Australian Financial Review – October 30, 2019)

https://www.afr.com/

The Colombian coal business owned by BHP, Glencore and Anglo American will switch focus from Europe to Asia, in a move that would put it head to head with Australian coal exporters.

Cerrejon president Guillermo Fonseca urged the Colombian government to consider cutting its tax take to make Cerrejon more competitive against Australian miners, who enjoy a shorter, and therefore, cheaper route to Asia.

”Europe (demand for coal) is declining and declining much faster than we expected, Asia is still growing and definitely that is where the market is going to be for the medium to long term,” he told The Australian Financial Review at Melbourne’s IMARC conference.

“We are in conversations with the Colombian government around what we can do in order to capture the opportunities in the Asian market. ”In the short term, it probably has to do with the government take. It would be in the interest of the government that production of coal in Colombia does not fall.

”Perhaps the country is willing to consider a different tax and royalty regime for production that is going to the Pacific, and that way we would be able to promote the companies seeking to establish themselves in the Pacific market.

For the rest of this article: https://www.afr.com/companies/mining/bhp-s-colombian-coal-takes-on-australian-miners-in-asia-market-switch-20191030-p535u2