Author: roymorgansocial

How the iron ore price busted above $US100 a tonne

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Original article by Patrick Commins
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 29 : 21-May-19

The tailings dam collapse at a Vale mine in January has been a major driver of the iron ore price’s rise to a five-year high of $US100 per tonne. The disaster reduced seaborne iron ore supply by around six per cent, prompting a rally in the price of the steel input and the shares of major producers. The reduced global supply has also coincided with rising demand for iron ore in China. Meanwhile, Vivek Dhar of the Commonwealth Bank expects the iron ore price to ease to around $US85 per tonne by the end of 2019.

CORPORATES
VALE SA, COMMONWEALTH BANK OF AUSTRALIA – ASX CBA, FORTESCUE METALS GROUP LIMITED – ASX FMG

Gas price cut needed to save Gibson Island

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Original article by Peter Ker
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 14 & 18 : 21-May-19

Incitec Pivot has posted a 2018-19 underlying net profit of $41.9m, compared with $147.1m previously. The company has warned that its fertiliser plant at Gibson Island in Queensland will close by the end of 2019 unless action is taken to address the issue of high gas prices. CEO Jeanne Johns says it will not be viable to keep the plant open until 2022 unless gas prices fall. She has declined to comment on whether the federal government should use the Australian Domestic Gas Security Mechanism to restrict gas export volumes in 2019 and 2020.

CORPORATES
INCITEC PIVOT LIMITED – ASX IPL, ENERGYQUEST PTY LTD

Libs ahead in three of six undecided seats

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Original article by Rachel Baxendale, Sarah Elks
The Australian – Page: 5 : 21-May-19

The Coalition remains one seat short of the 76 lower house seats needed to form majority government. The outcome of six seats is still in doubt, although the Coalition had a slim lead in the seats of Macquarie, Bass and Chisholm on 20 May. Labor in turn had a narrow lead in the seats of Cowan, Lilley and Corangamite. Postal and absentee votes may determine the final result in all seats that are still in doubt.

CORPORATES
LIBERAL PARTY OF AUSTRALIA, NATIONAL PARTY OF AUSTRALIA, AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY, LIBERAL-NATIONAL PARTY OF QUEENSLAND

Search for rival to take on Albanese

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Original article by Ben Packham, Greg Brown
The Australian – Page: 1 & 2 : 21-May-19

There is growing support within Labor – including members of the party’s Right faction – for the Left’s Anthony Albanese to succeed Bill Shorten as Opposition leader. However, some members of the party’s Right believe that the faction should field its own candidate. There is speculation that Shorten himself will support a candidate from the Right, after deputy leader Tanya Plibersek chose not to contest the leadership for family reasons. Chris Bowen and Jim Chalmers are seen as the most likely Right faction contenders to challenge for the leadership.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY

Labor punished for not backing coal jobs, Fitzgibbon says

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Original article by Mark Ludlow
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 6 : 21-May-19

Adani Mining CEO Lucas Dow says the Queensland government needs to take note of Labor’s poor showing in the state at the federal election, describing it as a referendum on the Carmichael coal project. State Labor MPs are worried about the impact that the government’s delay in approving the mine will have on its fortunes at the state election in 2020. Federal Labor frontbencher Joel Fitzgibbon says the party needs to show more support for the coal industry and the jobs it creates; he suffered a 10 per cent swing against him in the coal mining seat of Hunter.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY, QUEENSLAND RESOURCES COUNCIL LIMITED, QUEENSLAND. DEPT OF ENVIRONMENT AND HERITAGE PROTECTION, ADANI MINING PTY LTD

ABC staff told to brace for cuts

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Original article by Andrew White
The Australian – Page: 7 : 21-May-19

ABC MD David Anderson has warned the public broadcaster’s employees that it will need to reduce costs by $14.6m in 2019-20 after the federal government failed to reverse its funding freeze in the April 2019 Budget. Anderson has reiterated that investing in content must be the ABC’s priority; he had previously indicated that jobs and services would need to be cut if the funding freeze remained in place. Labor had committed to scrapping the freeze if it won the federal election.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIAN BROADCASTING CORPORATION, AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY, AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF COMMUNICATIONS AND THE ARTS, NEWS CORP AUSTRALIA PTY LTD, FOXTEL MANAGEMENT PTY LTD

Foxtel focus on satisfied subscribers

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Original article by Andrew White, Zoe Samios
The Australian – Page: 28 : 20-May-19

Foxtel’s recently-appointed chief product and strategy officer Alice Mascia has been recruited to help bolster its Kayo Sports and Foxtel Now streaming services and to help retain subscribers. Mascia says Foxtel is planning to introduce a loyalty scheme for customers, while customers who want to get a satellite set-top box for free when they get Foxtel installed are being asked to sign a 12-month contract; she says this should reduce customer churn. Foxtel’s churn rates increased to 17 per cent in the March quarter following a 11 per cent price rise in October, but they improved in April.

CORPORATES
FOXTEL MANAGEMENT PTY LTD, TELSTRA CORPORATION LIMITED – ASX TLS

BHP warned of potash mission impossible

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Original article by Peter Ker
The Australian – Page: 19 & 24 : 20-May-19

BHP recently advised that the first stage of its proposed $US5.7 billion ($8.3 billion) Jansen potash project in Canada will produce 10 per cent more a year than previously forecast, but that it will cost around 10 per cent more to construct. Green Markets research director Alexis Maxwell says rival potash producers would seek to keep prices sufficiently low so that BHP did not have sufficient incentive to develop Jansen, while JP Morgan analyst Lyndon Fagan says BHP is using unrealistically high potash prices to justify the economics of Jansen. BHP is expected to make a decision on whether to proceed with Jansen within 18 months.

CORPORATES
BHP GROUP LIMITED – ASX BHP, GREEN MARKETS, JP MORGAN AUSTRALIA LIMITED

Cut-down crossbench boosts PM

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Original article by Rosie Lewis
The Australian – Page: 3 : 20-May-19

Political strategist Glenn Druery expects the Coalition to have 33 or 34 seats in the new Senate, compared with 30 in the previous parliament. The Coalition’s prospects of passing bills in the upper house are also likely to be enhanced by a significantly smaller crossbench, which is expected to be reduced from 12 to six in the new Senate. Druery says the Coalition’s Senate voting reforms in 2016 have made it harder for ordinary Australians to win seats in the upper house.

CORPORATES
LIBERAL PARTY OF AUSTRALIA, NATIONAL PARTY OF AUSTRALIA, ONE NATION PARTY, LIBERAL-NATIONAL PARTY OF QUEENSLAND, PALMER UNITED PARTY, AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY, AUSTRALIAN GREENS, CENTRE ALLIANCE, AUSTRALIAN CONSERVATIVES

Aunty takes ratings crown

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Original article by Zoe Samios, Lilly Vitorovich
The Australian – Page: 26 : 20-May-19

The ABC had the highest-rating federal election coverage on 18 May, with its audience peaking at 1.336 million – including 940,000 metropolitan viewers – from 8-9pm. The ABC News channel attracted an average metropolitan audience of 258,833, while some 300,000 people watched the public broadcaster’s election coverage via iview. Meanwhile, the Nine Network’s election coverage attracted some 450,000 metropolitan viewers, and pay-TV channel Sky News was watched by an average of 132,000 viewers.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIAN BROADCASTING CORPORATION, NINE NETWORK AUSTRALIA LIMITED, SKY NEWS, SEVEN NETWORK LIMITED, TEN NETWORK HOLDINGS LIMITED, SPECIAL BROADCASTING SERVICE (SBS), RMIT UNIVERSITY