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RUEHBY/AMEMBASSY CANBERRA 0396
RUEHDN/AMCONSUL SYDNEY 0291
RUEHBN/AMCONSUL MELBOURNE 0287
RUEHPT/AMCONSUL PERTH 0420
RUCNARF/ASEAN REGIONAL FORUM COLLECTIVE
RUEHGH/AMCONSUL SHANGHAI 0003
RUEHGZ/AMCONSUL GUANGZHOU 0001
RUEHHK/AMCONSUL HONG KONG 0001

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 PERTH 000019 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR EAP/ANP, EAP/CM, AND EEP 
DOE FOR JEFF SKEER 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL:  3/19/2019 
TAGS: EMIN EINV ECON PREL CH AS
SUBJECT: WA MINERS WELCOME STEPPED-UP CHINESE INVESTMENT 
 
REF: (A) CANBERRA 117, (B) CANBERRA 143, (C) 08 PERTH 42 
 
PERTH 00000019  001.2 OF 003 
 
 
CLASSIFIED BY: Kenneth Chern, Consul General, EXEC, State. 
REASON: 1.4 (b), (d) 
¶1.  (C) Summary:  The proposed acquisition by Chinese company 
Chinalco of a significant stake in Anglo-Australian mining giant 
Rio Tinto (ref A) has sparked widespread debate in the Western 
Australia (WA) mining sector over the prospects for increased 
Chinese investment in the state's iron ore and other mineral 
assets.  Across the board, WA businesses say they welcome more - 
and more sophisticated, as evidenced by Chinalco - Chinese 
investment.  Concerns remain, however, that China could take 
advantage of cash-strapped mining companies to gain control of 
resources and keep prices low, to the detriment of future 
Australian generations.  Resident Chinese company Sinosteel 
believes Chinese investors will simply take their cash elsewhere 
if Australian companies do not want it.  The Australian mining 
sector is relying heavily on economic recovery in China to boost 
commodity prices (septel).  Given the uncertainty over when and 
to what extent this recovery will occur, nearly all the 
businesses we spoke with believe the Australian Foreign 
Investment Review Board (FIRB) will give the go-ahead to the 
Chinalco deal, and to other deals under consideration like the 
agreement of Fortescue Metals Group (FMG) with Hunan Valin and 
Steel.  End Summary. 
 
CHINESE INVESTMENT WELCOME . . . 
--------------------------------------------- -------- 
 
¶2.  (C) In a series of private meetings with the Consul General, 
key WA business and government officials were cautiously 
positive about the implications of Rio Tinto's U.S.$19.5 billion 
deal with Chinalco, announced in February.  Premier Colin 
Barnett told the CG that WA, which historically has depended on 
foreign investment to develop its abundant minerals resources, 
welcomed Chinese investment "with appropriate safeguards," such 
as limiting the number of board seats to a minority.  He said 
that in the past, Chinese investors had used a "ham-fisted" 
approach to investing in Australia, "likely similar to their 
approach in Africa where they would buy the resources, build the 
mine and own the whole project."  He contrasted the Chinese to 
the "sophisticated and productive" experience WA has had with 
the Japanese, but said the Chinalco deal signals "a maturing of 
the investment relationship between China and Australia."  Li 
Shugang, Chinese Consul General in Perth, has told the CG 
privately that following two visits from Barnett, he is 
confident that the Chinalco deal will go through - it was a 
win-win for both countries.  Other experienced mining hands like 
Tim Shanahan, former head of the state's leading mining lobby, 
the Chamber of Minerals and Resources, echoed the view that the 
Chinalco deal represents "progress" and greater sophistication 
on the part of Chinese companies. 
 
. . . BUT CHINESE CONFIDENCE AND INTENTIONS PROMPT UNEASE . . . 
--------------------------------------------- -------------- 
---------------------------------------- 
 
¶3.  (C) Duncan Calder, President of the Australia China Business 
Council (WA) and an experienced China hand, told the CG that the 
way the Chinalco deal is unfolding is a "reflection of the 
emerging confidence on the part of the Chinese."  As Calder put 
it, the Chinese "are holding the cash and intend to use it 
during these tough economic times to buy strategic assets in 
their long-term interest."  Calder believes the Chinalco 
development is "scary," arguing that the deal signals that the 
Chinese are more interested in taking stakes in producing 
infrastructure and assets, but less willing to invest in new 
development. 
 
. . . AND BHP-BILLITON SAYS FIRB WILL REJECT THE DEAL 
--------------------------------------------- -------------- 
------------------------ 
 
¶4.  (C) An exception to the consensus that the Chinalco deal 
will go through came from Ian Fletcher, BHP-Billiton's Vice 
President, External Affairs, who believes that FIRB will 
recommend against approval.  (Comment:  BHP has been a leading 
voice in using its considerable influence to lobby Canberra to 
block the Chinalco deal.  End Comment.)  Fletcher told the CG 
that it would be logistically impractical to exclude the two 
proposed Chinese board members from internal company financial 
and pricing data.  He compared the Chinalco deal with earlier 
deals struck by Japanese corporations for investments in WA and 
other parts of Australia.  He noted that while Japanese pubic 
companies were not tied to the Japanese government, the case for 
 
PERTH 00000019  002.2 OF 003 
 
 
Chinese firms like Chinalco was "a lot murkier."  Implicitly 
backtracking, however, Fletcher conceded that if the FIRB did 
approve the Chinalco deal, the Australian Competition and 
Consumer Commission (ACCC) would set strict criteria for how the 
deal will be implemented. 
 
FMG AND THE FAMILY FARM 
----------------------------------------- 
 
¶5.  (C) Fortescue Metals Group insider Sandra Liu, in charge of 
China marketing for Australia's third-largest iron ore producer, 
told the CG the prospect of increased Chinese investment 
activity in WA is a "tricky one."  She said that WA should be 
careful not to "sign away its future resource" but warned that 
"the Chinese are here with the cash and they weren't born 
yesterday."  She cited the experience of Sinosteel (formerly 
China Metallurgical Import and Export Corporation, CMIEC), which 
contributed 40 percent to the Channar Iron Ore project with 
joint venture partner Rio Tinto and is contractually obligated 
to market the ore, currently contributing to parent company 
Sinosteel's losses.  Liu said "China wants better deals than 
this now." 
 
FMG DEAL REFLECTS TOUGH ENVIRONMENT 
--------------------------------------------- ------------------- 
 
¶6.  (C) Liu confided that FMG's recent deal with leading Chinese 
steel mill Valin Iron and Steel Group (Valin) reflects the 
current tough times.  Valin agreed in late February to pay FMG 
A$558 million (U.S.$369 million) to take a 7.5 percent stake in 
the company.  On March 9, Valin agreed to pay a further A$86.8 
million (U.S.$57 million).  Valin also bought an additional 
nine-percent stake in FMG from U.S. capital fund Harbinger, 
bringing Valin's total shareholding in FMG to 17.4 percent.  The 
deal is subject to approval by the FIRB and FMG shareholders. 
 
¶7.  (C) While Liu said that Valin has a good reputation as a 
"very private-sector-oriented" Chinese company, she remarked 
that FMG could have had a "much better deal" last year when 
investors were considering taking a U.S.$1 billion stake in FMG 
shares worth three times the current price.  According to Liu, 
Valin is guaranteed five million tons of iron ore per year.  She 
added that "A$15 million essentially buys a company a place at 
the FMG table" - that is, one million tons per year.  FMG has 
publicly stated that the cash injection from Valin will underpin 
plans to ramp up production from 55 million tons per year to 120 
million tons per year, but analysts say the funds may go to 
easing the company's debt.  FMG currently plans to produce 30 
million tons of iron ore in 2009. 
 
RESIDENT SINOSTEEL FRANK ABOUT ECONOMIC REALITY 
--------------------------------------------- -------------- 
------------------------ 
 
¶8.  (C) WA's resident Sinosteel Managing Director "Jack" Cui 
Xiaofei was also frank about the reality of financing options 
available to Australian miners.  Cui has headed up the 
Australian operations for Sinosteel, China's largest iron ore 
importer and trader, for a decade.  In a private meeting Cui 
told the Consul General that he believes the FIRB will approve 
the Chinalco - Rio Tinto deal.  If it does not, he said, then 
"Chinalco can put its cash back in its pocket and spend it 
somewhere else, maybe in South Africa or Germany, for example." 
Cui, who speaks very good English but has been a reserved 
interlocutor in past meetings, was voluble this time, often 
speaking in Mandarin.  Commenting on the current economic 
crisis, he spoke animatedly about the double meaning of the 
Chinese word for crisis - "weiji" - as both danger and 
opportunity.  Australians, Cui warned, must decide whether 
Chinese investment represents more of an opportunity than a 
danger. 
 
NO CHINESE INVESTMENT IN WA PORT INFRASTRUCTURE 
--------------------------------------------- -------------- 
------------------------ 
 
¶9.  (C) Other stakeholders representing prospective Chinese 
investments have expressed concerns about growing public 
politicization of Chinese investment issues.  John Saunders, CEO 
of Yilgarn Infrastructure, believes this is the case for 
potential Chinese investment in WA's emerging iron-ore Midwest 
region.  Last July, Yilgarn, which is backed by five Chinese 
 
PERTH 00000019  003.2 OF 003 
 
 
state-owned companies, unsuccessfully competed against a 
Mitsubishi-led Japanese-backed consortium for the right to build 
the new privately-funded Oakajee deepwater port (ref C). 
Yilgarn believed it was in a competitive position for a 
subsequent and separate tender to build a rail line to the port. 
 
¶10.  (C) The Barnett state government, however, has put the port 
agreement on hold, and has signaled that state and federal 
government funds will be used to build the port instead. 
Barnett has also signaled that the restructured port development 
plans may not include a separate rail tender, thereby cutting 
out a future opportunity for Yilgarn.  Barnett has also spoken 
out strongly in public against "foreign control" of the port, 
which Yilgarn CEO Saunders believes is targeting Chinese 
investment, assumed to be controlled by China's central 
government.  Barnett recently faced heated criticism in the 
State Parliament for his handling of the port tender process. 
Yilgarn's Saunders told us that the issue of port ownership has 
become a political football and is contributing to increasing 
xenophobia in the press and among the WA public over Chinese 
investment. 
 
COMMENT 
--------------- 
 
¶11.  (C) Almost all the interlocutors we spoke with believe the 
Chinalco - Rio Tinto deal will go through in some form, and that 
more Chinese investment activity is likely to follow over the 
next few years.  There is a sense of inevitability about the 
outcome:  business leaders believe the FIRB will have no choice 
but to recommend the Chinalco deal and that Treasurer Wayne Swan 
will approve because saying no means Rio will lay off workers at 
a difficult economic time.  Most WA observers expect that the 
Federal government's regulatory agencies and political 
leadership will find a way to balance Australia's immediate 
economic interests with its long-term need to avoid 
anti-competitive control of the country's mineral assets. 
However, as the national debate over Chinese investments heats 
up, a minority in WA are looking to Canberra for a different 
solution.  A few, like finance high-flier John Poynton, of Azure 
Capital, believe that the Federal government should use 
Australia's national Future Fund to provide financing for 
cash-strapped industries as a safer alternative to big Chinese 
investments.  That said, WA's tradition of welcoming foreign 
investment, and its need to continue developing major resources 
projects, make continued support for the China economic 
partnership strong, at least in this state.  End Comment. 
CHERN