It's just as well Rio Tinto has started talking about a Plan B. Friday's decision by Canberra to block the proposed takeover of Oz Minerals by China's state-owned Minmetals suggests that Kevin Rudd's famously China-friendly government is not averse to thumbing its nose at Beijing. This was a shock. The Oz Minerals deal was a less sensitive affair than either Chinalco's deal with Rio or Fortescue Metals' tie-up with Hunan Valin Iron & Steel, both still under review. Minmetals and Oz both sell exchange-traded metals such as copper and zinc, where prices are set daily by the market. Iron ore is different. Rio and Fortescue, Australia's number one and three players, are proposing to sell equity to customers with whom they negotiate long-term supply contracts at fixed prices. Treasurer Wayne Swan's “national security” argument seems spurious, too. Oz's flagship mine is at least 150km from the Woomera weapons testing facility.
幸好力拓(Rio Tinto)已開始談論B計劃。上周五，澳大利亞政府決定阻止中國國有企業五礦集團(Minmetals)擬議中收購Oz Minerals的計劃，這表明素以對華親善著稱的陸克文(Kevin Rudd)政府并不反對向中國說“不”。這是個令人震驚的決定。與仍在接受審查的中國鋁業和力拓的交易、或Fortescue Metals和湖南華菱鋼鐵的交易相比，五礦集團的收購交易沒那么敏感。五礦和Oz Minerals都銷售在交易所交易的金屬，如銅和鋅等，其每天的價格都由市場決定。而鐵礦石則不同。力拓和Fortescue分別是澳大利亞第一和第三大礦業企業，它們計劃出售股權的對象，乃是其與之談判長期固定價格供貨合同的客戶。澳大利亞財長韋恩?斯旺(Wayne Swan)提出的“國家安全”理由似乎站不住腳。Oz Minerals旗下的主要礦井距離澳洲烏美拉(Woomera)武器測試場至少有150公里。