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BHPBill -- approves funding for gas project
BHPBill announced approval for the North West Shelf’s North Rankin Gas Compression project which is designed to recover remaining lower pressure gas from the North Rankin and Perseus gas fields. BHPBill has approved expenditure of USD850 million (BHPBill share) on the project.
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BHPBill faces pressure to lift Rio bid
According to Business Times, BHPBill is facing pressure to raise its offer for Rio Tinto ("Rio") as the target company's profits continue to grow, its Chinese shareholder considers buying more shares and disposals reap healthy returns. While BHPBill seeks approval from global competition authorities, Rio is set to record stronger earnings than its rival. Rio insists that BHPBill's offer is much too low.
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BHPBill to shut two lines at Bayside smelter
Business Report noted that BHPBill would start closing two of its three production lines at its Bayside aluminium smelter in Richards Bay. The closures are scheduled to start on Tuesday, 25 March 2008. This is in response to Eskom's 10% cut in power. BHPBill expects to lose more than 120 000 tons of aluminium a year, worth R2.7 billion, at its three Southern African smelters.
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BHPBill warns of possible job cuts
Business Day reported BHPBill's possible shutdown of two potlines at its Bayside aluminium smelter could affect up to 900 workers as it cut production because of the electricity shortage. Company spokesperson Bronwyn Wilkinson said that the company would "do everything to minimise the number of job losses" and that negotiations had already started with the affected employees' unions.
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BHPBill -- proposed dividend dates and AGM
The proposed dates for the 2008 final dividend and 2008 annual general meeting of BHPBill are as follows:
- Currency conversion and election -- 14 August 2008
- Preliminary results announcement and dividend declaration -- 18 August 2008
- Last day to trade on Johannesburg Stock Exchange -- 29 August 2008
- Ex-dividend date (Australian & Johannesburg Stock Exchanges) -- 1 September 2008
- Record date -- 5 September 2008
- Payment -- 25 September 2008
Annual general meetings
- The 2008 AGM of BHPBill will be held in London on Thursday, 23 October 2008 at 10.30am.
- The 2008 AGM of BHP Billiton Ltd will be held in Melbourne on Thursday, 27 November 2008 at 10.30am.
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BHPBill -- impact of power reduction
On 24 January, the South African national power company, Eskom, determined that it had insufficient power to meet demand. An emergency 10% reduction in power consumption by many large industrial users, including BHP Billiton, was mandated. BHP Billiton's contracts with Eskom specify that the power supply to its aluminium smelters can only be interrupted approximately 1% of the time per calendar year. Despite this, and respecting the emergency situation faced by the country, BHP Billiton has reduced its demand by the requested 10%. Power reductions were initially achieved by reducing power by approximately 10% at all three of BHP's Southern Africa smelters. This operating methodology is unsustainable. As the group understand that the power reductions are likely to last for a number of years, management have assessed the company's options to more effectively deal with a longer-term reduction in power. As a result of this assessment BHP plan to take the bulk of the power reduction at Bayside (100% owned by BHP Billiton) while Hillside and Mozal will continue at reduced operating levels to comply with the 10% mandatory overall power demand reduction. BHP has therefore commenced consultations with its employees about a possible closure of operations of the B and C potlines at Bayside. Total annual production loss will be just over 120 000 tonnes across all three smelters (100% basis), including approximately 92 000 tonnes from Bayside. Also in South Africa, the company's 60% owned manganese business, Samancor, is operating at 90% of normal peak power demand although the impact on production is small and felt principally in the Metalloys alloy plant. The group's coal operations have been minimally affected and have offered to help Eskom rebuild its coal stocks.
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BHPBilll -- approves Douglas-Middelburg project
BHPBill announced the approval of the Douglas-Middelburg Optimisation (DMO) Project, with an expected capital investment of USD975 million. The DMO project scope includes utilising reserves across the Douglas and Middelburg Mine Services (MMS) collieries and development of new mining areas with low strip ratio coal, with product being fed into a new 14 Mtpa coal processing plant. The new coal processing plant will replace the existing, less efficient washing plant at Douglas. The project will enable BHPBill to maintain energy coal exports from the combined Douglas Colliery and MMS at around current levels (approximately 9.5 Mtpa BHPBill share) whilst also fulfilling domestic contractual commitments. First coal from the new mining areas is expected in mid-2008 and the new plant is expected to receive coal in mid-2010. The anticipated life of mining operations is to 2034.
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