BHP expects labour costs to remain high
PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Major BHP is expecting the tight labour market to be the biggest inflationary concern for 2023, VP market analysis and economics Dr Huw McKay said on Tuesday.
“Six months ago, at the time of our full-year results for the financial year 2022, we noted that while prices in general remained close to or above forward–looking estimates of equilibria, differentiation across commodity clusters had increased. That divergence persisted in the first half of financial year 2023, with the direct and indirect impacts of the Ukraine conflict continuing to drive extraordinary volatility in energy, food and fertiliser markets.
“Non–ferrous metals and the steelmaking value chain were also impacted by former Soviet Union (FSU) supply uncertainty, but China’s dynamic zero–Covid policy and housing market weakness, and the financial market turbulence that emerged elsewhere under escalating inflation, multi–region central bank tightening and recessionary speculation were even more influential,” McKay said.
“As expected, bottlenecks in global logistics, non–energy industrial products and downstream manufacturing have eased noticeably over the last six months, in part due to genuine efficiency improvement, but this trend is also due to a marked reduction in new order flow allowing backlogs to be cleared.”
McKay said that BHP’s concerns over the operational labour markets had been justified, with worker availability tight and wage pressures continuing to come through.
“The emerging nuance in this regard is that labour supply conditions are improved from where they were 12 or even 6 months ago – but from a unit labour cost perspective, the pressure remains high,” he added.
Comments
Research Reports
Projects
Latest Multimedia
Latest News
Showroom
Weir Minerals Europe, Middle East and Africa is a global supplier of excellent minerals solutions, including pumps, valves, hydrocyclones,...
VISIT SHOWROOM
In 1958 John Deere Construction made its first introduction to the industry with their model 64 bulldozer.
VISIT SHOWROOM
Press Office
Announcements
What's On
Subscribe to improve your user experience...
Option 1 (equivalent of R125 a month):
Receive a weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine
(print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
Receive daily email newsletters
Access to full search results
Access archive of magazine back copies
Access to Projects in Progress
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
Option 2 (equivalent of R375 a month):
All benefits from Option 1
PLUS
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports, in PDF format, on various industrial and mining sectors
including Electricity; Water; Energy Transition; Hydrogen; Roads, Rail and Ports; Coal; Gold; Platinum; Battery Metals; etc.
Already a subscriber?
Forgotten your password?
Receive weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine (print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
➕
Recieve daily email newsletters
➕
Access to full search results
➕
Access archive of magazine back copies
➕
Access to Projects in Progress
➕
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
RESEARCH CHANNEL AFRICA
R4500 (equivalent of R375 a month)
SUBSCRIBEAll benefits from Option 1
➕
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports on various industrial and mining sectors, in PDF format, including on:
Electricity
➕
Water
➕
Energy Transition
➕
Hydrogen
➕
Roads, Rail and Ports
➕
Coal
➕
Gold
➕
Platinum
➕
Battery Metals
➕
etc.
Receive all benefits from Option 1 or Option 2 delivered to numerous people at your company
➕
Multiple User names and Passwords for simultaneous log-ins
➕
Intranet integration access to all in your organisation
