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)已开始谈论B计划。上周五，澳大利亚政府决定阻止manbetx3.0 国有企业五矿集团(Minmetals)拟议中收购Oz Minerals的计划，这表明素以对华亲善著称的陆克文(Kevin Rudd)政府并不反对向manbetx3.0 说“不”。这是个令人震惊的决定。与仍在接受审查的manbetx3.0 铝业和力拓的交易、或Fortescue Metals和湖南华菱钢铁的交易相比，五矿集团的收购交易没那么敏感。五矿和Oz Minerals都销售在交易所交易的金属，如铜和锌等，其每天的价格都由市场决定。而铁矿石则不同。力拓和Fortescue分别是澳大利亚第一和第三大矿业企业，它们计划出售股权的对象，乃是其与之谈判长期固定价格供货合同的客户。澳大利亚财长韦恩•斯旺(Wayne Swan)提出的“国家安全”理由似乎站不住脚。Oz Minerals旗下的主要矿井距离澳洲乌美拉(Woomera)武器测试场至少有150公里。