BHP Billiton, Fortescue Metals, Wesfarmers and Woolworths all reporting well as profit season wraps up

By finance reporter Stephen Letts Updated about 5 hours ago Related Story: Santos plunges to $2.7b loss, Sims crushed but Iluka returns to profit Related Story: Medibank profit rises but dividend falls Map: Australia Results from the big end of resources and retail dominate this week with BHP Billiton, Fortescue Metals, Wesfarmers and Woolworths all reporting and pretty well wrapping up the profit season. It has been a case of so far, not so bad, even quite good. At roughly half time, with 47 per cent of companies comprising 61 per cent of market capitalisation having posted results, Citi's Quantitative Research team has the scoreboard reading 30 per cent beating earnings forecasts, 26 per cent below and 44 per cent in line. AMP Capital's Shane Oliver has the score at 54 per cent beating expectations, with 68 per cent of companies reporting higher profits on a year ago — against the long-term average of 62 per cent — and 69 per cent raising dividends. "Company guidance has had a slight positive skew," Mr Oliver said. "The better-than-feared nature of the results to date has been reflected in 66 per cent of stocks seeing their share price outperform the market the day results were released." There is a caveat though; there is still a way to go and good results have a habit of coming out early in the reporting season. Resources: BHP Billiton (Tuesday), Fortescue (Wednesday) and South 32 (Thursday) BHP Billiton's result will not be pretty; expect net profit to be down at least 80 per cent on last year's interim profit of almost $US5 billion. The $US7 billion charge to US onshore oil and gas assets has been well ventilated, after BHP lowered its short and medium-term oil prices. BHP conducts a bi-annual review of its asset values and it begs the question whether any other nasties will pop up in the result. Morgan Stanley resources team — which recently upgraded BHP to a buy — said there was some potential for further impairment, although probably at the more modest end of the scale. That is, of course, unless BHP capitulates on its commodity price assumptions, in which case investors better put on their hard hats. The other big news will be the seeming inevitability of the shrinking Big Australian cutting its progressive dividend policy. Deutsche Bank argued in a note to clients BHP will pull both the capex and dividend levers to maintain its A credit rating. "It [BHP] can cut financial year capex to a reasonable $US5.5 to $6 billion — current guidance is $US7 billion — and cut the progressive dividend by 50 per cent or $US3 billion," Deutsche Bank said. The broker said BHP could cut even deeper into capex — by another $1.5 billion — but argued that it would just damage the business. "Cutting the dividend, in theory, does not change the fundamental value of the company, it is simply an allocation of cash," Deutsche Bank noted in maintaining its valuation of BHP at $20.27 a share. "However, we think it would improve BHP's ability to make value accretive buybacks or pursue M&A [mergers and acquisitions] in oil and copper at this low point in the cycle." Deutsche Bank is looking beyond the profit number — and dividend cut — in the results focusing instead on management's strategy to lift growth and returns. BHP's smaller Pilbara neighbour Fortescue Metals Group has been punished like all the iron-ore miners, but its recent second quarter results showed an improvement, at least in an operational sense. It cut cash costs and the capex budget, improved its mining efficiency and the quality of its product, all of which has boosted margins and moved Fortescue break even costs down to around $30 a tonne. Net profit may even rise to around $400 million, which would be a pretty good effort in the current environment. South 32 — the BHP spin-off of second tier assets — reports as well in what has so far been a short and less-than-prosperous corporate life. Nothing to get excited about here — expect more talk of ripping costs out and there is potential for impairment charges to make for a pretty grim result. Infographic: Share price response relative to market on day of results (Source: AMP Capital) Retail: Wesfarmers (Wednesday), Woolworths (Friday) and Harvey Norman (Friday) Sales growth for all the big supermarket chains is less than thrilling as Coles, Woolworths and Aldi duke it out in a bare-knuckled price fight. Morgan Stanley has been studying the checkouts and found Coles and Woolworths have cut prices by around 4.6 per cent, and Aldi by 1.2 per cent — so in relative terms, not much has changed. "Industry data indicates supermarkets are doing it tougher … supermarkets industry sales growth has slowed to just 2.5 per cent while food inflation in supermarket products has turned negative," Morgan Stanley noted. As the supermarket space race continues — floor space growing at around 4 per cent a year — the immediate outlook is certainly challenging. Wesfarmers is expected to deliver a first half profit a tad under $1.4 billion, or roughly what it produced this time last year. Food and Liquor sales should be growing by a respectable 3.5 per cent, while Bunnings will be good for another 7 per cent or so growth. Wesfarmers' coal operations — as opposed to Coles operation — will be a black spot and drag things down a bit. Woolworths set its first half profit guidance of $900 million to $1 million back in October and has stuck by it ever since. Most brokers are going for the lower end of the range which would represent a 30-per-cent drop on the previous corresponding period. Credit Suisse has forecast zero like-for-like sales growth for Woolworths in food and liquor for the second quarter, which is hardly laying them in the aisles. Credit Suisse also forecasts a considerable contraction in margins, which is unlikely to be appreciated in the investor community. As well, the home improvement business — Masters — will most likely be booked in as a discontinued operation, incurring a rather nasty impairment charge in the numbers. Harvey Norman, on the other hand, seems to be sailing along quite happily, driven by the strong tailwinds from the housing sector. Executive chairman Gerry Harvey does not provide guidance but a half-year profit of around $170 million — up from $138 million last year — on sales growth of 7 per cent is a reasonable punt. Qantas (Tuesday): Qantas is popular tip amongst brokers to produce a pleasant first-half surprise with a profit of around $920 million, at the top end of its guidance range. Whatever the number, the carrier will certainly gain altitude from last year's $200 million profit and the $235 million loss back in 2014. Sydney Airport traffic statistics certainly point to a strong results and international growth and tumbling fuel prices are doing their bit as well. QBE (Tuesday): The consensus view is the globally focused insurer QBE will roll out full-year profit of $US850 million, which would be up on last year's $US821 million. But as always with insurers, there are many complicated and messy bits that make up the bottom line. So far the domestic insurers — Suncorp and IAG — have suffered from poor investment returns as much as natural disasters. Mark-to-market downgrades on asset values could drag down the second half performance while policy renewals may be weaker than expected. Will wage growth and capex crawl off the mat? The week's economic highlights will be two of the domestic economy's lowlights: wages and private capital expenditure. While employment has remained solid, wages and capex have been missing links in non-mining business indicators pointing a broadly robust economy. Capex and the associated expectations survey, due Thursday, have been variously described in previous quarters as appalling, dismal and recessionary. The forecast this time around is for a 1-per-cent contraction, which does not sound great but means things are getting worse at a slower rate than the 9-per-cent fall in December. Wages growth while not dismal, could be described more accurately as flat to moribund at 2.3 per cent year-on-year. It probably will not get worse, but don't expect it to get better in the short-term at least. Overseas, things are quiet. US GDP growth is likely to revised down again, from the current estimate of 0.7 per cent to 0.5 per cent. Unofficial reading of manufacturing activity in the US, Europe and Japan will be released as well and all are expected to show expanding — if not thriving — activity. Australia Day Notes Wednesday 24/2/16 Wage price index Construction work Q4: Wage growth insipid, around 2.3 per cent year-on-year Q4: Down 4 per cent in last quarter, likely to be flat Thursday 25/2/16 Capex Q4: Has been at recessionary levels, couldn't get much worse, could it? Friday 26/2/16 Private sector credit Jan: Has been solid plus 6 per cent year-on-year Corporate Day Notes Monday 22/2/16 Bluescope Steel Brambles Int: Could be a positive surprise driven by cost-cutting Int: A solid first half profit of $US300m forecast Tuesday 23/2/16 BHP Caltex Oil Search Qantas QBE Int: The focus will be on the dividend FY: Profit should rise strongly, dividends up too? FY: PNG growth makes it one of the least bad oil plays. Profit could rise 50 per cent Int: A half-year profit above $900m expected FY: Flatish profit of around $US850m Wednesday 24/2/16 Asciano Flight Centre Fortescue Wesfarmers Worley Parsons Int: Focus will be on the takeover offer from Qube Int: Should be a solid result Int: Cost-cutting and efficiency could make it a not so bad result Int: A $1.4-billion profit will be solid, but flat. Int: Servicing the gas and mining industry means a significant drop in profit is on the cards. Thursday 25/2/16 Crown Entertainment Perpetual South 32 Int: Profit likely to be dragged down by Macau Int: Probably a flat profit of around $60m Int: Not pretty, more cost cutting Friday 26/2/16 Harvey Norman Woolworths Int: Going OK, profit of around $170m tipped Int: Going backwards, profit below $1bn Overseas Day Notes Monday 22/2/16 US, EU, JP: PMIs Feb: Markit's series on manufacturing activity, all expected to be expanding Tuesday 23/2/16 US: Home prices US: Existing home sales Dec: CaseShiller series, up around 6 per cent year-on-year Jan: Robust, up 15 per cent in December Wednesday 24/2/16 US: New home sales Jan: Up 11 per cent in December, may be lower this time Thursday 25/2/16 US: Durable goods orders EU: Inflation Jan: A measure of business investment. Dropped in December Jan: Stubbornly low, 0.4 per cent forecast Friday 26/2/16 US: Economic growth Q4: Forecast to drop from 0.7 per cent yoy. Not brilliant From other news sites:

Malaysian plane sent out engine data before vanishing: Lost Malaysian airliner may have run out of fuel over Indian Ocean: source

17:23 11 March 2014 by Paul Marks For similar stories, visit the Aviation Topic Guide The missing Malaysia Airlines jet sent at least two bursts of technical data back to the airline before it disappeared, New Scientist has learned. The data may help investigators understand what went wrong with the aircraft, no trace of which has yet been found. To aid maintenance, most airlines use the Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System (ACARS), which automatically collates and files four technical reports during every flight so that engineers can spot problems. These reports are sent via VHF radio or satellite at take-off, during the climb, at some point while cruising, and on landing. Malaysia Airlines has not revealed if it has learned anything from ACARS data, or if it has any. Its eleventh media statement since the plane disappeared said: "All Malaysia Airlines aircraft are equipped with… ACARS which transmits data automatically. Nevertheless, there were no distress calls and no information was relayed." This would suggest no concrete data is to hand. But New Scientist understands that the maker of the missing Boeing 777's Trent 800 engines, Rolls Royce, received two data reports from flight MH370 at its global engine health monitoring centre in Derby, UK, where it keeps real-time tabs on its engines in use. One was broadcast as MH370 took off from Kuala Lumpur International Airport, the other during the 777's climb out towards Beijing. As the engine data is filtered from a larger ACARS report covering all the plane's critical flight systems and avionics, it could mean the airline has some useful clues about the condition of the aircraft prior to its disappearance. The plane does not appear to have been cruising long enough to issue any more ACARS reports. It disappeared from radar at 1.30 AM local time, halfway between Malaysia and Vietnam over the Gulf of Thailand. Under International Civil Aviation Organisation rules, such reports are normally kept secret until air investigators need them. Satellites deployed Meanwhile, the search for the airliner and the 239 people on board continues, with satellite technology being deployed. China has repurposed 10 satellites, some thought to have high-resolution imaging capabilities, to help the search effort, while other satellites are providing precision weather information to Chinese ships and aircraft involved in the search. The Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organisation, which watches out for nuclear weapons tests worldwide, looked at its data for the last few days to see if its infrasound – below the range of human hearing – recordings, normally used to seek out the muffled crump of underground tests, contained any signature of an aircraft explosion. But it found nothing. And an ambitious attempt to crowdsource the search has also taken off. Satellite imaging firm Digital Globe has divided up high-resolution images of the region of interest so that web users can scan them for signs of the plane. A similar crowdsourcing effort was organised by Amazon when pioneer aviator Steve Fossett disappeared in 2007. ====================================== REVEALED: Engine data indicates Malaysian plane flew four hours after disappearing By Tony Ortega Thursday, March 13, 2014 2:03 EDT Topics: Andy Pasztor ♦ Malaysia Airlines ♦ wall street journal Stunning new information is being reported by Andy Pasztor at the Wall Street Journal: the Boeing engines on Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 which went missing on Saturday automatically downloaded information several hours after the plane was last seen on radar, indicating that it flew on to an unknown location. After flying northeast on its scheduled path from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, the aircraft’s transponders stopped emitting signals about an hour into the flight, at 1:30 am, when the plane was still south of Vietnam. According to a Malaysian air force official, the plane then made a turn to the west and headed back over the Malaysian peninsula and over the Strait of Malacca. At that point, Malaysian radar lost sight of the plane at around 2:40 am. But now, American investigators and national security officials are saying that several hours after that last radar contact, the airplane’s Boeing engines automatically downloaded information as part of their normal operation, and that signal was picked up. Writes Pasztor: The engines’ onboard monitoring system is provided by their manufacturer, Rolls-Royce, and it periodically sends bursts of data about engine health, operations and aircraft movements to facilities on the ground. Rolls-Royce couldn’t immediately be reached for comment. As part of its maintenance agreements, Malaysia Airlines transmits its engine data live to Rolls-Royce for analysis. The system compiles data from inside the 777′s two Trent 800 engines and transmits snapshots of performance, as well as the altitude and speed of the jet. The engines communicate with the ground every half hour, and now U.S. investigators believe the engines indicated the plane may have been flying up to five hours after taking off from Malaysia. A total flight time of five hours after departing Kuala Lumpur means the Boeing 777 could have continued for an additional distance of about 2,200 nautical miles, reaching points as far as the Indian Ocean, the border of Pakistan or even the Arabian Sea, based on the jet’s cruising speed. If the plane flew that far without transponder signals or communication from the pilots, it suggests that MH370 may have been commandeered. “The latest revelations come as local media reported that Malaysian police visited the home of at least one of the two pilots,” Pasztor writes. Watch video about the transponder being shut off… ========================================== Mar 13, 2:07 AM EDT Malaysia: No debris at spot shown on China images By CHRIS BRUMMITT and JIM GOMEZ Associated Press AP Photo Buy AP Photo Reprints KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) -- Planes sent Thursday to check the spot where Chinese satellite images showed possible debris from the missing Malaysian jetliner found nothing, Malaysia's civil aviation chief said, deflating the latest tantalizing lead in the six-day hunt. "There is nothing. We went there, there is nothing," Azharuddin Abdul Rahman told reporters in Kuala Lumpur. The Wall Street Journal, meanwhile, reported that U.S. investigators suspect the plane flew on for four hours once it lost contact with air traffic controllers, based on data from the plane's engines that are automatically downloaded and transmitted to the ground as part of routine maintenance programs. The report raises questions as to why the Boeing 777 would have been flying without contact, and if anyone would have been in control during that time. U.S. counterterrorism officials are considering whether a pilot or someone else on board intentionally disabled the jetliner's transponders to avoid detection and divert it, the report said. The hunt for the missing Malaysia Airlines flight 370 has been punctuated by false leads since it disappeared with 239 people aboard about an hour after leaving Kuala Lumpur for Beijing early Saturday. The plane was heading northeast over the South China Sea when it disappeared, but authorities believe it may have turned back and headed into the upper reaches of the Strait of Malacca or beyond. Chinese satellite imagery showed possible debris is not far from where the last confirmed position of the plane was between Malaysia and Vietnam. The images and coordinates were posted on the website of China's State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense. China's state Xinhua News Agency said the images from around 11 a.m. on Sunday appear to show "three suspected floating objects" of varying sizes in a 20-kilometer (12-mile) radius, the largest about 24-by-22 meters (79-by-72 feet) off the southern tip of Vietnam. Li Jiaxiang, chief of the Civil Aviation Administration of China, said later China had yet to confirm any link between the suspected floating objects and the plane. Pham Quy Tieu, deputy transport minister, told The Associated Press that the area had been "searched thoroughly" by forces from other countries over the past few days. Doan Huu Gia, chief of air search and rescue coordination center, said Malaysian and Singaporean aircraft were scheduled to visit the area again Thursday. Malaysia has come under some criticism for its handling of the search, which currently covers 35,800 square miles (92,600 square kilometers) and involves 12 nations. Exclusive: Radar data suggests missing Malaysia plane deliberately flown way off course - sources By Niluksi Koswanage and Siva Govindasamy KUALA LUMPUR Fri Mar 14, 2014 6:01am EDT The Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyers USS Kidd and USS Pinckney are seen en transit in the Pacific Ocean in this U.S. Navy picture taken May 18, 2011. Kidd and Pinkney have been searching for the missing Malaysian airliner and are being re-deployed to the Strait of Malacca of Malaysia's west coast as new search areas are opened in the Indian Ocean, according to officials on March 13, 2014. Credit: Reuters/US Navy/Seaman Apprentice Carla Ocampo/Handout The search for Flight MH370 KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Military radar data suggests a Malaysia Airlines jetliner missing for nearly a week was deliberately flown hundreds of miles off course, heightening suspicions of foul play among investigators, sources told Reuters on Friday. Analysis of the Malaysia data suggests the plane, with 239 people on board, diverted from its intended northeast route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing and flew west instead, using airline flight corridors normally employed for routes to the Middle East and Europe, said sources familiar with investigations into the Boeing 777's disappearance. Two sources said an unidentified aircraft that investigators believe was Flight MH370 was following a route between navigational waypoints when it was last plotted on military radar off the country's northwest coast. This indicates that it was either being flown by the pilots or someone with knowledge of those waypoints, the sources said. The last plot on the military radar's tracking suggested the plane was flying toward India's Andaman Islands, a chain of isles between the Andaman Sea and the Bay of Bengal, they said. Waypoints are geographic locations, worked out by calculating longitude and latitude, that help pilots navigate along established air corridors. A third source familiar with the investigation said inquiries were focusing increasingly on the theory that someone who knew how to fly a plane deliberately diverted the flight. POSSIBLE SABOTAGE OR HIJACK "What we can say is we are looking at sabotage, with hijack still on the cards," said that source, a senior Malaysian police official. All three sources declined to be identified because they were not authorized to speak to the media and due to the sensitivity of the investigation. Officials at Malaysia's Ministry of Transport, the official point of contact for information on the investigation, did not return calls seeking comment. Malaysian police have previously said they were investigating whether any passengers or crew had personal or psychological problems that might shed light on the mystery, along with the possibility of a hijacking, sabotage or mechanical failure. As a result of the new evidence, the sources said, multinational search efforts were being stepped up in the Andaman Sea and also the Indian Ocean. LAST SIGHTING In one of the most baffling mysteries in modern aviation, no trace of the plane nor any sign of wreckage has been found despite a search by the navies and military aircraft of more than a dozen countries. The last sighting of the aircraft on civilian radar screens came shortly before 1:30 a.m. Malaysian time last Saturday (1730 GMT Friday), less than an hour after it took off from Kuala Lumpur, as the plane flew northeast across the mouth of the Gulf of Thailand. That put the plane on Malaysia's east coast. Malaysia's air force chief said on Wednesday an aircraft that could have been the missing plane was plotted on military radar at 2:15 a.m., 200 miles northwest of Penang Island off Malaysia's west coast. This position marks the limit of Malaysia's military radar in that part of the country, a fourth source familiar with the investigation told Reuters. When asked about the range of military radar at a news conference on Thursday, Malaysian Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said it was "a sensitive issue" that he was not going to reveal. "Even if it doesn't extend beyond that, we can get the co-operation of the neighboring countries," he said. The fact that the aircraft - if it was MH370 - had lost contact with air traffic control and was invisible to civilian radar suggested someone on board had turned off its communication systems, the first two sources said. They also gave new details on the direction in which the unidentified aircraft was heading - following aviation corridors identified on maps used by pilots as N571 and P628. These routes are taken by commercial planes flying from Southeast Asia to the Middle East or Europe and can be found in public documents issued by regional aviation authorities. In a far more detailed description of the military radar plotting than has been publicly revealed, the first two sources said the last confirmed position of MH370 was at 35,000 feet about 90 miles off the east coast of Malaysia, heading towards Vietnam, near a navigational waypoint called "Igari". The time was 1:21 a.m.. The military track suggests it then turned sharply westwards, heading towards a waypoint called "Vampi", northeast of Indonesia's Aceh province and a navigational point used for planes following route N571 to the Middle East. From there, the plot indicates the plane flew towards a waypoint called "Gival", south of the Thai island of Phuket, and was last plotted heading northwest towards another waypoint called "Igrex", on route P628 that would take it over the Andaman Islands and which carriers use to fly towards Europe. The time was then 2:15 a.m. That is the same time given by the air force chief on Wednesday, who gave no information on that plane's possible direction. The sources said Malaysia was requesting raw radar data from neighbours Thailand, Indonesia and India, which has a naval base in the Andaman Islands. (Additional reporting by Christine Chan in Singapore. Writing by Alex Richardson: Editing by Dean Yates) Lost Malaysian airliner may have run out of fuel over Indian Ocean: source Reuters KUALA LUMPUR/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Faint electronic signals sent to satellites from a missing Malaysian jetliner show it may have been flown thousands of miles off course before running out of fuel over Lost Malaysian airliner may have run out of fuel over Indian Ocean: source By Niluksi Koswanage and Mark Hosenball KUALA LUMPUR/WASHINGTON Fri Mar 14, 2014 10:54pm EDT 1 Comments inShare.3Share thisEmailPrint 2 of 10. Military officers Phung Truong Son (L), Vu Duc Long (C) and Pham Minh Tuan discuss a map of a search area before their departure to find the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, at a military More... Credit: REUTERS/Kham Related VideoMalaysia jet mystery – the clues Fri, Mar 14 2014Related NewsIndia scours jungle islands for lost Malaysian jetliner Fri, Mar 14 2014 Satellites scour earth for clues as Malaysia jet mystery deepens Fri, Mar 14 2014 Satellite data shows missing Malaysia plane may have flown thousands of miles: source Fri, Mar 14 2014Related TopicsWorld » Aerospace & Defense » KUALA LUMPUR/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Faint electronic signals sent to satellites from a missing Malaysian jetliner show it may have been flown thousands of miles off course before running out of fuel over the Indian Ocean, a source familiar with official U.S. assessments said. Analysis in Malaysia and the United States of military radar tracking and pulses detected by satellites are starting to piece together an extraordinary picture of what may have happened to the plane after it lost contact with civilian air traffic. The fate of Malaysian Airlines Flight MH370, and the 239 passengers and crew aboard, has been shrouded in mystery since it vanished off Malaysia's east coast less than an hour into a March 8 scheduled flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. Investigators are focusing increasingly on foul play, as evidence suggests the plane turned sharply west after its disappearance and - with its communications systems deliberately switched off - continued to fly for perhaps several hours. "What we can say is we are looking at sabotage, with hijack still on the cards," said the source, a senior Malaysian police official. A U.S. source familiar with the investigation said there was also discussion within the U.S. government that the plane's disappearance might have involved an act of piracy. SATELLITE PULSES A source familiar with data the U.S. government is receiving from the investigation said the pulses sent to satellites were ambiguous and had been interpreted to provide two different analyses. The electronic signals were believed to have been transmitted for several hours after the plane flew out of radar range, said the source familiar with the data. The most likely possibility is that, after travelling northwest, the Boeing 777-200ER made a sharp turn to the south, over the Indian Ocean where officials think, based on the available data, it flew until it ran out of fuel and crashed into the sea, added the source. The other interpretation is that Flight MH370 continued to fly to the northwest and headed over Indian territory. The source added that it was believed unlikely the plane flew for any length of time over India because that country has strong air defense and radar coverage and that should have allowed authorities there to see the plane and intercept it. Either way, the analysis of satellite data appears to support the radar evidence outlined by sources familiar with the investigation in Malaysia. Two sources told Reuters that military radar data showed an unidentified aircraft that investigators suspect was Flight MH370 following a commonly used commercial, navigational route towards the Middle East and Europe. That course - headed into the Andaman Sea and towards the Bay of Bengal in the Indian Ocean - could only have been set deliberately, either by flying the Boeing 777-200ER jet manually or by programming the auto-pilot. "NOT A NORMAL INVESTIGATION" The disappearance of the Boeing 777 - one of the safest commercial jets in service - is shaping into one of the most baffling mysteries in aviation history. It is extremely rare for a modern passenger aircraft to disappear once it has reached cruising altitude, as MH370 had. When that does happen, the debris from a crash is usually found close to its last known position relatively quickly. In this case, there has been no trace of the plane, nor any sign of wreckage, as the navies and military aircraft of more than a dozen countries scour the seas on both sides of peninsular Malaysia. "A normal investigation becomes narrower with time ... as new information focuses the search, but this is not a normal investigation," Malaysian Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein told a news conference on Friday. "In this case, the information has forced us to look further and further afield." India has deployed ships, planes and helicopters from the remote, forested and mostly uninhabited Andaman and Nicobar Islands, at the juncture of the Bay of Bengal and the Andaman Sea. "This operation is like finding a needle in a haystack," said Harmeet Singh, spokesman for the armed forces in the islands. VAST INDIAN OCEAN Britain's Inmarsat said "routine, automated signals" from MH370 were seen on its satellite network during the plane's flight from Kuala Lumpur and had been shared with authorities, but gave no other details. If the jetliner did fly into the Indian Ocean, a vast expanse with depths of more than 7,000 meters (23,000 feet), the task faced by searchers would become dramatically more difficult. Winds and currents could shift any surface debris tens of nautical miles within hours. "Ships alone are not going to get you that coverage, helicopters are barely going to make a dent in it and only a few countries fly P-3s (long-range search aircraft)," William Marks, spokesman for the U.S. Seventh Fleet, told Reuters. The U.S. Navy was sending an advanced P-8A Poseidon plane to help search the Strait of Malacca, a busy sealane separating the Malay peninsula from the Indonesian island of Sumatra. It had already deployed a Navy P-3 Orion aircraft to those waters. The last sighting of the aircraft on civilian radar screens came shortly before 1:30 a.m. last Saturday, less than an hour after take-off. It was flying across the mouth of the Gulf of Thailand on the eastern side of Malaysia towards Vietnam. Malaysia's air force chief said on Wednesday that an aircraft that could have been the missing plane was plotted on military radar at 2:15 a.m., 200 miles northwest of Penang Island off Malaysia's west coast. This position marks the limit of Malaysia's military radar in that part of the country, another source familiar with the investigation told Reuters. (Additional reporting by Siva Govindasamy, Anshuman Daga, Yantoultra Ngui, Al-Zaquan Amer Hamzah and Stuart Grudgings in Kuala Lumpur, Greg Torode in Hong Kong, Tim Hepher in Paris, Paul Sandle in London, Mark Hosenball, Andrea Shalal, Will Dunham, Phil Stewart and Roberta Rampton in Washington and Sanjib Kumar Roy in Port Blair, India; Writing by Alex Richardson and Dean Yates; Editing by Mark Bendeich) ========================== Indian Ocean poses daunting challenge in search for missing Malaysia plane Sat, Mar 15 23:07 PM EDT By Jane Wardell SYDNEY, March 16 (Reuters) - The southern Indian Ocean, where investigators suspect missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 may have come down, is one place where a commercial airliner can crash without a ship spotting it, a radar plotting it or even a satellite picking it up. The empty expanse of water is one of the most remote places in the world and also one of the deepest, posing potentially enormous challenges for the international search effort now refocusing on the area, one of several possible crash sites. Even Australia, which has island territories in the Indian Ocean and sends rescue planes to pluck stricken yachtsmen from the cold, mountainous seas in the south from time to time, has no radar coverage much beyond its Indian Ocean coast. "In most of Western Australia and almost all of the Indian Ocean, there is almost no radar coverage," an Australian civil aviation authority source said, requesting anonymity as he was not authorised to speak on the record. "If anything is more than 100 kilometres offshore, you don't see it." The Indian Ocean, the world's third largest, has an average depth of more than 12,000 feet, or two miles. That's deeper than the Atlantic where it took two years to find wreckage on the seabed from an Air France plane that vanished in 2009 even though floating debris quickly pointed to the crash site. So far, search operations by navies and aircraft from more than a dozen nations have failed to find even a trace of Flight MH370, which went missing a week ago after taking off from Kuala Lumpur for Beijing and diverting from its intended flight path. The search effort has focused mainly on the South China Sea but is now switching to the Indian Ocean after investigators, having pieced together radar and satellite tracking data, began to suspect the Boeing 777-200ER had been deliberately flown hundreds or possibly thousands of miles off course. Searchers still face a daunting array of possible last locations for the plane, including the northern end of the Indian Ocean as well as central Asia, though investigators say it is more likely to have flown to the south than through busier airspace to the north where it would likely have been detected. With an estimated four hours fuel left when last spotted by radar off Malaysia's northwest coast, the plane could have flown a further 2,200 miles (3,500 km) or so, assuming normal cruising speed and altitude. Officials think, based on the available data, the aircraft flew south until it ran out of fuel and crashed into the sea, according to a source familiar with data the U.S. government is receiving from the investigation. In the south, any debris from MH370 would have been widely dispersed by Indian Ocean currents in the week since it disappeared. SCATTERING OF ISLANDS The southern Indian Ocean, between Indonesia and Australia, is broken up only by the Australian territories of Christmas Island, home to asylum seeker detention facilities, and the Cocos (Keeling) Islands some 2,000 km (1,240 miles) northwest of Perth. The Cocos Islands have a small airport to serve the islands' combined population of just 3,000 people. Further south, the only habitation is the handful of research stations on the scattering of tiny French-run islands including Kerguelen - a group of volcanic outcrops between Africa, Australia and Antarctica. While home to several powerful astronomical scanners and radar, there is no airport and it is seen extremely unlikely the aircraft could have made it that far. The shipping route from Western Australia north to Asia and Europe is considered relatively quiet in global shipping terms, despite the large amount of iron ore and other resources that are shipped from Australia's northwest ports. Ships track north staying close in to the West Australian coastline and then head north through Indonesian waters into the South China Sea or northwest toward the Red Sea. Australia's civil aviation radar extends a maximum of just 200 nautical miles (410 km) off the coast, the civil aviation authority source said, and was used only for monitoring scheduled aircraft on approach into the country and subsequent landings. There are just two primary radars on the west Australian coast, one in Perth and one further north in Paraburdoo, which has even less range and is used to monitor mining traffic heading to the nearby Pilbara region. Australia's Civil Aviation Authority relies on aircraft ADSB (automatic dependent surveillance broadcast) to ping information to commercial satellites, such as telecoms firm Optus' four telecommunications satellites, and back to ground control. The source said that this was the case with flights by Emirates Airlines, which all fly over the Indian Ocean to Australia, but it did not provide a specific radar plot. Australia does not have any government satellites. The Australian military has an over-the-horizon radar network that allows it to observe all air and sea activity north of Australia for up to 3,000 km (1,860 miles). This encompasses all of Java, Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands. While the Jindalee Operational Radar Network (JORN) extends part-way across the northern Indian Ocean, government papers online describe it as a "tripwire" in Australia's northern surveillance system, helping underpin the defense of the country from any attack originating from the north. Local media have said its main use recently has been to track illegal immigrants approaching Australia by boat through the region's largely unguarded northern waters. The Australian Defence Force was not available for comment on Sunday. A potential crash site around 1,600 km (1,000 miles) northwest or west of the Australian coast would be well within the search and rescue area of the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA), one of the largest in the world. An AMSA spokesman said no request for assistance had been received from Malaysia as of Sunday. (Additional reporting by Morag Mackinnon in Perth and Peter Apps in London; Editing by Mark Bendeich, Lincoln Feast and Dean Yates) ============== 'Good night': Haunting final contact from missing Malaysian jet Sun, Mar 16 20:33 PM EDT 1 of 22 By Anshuman Daga, Niluksi Koswanage and Tim Hepher KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - The last words from the cockpit of missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 - "all right, good night" - were uttered after someone on board had already begun disabling one of the plane's automatic tracking systems, a senior Malaysian official said. Both the timing and informal nature of the phrase, spoken to air traffic controllers as the plane with 239 people aboard was leaving Malaysian-run airspace on a March 8 flight to Beijing, could further heighten suspicions of hijacking or sabotage. The sign-off came after one of the plane's data communication systems, which would have enabled it to be tracked beyond radar coverage, had been deliberately switched off, Acting Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said on Sunday. "The answer to your question is yes, it was disabled before," he told reporters when asked if the ACARS system - a maintenance computer that sends back data on the plane's status - had been deactivated before the voice sign-off. The pilot's informal hand-off went against standard radio procedures, which would have called for him to read back instructions for contacting the next control center and include the aircraft's call sign, said Hugh Dibley, a former British Airways pilot and a Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society. Investigators are likely to examine the recording for any signs of psychological stress and to determine his identity to confirm whether the flight deck had been taken over by hijackers or the pilot himself was involved, he said. Malaysian investigators are trawling through the backgrounds of the pilots, crew and ground staff who worked on the missing Boeing 777-200ER for clues as to why someone on board flew it perhaps thousands of miles off course. Background checks of passengers have drawn a blank but not every country whose nationals were on board has responded to requests for information, police chief Khalid Abu Bakar said. No trace of the plane has been found more than a week after it vanished but investigators believe it was diverted by someone with deep knowledge of the plane and commercial navigation. Malaysia briefed envoys from nearly two dozen nations and appealed for international help in the search for the plane along two arcs stretching from the shores of the Caspian Sea to the far south of the Indian Ocean. "The search area has been significantly expanded," Hishammuddin said. "From focusing mainly on shallow seas, we are now looking at large tracts of land, crossing 11 countries, as well as deep and remote oceans." The plane's disappearance has baffled investigators and aviation experts. It disappeared from civilian air traffic control screens off Malaysia's east coast less than an hour after taking off from Kuala Lumpur en route to Beijing. Malaysian authorities believe that, as the plane crossed the country's northeast coast and flew across the Gulf of Thailand, someone on board shut off its communications systems and turned sharply to the west. Electronic signals it continued to exchange periodically with satellites suggest it could have continued flying for nearly seven hours after flying out of range of Malaysian military radar off the northwest coast, heading towards India. The plane had enough fuel to fly for about seven-and-a-half to eight hours, Malaysia Airlines' Chief Executive Ahmad Jauhari Yahya said. Malaysian officials briefed ambassadors from 22 countries on the progress of the investigation and appealed for international cooperation, diplomats said on Sunday. PILOTS' HOMES SEARCHED On Saturday, police special branch officers searched the homes of the captain, 53-year-old Zaharie Ahmad Shah, and first officer, 27-year-old Fariq Abdul Hamid, in middle-class suburbs of Kuala Lumpur close to the international airport. An experienced pilot, Zaharie has been described by current and former co-workers as a flying enthusiast who spent his days off operating a life-sized flight simulator he had set up at home. Police chief Khalid said investigators had taken the flight simulator for examination by experts. Earlier, a senior police official said the flight simulator programs were closely examined, adding they appeared to be normal ones that allow players to practice flying and landing in different conditions. Police sources said they were looking at the personal, political and religious backgrounds of both pilots and the other crew members. Khalid said ground support staff who might have worked on the plane were also being investigated. A second senior police official told Reuters investigators had found no links between Zaharie, a father of three grown-up children and a grandfather, and any militant group. Postings on his Facebook page suggest the pilot was a politically active opponent of the coalition that has ruled Malaysia for the 57 years since independence. A day before the plane vanished, Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim was convicted of sodomy and sentenced to five years in prison, in a ruling his supporters and international human rights groups say was politically influenced. Asked if Zaharie's background as an opposition supporter was being examined, the first senior police officer would say only: "We need to cover all our bases." Malaysia Airlines has said it did not believe Zaharie would have sabotaged the plane and colleagues were incredulous. "Please, let them find the aircraft first. Zaharie is not suicidal, not a political fanatic as some foreign media are saying," a Malaysia Airlines pilot who is close to Zaharie told Reuters. "Is it wrong for anyone to have an opinion about politics?" Co-pilot Fariq was religious and serious about his career, family and friends said. The two pilots had not made any request to fly together. (Additional reporting by Anshuman Daga, Al-Zaquan Amer Hamzah, Stuart Grudgings and Anuradha Raghu in Kuala Lumpur, Michael Martina in Beijing, Paul Sandle in London, Mark Hosenball in Washington, Sanjib Kumar Roy and Nita Bhalla in Port Blair, India, Sruthi Gottipati in Visakhapatnam, India, Frank Jack Daniel and Douglas Busvine in New Delhi, Jane Wardell in Sydney, John Irish in Paris, Jim Loney and Andy Sullivan in Washington; Writing by Alex Richardson and Frances Kerry; Editing by Rosalind Russell and Paul Tait)

Rio chief quits after $14bn writedown

Rio chief quits after $14bn writedown By Neil Hume January 17, 2013 -- Updated 1110 GMT (1910 HKT) Albanese will be replaced by Sam Walsh, the head of Rio Tinto's iron ore division -- its biggest and most profitable business. STORY HIGHLIGHTS Rio said that the value of its aluminium assets would be written down by $10bn-$12bn Tom Albanese will be replaced by Sam Walsh, the head of Rio Tinto's iron ore division Nomura analysts said the writedowns and forced management change would be taken negatively (Financial Times) -- Tom Albanese, the chief executive of Rio Tinto, has stepped down after the resources company booked $14 billion of impairment charges, most of them related to the disastrous acquisition of Alcan, its aluminium business. Rio said on Thursday that the value of its aluminium assets would be written down by $10 billion-$12 billion and that it would also take a $3bn charge against its recently acquired Mozambique coal assets. The company also expects to report a number of smaller asset writedowns totalling around $500 million. Albanese will be replaced by Sam Walsh, the head of Rio Tinto's iron ore division -- its biggest and most profitable business. Rio paid $44 billion, including debt, to buy Canada-based Alcan in June 2007, shortly before the worst of the global financial crisis hit in 2008. The deal saddled Rio with large debts and led to a $15.2 billion rights issue. "The further deterioration in aluminium market conditions in 2012, together with strong currencies in certain regions and high energy and raw material costs, has had a negative impact on the current market values in the aluminium industry," Rio said in a statement. Jan du Plessis, Rio chairman, said the writedowns -- the second for the Alcan business in less than a year -- were "disappointing" and "unacceptable". Rio wrote down the value of Alcan by almost $9 billion last February, a decision that led to Albanese waiving his annual bonus. "The Rio Tinto board fully acknowledges that a writedown of this scale in relation to the relatively recent Mozambique acquisition is unacceptable," said du Plessis. "We are also deeply disappointed to have to take a further substantial writedown in our aluminium businesses, albeit in an industry that continues to experience significant adverse changes globally." Analysts at Nomura said the scale of writedowns and the forced management change would be taken negatively even though Mr Walsh was well known to investors. "He is seen as a pretty straight shooter, but perhaps his credentials in strategically managing such a diverse business may be questioned by the market," they said. But they added: "We do not think you will see any major change in strategy from the group with the new appointment. We certainly think they'll be steering well clear of any acquisitions, possible upside being increased capital returns for shareholders." Shares in Rio were down 2.9 per cent at £33.57 in early London trading. Rio Tinto paid $4bn for Africa-focused coal miner Riversdale Mining, which had coking coal assets in Mozambique, eventually taking control of the business in early 2011. Rio on Thursday said Doug Ritchie, the executive who led the acquisition and integration of those assets, had also stepped down by mutual consent of the board. The company said the $3 billion writedown reflected infrastructure issues -- the government in Mozambique had rejected a plan to send coal down the Zambezi river -- and lower than expected recoverable coking coal volumes. Rio said that both Albanese and Mr Ritchie would remain with the business until July. During that time both would receive base pay, benefits and pension contributions but would not be entitled to a lump-sum payment or annual performance of share awards for 2013. Rio has yet to appoint a replacement for Mr Walsh. Analysts believe Greg Lilleyman, the head of Rio's iron ore operations in the Pilbara region of Western Australia, would be a logical successor. The company is also searching for a replacement for Guy Elliott, its long-serving chief financial officer who last year announced he would step down by the end of this year. ================ Rio Tinto CEO pays price of calamitous acquisitions Thu, Jan 17 18:57 PM EST ((Writedown: A writedown is an accounting treatment that recognizes the reduced value of an impaired asset. The value of an asset may change due to fundamental changes in technology or markets. One example is when one company purchases another and pays more than the net fair value of its assets and liabilities. The excess purchase price is recorded on the buying company's accounts as goodwill. If it becomes apparent that the purchased company no longer has the value recorded in the goodwill account (it can't be resold at the same price), the value in the goodwill asset account is "written down". Rupert Murdoch's News Corp bought Wall Street Journal publisher Dow Jones at a 60 percent premium in 2007, which News Corp later had to write down by $2.8 billion because of declining ad revenues.[1] A writedown is sometimes considered synonymous with a write-off.[2] The distinction is that while a write-off is generally completely removed from the balance sheet, a writedown leaves the asset with a lower value.[3] As an example, one of the consequences of the 2007 subprime crisis at financial institutions was a revaluation under mark to market rules: "Washington Mutual will write down by $150 million the value of $17 billion in loans...":[4] Read more: http://www.answers.com/topic/write-off-legal-term#ixzz2IIxTnTp4)) By Clara Ferreira-Marques LONDON (Reuters) - Rio Tinto sacked chief executive Tom Albanese on Thursday and revealed a $14 billion writedown almost entirely on the value of his two most significant acquisitions, the Alcan aluminium group and Mozambican coal. An engineer who became the miner's first American boss, Albanese will be replaced by Australian Sam Walsh who heads Rio's operations in iron ore, where it is the world's second largest producer. Doug Ritchie, the heavyweight former energy boss who led the acquisition of Mozambique-focused miner Riversdale, was also shown the door after almost three decades with the company. New Jersey-born, Alaska-trained Albanese had until now survived the consequences of his disastrous $38 billion acquisition of Alcan in 2007, a bruising top-of-the-market deal when Rio was under pressure from rivals to bulk up or be bought. The deal, just two months after Albanese took the reins, turned bad as markets crumbled and aluminium prices slumped, battering Rio's balance sheet, nearly forcing it into the arms of Chinese state-owned Chinalco and triggering a $15 billion rights issue. Rio has since suffered years of losses in aluminium, with Alcan adding to problems at its original business, and has taken some $29 billion in impairments. Walsh was already in charge of the division that accounts for nearly 80 percent of profits and his appointment hints at a back-to-basics strategy as shareholders demand better cash controls throughout the mining sector. Walsh was welcomed by investors and analysts on Thursday as a safe pair of hands, but many also questioned whether a 63-year-old veteran would be a long-term solution, raising concerns over management at a group that also announced the departure of its chief financial officer last July. "It's another black mark in terms of (Albanese's) M&A record and I suppose, given the magnitude of this writedown ... I'm not surprised that he's stepping down with this, nor am I surprised that Doug Ritchie is," analyst Jeff Largey at Macquarie said. Rio had planned to shrink the aluminium arm, cutting back one of the world's largest producers of the metal by hiving off most of its Australian and New Zealand assets. But industry sources say it has not been mobbed by buyers. Further damaging his reputation as a dealmaker, Albanese spearheaded a $4.2 billion deal in 2011 to buy Mozambique-focused coal miner Riversdale, fighting off other suitors. There, like many others in the region, Rio has struggled with the challenge of getting from pit to port, after a plan to transport coal by barge along the Zambezi river failed to get the green light. It has also been forced to cut estimates of how much coal it will be able to recover. Rail and port bottlenecks are the main headache for miners eager to cash in on Mozambique's coal rush, but it could take a decade for many of the current infrastructure projects to come to fruition on a scale to meet industry demands. "ALWAYS A BAD DEAL" "(Alcan) was always a bad deal, and Albanese was lucky not to carry the can for it back in 2008," one of Rio Tinto's 10 largest investors said. "Mozambique is more of a surprise, but the industry's record on acquisitions is appalling, and Rio is not alone in destroying shareholder value." Anglo American is facing potential writedowns linked to its Minas Rio iron ore acquisition in Brazil, a project set to cost more than three times initial estimates. BHP Billiton, meanwhile, failed to clinch three ambitious bids under its current boss - including two tilts at Rio - but then splashed out $17 billion on two shale gas takeovers in the United States just before gas prices slumped. BHP CEO Marius Kloppers forfeited his bonus last year after BHP took a $2.8 billion charge on the value of its shale assets. Much like Anglo, which appointed a mining engineer as chief executive earlier this month, Rio will be led by a veteran operations man who will be under pressure to boost returns to shareholders and scale back on deals. Walsh joined Rio Tinto in 1991 after 20 years in the auto industry working for General Motors and Nissan Australia. He rose up Rio's management ranks before being appointed to head its biggest division, iron ore, in 2004. Walsh has a more relaxed presence than Albanese, who rarely veered from the script. Albanese has long been a lover of the great outdoors who walked across remote Alaska snowfields staking mining claims after college. These days he is more often found on Britain's canals in his own narrow boat. SURPRISE HIT News of Albanese's departure and the writedown, almost as large as the group's underlying profit in 2011, took the market by surprise, knocking Rio shares in early trade. At 1340 GMT the stock was 1.5 percent lower, having been down as much as 4.5 percent earlier in the day. "I wasn't expecting the $14 billion writedown," said Tim Schroeders, a portfolio manager at Pengana Capital, which owns Rio Tinto shares. He said the departures pointed to a company under pressure to do a better job of managing its purse strings. "I think it's clearly a case (that) the board's laid down the law in terms of stricter accountability than we had pre-(crisis)," he said. Rio said the writedowns include a charge of around $3 billion relating to the Mozambique business - virtually its entire original price tag - as well as reductions in the carrying values of Rio's aluminium assets in the range of $10 billion to $11 billion. Since Rio bought Alcan in 2007, aluminium prices have fallen by a quarter but costs have soared, squeezing margins. The group also expects to report a number of smaller asset writedowns in the order of $500 million. The final figures will be included in Rio Tinto's full-year results on February 14, along with details of more cost cuts. "It is non-cash, it doesn't impact valuation, it doesn't impact the earnings near term," said a London analyst who declined to be named. "For me, it's clearly negative, but it's not the end of the world," said the analyst, adding that the flagship Oyu Tolgoi copper and gold mine in Mongolia was still going to plan. Analysts at Sanford Bernstein said the writedowns amounted to 4 percent of their estimate of the company's value. Neither Albanese nor Ritchie, who will leave in July, will take lump-sum payments, and both will forfeit bonuses on departure, including outstanding share entitlements earned in previous years. Albanese is not the only chief executive on the way out of a major mining company. BHP has said it is seeking a replacement for Kloppers and Anglo American replaced chief executive Cynthia Carroll earlier this month. (Additional reporting by Sonali Paul in Melbourne, Jim Regan in Sydney, Agnieszka Flak in Johannesburg, Sinead Cruise and Sarah Young in London and Brenton Cordeiro in Bangalore; Editing by Will Waterman and David Stamp) ===============

Booming Australia mining towns draw capital for property

Booming Australia mining towns draw capital for property Thu, Oct 27 02:05 AM EDT SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australian mining towns are attracting capital flows into property, driven by bets of further house price increases led by the resources boom, while much of the country's residential property market is flagging due to weak consumer confidence. With limited supply and strong demand for housing, prices have already surged in mining towns such as South Hedland, Port Hedland and Karratha in the Pilbara region of Western Australia. In the Pilbara, a major iron-ore producing area, median housing prices posted an average annual growth of 19 percent over the last five years, according to the Real Estate Institute of Western Australia. Compared to that, national house prices rose by an average annual rate of about 8 percent, based on government data. "A lot of the remote mining areas, up in the north west, have the fly-in fly-out model with their workers. They tend to commute their workers from Perth on a rotational basis," said Andrew Wilson, senior economist for Australian Property Monitors. "Certainly, the areas which are experiencing and will experience increased activities through the resources boom will have a housing market that will reflect the low supply, high demand with higher prices," he added. Some developers and agents are positioning themselves to capture the next growth. Residential property agent Ray White last month launched a new office in Port Augusta, South Australia, near the huge Olympic Dam mine at Roxby Downs. BHP Billiton (BHP.AX) earlier this month approved $1.2 billion in pre-commitment capital to start expansion work on the mine. "Mining developments certainly spawn real estate activity, and we work to ensure we can adequately service that growth," said Lyndsey Douglas, communication manager for Ray White. Ray White has recently opened residential offices in Condobolin in New South Wales, Moranbah in Queensland and will be opening one in Broome in Western Australia. Private developer Walker Corporation and Eureka Funds Management have recently started their $500 million residential masterplanned community in Gladstone, Queensland, which has the state's largest multi-commodity port. Developers Lend Lease (LLC.AX), Australand (ALZ.AX) and Mirvac Group (MGR.AX) have been short-listed for the Mulataga project in Karratha, Western Australia to develop a residential community of more than 2,500 dwellings, according to local media. Still, given the recent sharp price surges, some people are also becoming cautious. "The risk in these markets is that they are intrinsically tied to the health of a specific commodity and the performance of the companies involved with the resource extraction," said Tim Lawless, national research director for RP Data. "Any downturn in commodity prices can have a detrimental effect on labor markets and housing demand," he added. Australia has benefited from a once-in-a-century mining boom driven by demand from Asia, although iron ore prices have recently come off their best on worries over Chinese demand holding up. (Reporting by Eriko Amaha; Editing by Ed Davies)