According to the resources and energy major projects report issued by the Australian Bureau of Resources and Energy Economics (BREE), the value of committed investments stood at A$229 billion as of April this year, declining from its peak of A$268 billion in April 2013.
Following the surge in investments over the past five years, Australia is now moving into a period of significant increases in the production of resources and energy commodities. Many of the projects entering the production phase will have long operation lives, supporting exports over an extended period. In the past year alone, there have been large production capacity increases totaling 215 million mt for iron ore.
The BREE report indicated that world demand for raw materials and energy remains strong and for most commodities is still growing, though current market conditions are not supportive of progressing new projects and this has been observed in delays to a number of projects in the investment pipeline.
According to the report, the decline in iron ore prices since late 2013 appears to have stalled the progress of several iron ore projects at the publicly announced stage. 13 iron ore projects at the publicly announced stage have a combined value of between A$19.6 billion and A$29.8 billion.
