FMG - Fortescue Ltd

[qldfrog]

It depends, as technology is changing rapidly, there is a natural tendency to resist the change.
It means that a lot of senior management have to learn new technical knowledge, I think a lot of 50+ age group managers will be struggling with keeping on top of their brief and it wont only be with FMG management.
This change to new clean energies will affect everyone, from the lay person to the top executives, not all will cope well with the stress of it IMO.
I saw the introduction of a distributive control system installed in an aging long established plant, most of the older personel walked.
The last thing they wanted, was to have to start learning the whole process from scratch, using technology that they struggled to get their heads around.
I'm not suggesting that this is the reason for the FMG turn over, but I bet it has caused some of the turn over, digging holes and loading ships is a lot different from developing a completely new production process and marketing a dream.

Not at that level of management:
a CEO or CFO will manage a company producing beans, IO or cruise ship wo issues.
What it points to is that some key top level management do not want to see their names associated to current decisions as this is seen as career destroying
in this case cleary the green washing move..

 

[divs4ever]

will be interesting to see who the replacement is ( and the skill-sets )

for example somebody with plenty of M&A experience , might signal Twiggy going on an acquisition adventure , in contrast someone with extensive finance skills may signal more borrowing or other financial moves ( say an IPO )

 

[mullokintyre]

will be interesting to see who the replacement is ( and the skill-sets )

for example somebody with plenty of M&A experience , might signal Twiggy going on an acquisition adventure , in contrast someone with extensive finance skills may signal more borrowing or other financial moves ( say an IPO )

When you have lost about 20 of your top execs, including the Group CFO and the CFO at Fortescue Future Industries, I would suggest that there is some pretty severe tension at the top. Unfortunately, none of the Alphabets that oversee these things will be giving them a please explain, or at least a reasonable explanation for these departures.
FMG is probably not something I would put my money into at the moment.
Mick

 

[divs4ever]

When you have lost about 20 of your top execs, including the Group CFO and the CFO at Fortescue Future Industries, I would suggest that there is some pretty severe tension at the top. Unfortunately, none of the Alphabets that oversee these things will be giving them a please explain, or at least a reasonable explanation for these departures.
FMG is probably not something I would put my money into at the moment.
Mick

tension or a restructure ?

but yes i left the building in December ( 2022 )

maybe i will return and maybe not , too many irons in the fire for my liking currently

 

[Value Collector]

Not at that level of management:
a CEO or CFO will manage a company producing beans, IO or cruise ship wo issues.
What it points to is that some key top level management do not want to see their names associated to current decisions as this is seen as career destroying
in this case cleary the green washing move..

I don’t agree at all that the type of business doesn’t matter to a CEO, there are many examples of star CEO’s that’s fail when they switch businesses.

Take Apple for example, they put in the CEO of Pepsi, who was amazing at running a sugary drinks business, but he bombed majorly at Apple, when they brought back Steve Jobs the company flew again.

To think that Andrew Forrest could have replaced Walt Disney, or Disney replace Andrew because both were successful CEOs and should be able to run any business is absurd.

 

[UMike]

When you have lost about 20 of your top execs, including the Group CFO and the CFO at Fortescue Future Industries, I would suggest that there is some pretty severe tension at the top. Unfortunately, none of the Alphabets that oversee these things will be giving them a please explain, or at least a reasonable explanation for these departures.
FMG is probably not something I would put my money into at the moment.
Mick

Not @ $21......
But if they do a bit of a dip.......

 

[sptrawler]

I don’t agree at all that the type of business doesn’t matter to a CEO, there are many examples of star CEO’s that’s fail when they switch businesses.

Take Apple for example, they put in the CEO of Pepsi, who was amazing at running a sugary drinks business, but he bombed majorly at Apple, when they brought back Steve Jobs the company flew again.

To think that Andrew Forrest could have replaced Walt Disney, or Disney replace Andrew because both were successful CEOs and should be able to run any business is absurd.

Agree with you 100%, the H2 story is a hard sell and if the management isn't 100% committed it wont work.

It still may not work, but it is the right idea at the right time, to make the most of the opportunity IMO.

 

[Sean K]

Must feel like a bit of a merry go round with FMG/FFI/Tattarang/Squadron - anything to do with Twiggy. The People and Culture division must be a busy lot.

 

[basilio]

Another BIG step in the direction of electrifying FMGs mining operations. Can you imagine an electric 240 ton Dump truck. Like how big would the battery pack have to be ?
(That's right . 15 tonnes and 1.4 mhw of juice)

Massive 15 tonne battery arrives to power Fortescue’s electric truck ambitions​

• January 13, 2023
• No comments
• 2 minute read
• Sophie Vorrath

The green industrial arm of Andrew Forrest’s Fortsecue Metals Group has taken delivery of a massive electric vehicle battery that will be used to power a 240-tonne, zero-emissions mining truck in FMG’s iron ore operations.

Fortscue Future Industries says the state-of-the-art 1.4MWh prototype battery system is a bespoke design for the huge electric haulage trucks FFI is developing with Swiss machine manufacturer, Liebherr.

The massive battery system was put together by a team of 50 engineers and technicians from WAE Technologies, a fully-owned subsidiary of FMG that was previously known as Williams Advanced Engineering.

The 1.4MWh battery weighs 15 tonnes, measures 3.6m long, 1.6m wide and 2.4m high, and is made up of eight sub-packs, each with 36 modules, all individually cooled and each with its own management system.

FFI says the battery’s delivery on Friday marks “a massive achievement” and several firsts for an electric mining haul truck battery, including the ability to fast-charge in 30 minutes and capacity to regenerate power as it drives downhill.

Having arrived at Fortescue’s workshop in Perth, it will be assembled and installed, before being transported to the Pilbara for testing on site over the course of the year.

Massive 15 tonne battery arrives to power Fortescue's electric truck ambitions

Fortescue takes delivery of 15-tonne 1.4MWh battery to power the massive electric mining haul trucks in Fortescue's iron ore operations.

thedriven.io

 

[Value Collector]

Twiggy’s thoughts on the Iron Ore price, China economy and energy.

 

[basilio]

Twiggy’s thoughts on the Iron Ore price, China economy and energy.

Interesting. Normal Twiggy enthusiasm ... Hopefully his confidence of $100-130k ore is justified. FMG does very well at that price level.

I thought his justification for expanding steel production was strained. Yes people might be wanting to travel and so on but the question building vast new apartments is questionable. As far as I know China is still trying to swallow the last glut of buildings. The second part of a s successful the iron ore operation is continuing current sale levels plus 5%-10% with new mines coming online

Nice to see him flog the idea of green shipping and green steel making and FMG's role in those processes.

 

[divs4ever]

Interesting. Normal Twiggy enthusiasm ... Hopefully his confidence of $100-130k ore is justified. FMG does very well at that price level.

I thought his justification for expanding steel production was strained. Yes people might be wanting to travel and so on but the question building vast new apartments is questionable. As far as I know China is still trying to swallow the last glut of buildings. The second part of a s successful the iron ore operation is continuing current sale levels plus 5%-10% with new mines coming online

Nice to see him flog the idea of green shipping and green steel making and FMG's role in those processes.

apartments ( in China ) maybe not, but infrastructure , like trains , bridges , nuclear power plants , some warships or tanks , yes i could see the Chinese making some more of these

now a different question would be if , FMG starts shipping steel , would 'green steel' be enough , would adding a bit of nickle , and or manganese be a profitable option

 

[basilio]

apartments ( in China ) maybe not, but infrastructure , like trains , bridges , nuclear power plants , some warships or tanks , yes i could see the Chinese making some more of these

now a different question would be if , FMG starts shipping steel , would 'green steel' be enough , would adding a bit of nickle , and or manganese be a profitable option

Fair enough. I don't think FMG will be shipping 'green steel' for at least 6-8 years. Probably more likely they will be encouraging China to produce green steel using their Hydrogen technology. In the event that FMG is successful in making green steel locally they will in fact be competing with Chinese steel mills. But that is still problematic.

The green transport options for shipping are far closer on the horizon and will make economic sense very quickly. FMG is already developing that technology for its own iron ore carriers.

 

[Value Collector]

Interesting. Normal Twiggy enthusiasm ... Hopefully his confidence of $100-130k ore is justified. FMG does very well at that price level.

I thought his justification for expanding steel production was strained. Yes people might be wanting to travel and so on but the question building vast new apartments is questionable. As far as I know China is still trying to swallow the last glut of buildings. The second part of a s successful the iron ore operation is continuing current sale levels plus 5%-10% with new mines coming online

Nice to see him flog the idea of green shipping and green steel making and FMG's role in those processes.

Remember though there is a lot more to the construction industry than apartments… for example factories, railways, bridges, airports, hospitals, schools, power plants, warehouses, roads etc etc etc all consume a lot of steel.

Roughly 1/3 of Chinas population is still living an agrarian lifestyle, raising their living standards is going to continue consuming a lot of steel for a long time.

Not to mention that even existing buildings require renovation and often knock down rebuilds which consume alot of steel.

When it comes to travel and transport in general, all the ships, buses, cars, trains, planes, shipping containers, etc consume alot of steel so it’s not just a story about building new infrastructure, but even just the economy churning doing day to day business consumes steel.

 

[Value Collector]

apartments ( in China ) maybe not, but infrastructure , like trains , bridges , nuclear power plants , some warships or tanks , yes i could see the Chinese making some more of these

now a different question would be if , FMG starts shipping steel , would 'green steel' be enough , would adding a bit of nickle , and or manganese be a profitable option

Not to mention simple things like nails being sold in Bunnings or air conditioning systems being exported to India, roofing steel exported to africa.

As I mentioned above, it’s not just the products them selves but the whole system of gathering raw materials, gathering energy, building and maintaining factories and warehouses, and transporting these products consumes steel.

Even some thing as simple as baked beans on toast consumes steel.

Eg steel is used in the

• Baked bean can
• Producing the paper label
• Producing the plastic bread bag
• Making the toaster
• Making the electricity
• Plowing and harvesting the wheat
• Milling the wheat
• Processing the beans
• Steel trucks, shipping containers
• Steel In the tyres
• Steel in oil pipes and refineries etc etc

There is basically no economic activity you can do that won’t contribute to steel demand, and provide some incremental support to the Iron Ore price.

 

[divs4ever]

but Australia is NOT the only steel producer , and i can see places where plain old 'green steel ' will not be a useful selling point

for example what is the cost v. benefit analysis of 'green steel' in a baked beans can compared to full-on 'dirty steel ' produced in India

( 'dirty steel' equals coal-fired power plants , fossil fuels for transport , under-age labour , etc etc )

does the consumer pay an extra 20 cents a can , to feel good about the can providence ?

 

[Value Collector]

but Australia is NOT the only steel producer , and i can see places where plain old 'green steel ' will not be a useful selling point

for example what is the cost v. benefit analysis of 'green steel' in a baked beans can compared to full-on 'dirty steel ' produced in India

( 'dirty steel' equals coal-fired power plants , fossil fuels for transport , under-age labour , etc etc )

does the consumer pay an extra 20 cents a can , to feel good about the can providence ?

We (australia and in particular FMG) sells Iron Ore, the more demand for steel the higher the price our Iron Ore will sell for.

It doesn’t matter that we aren’t the only producers, we are going to sell 100% of our production regardless, so what matters is the price we sell it for, and the more baked bean tins etc etc that get produced the higher that Iron Ore price will be.

Even if that baked bean tin is produced from recycled steel in the USA it still supports the Iron Ore price, for two reasons

1, it means less scrap steel is available for export back to China, so China requires more Iron Ore hence supporting the Ore price.

2, it means reduces the working stock of steel in the USA which adds to demand for more imports of steel from China.

(An important point to note is that every time Steel is recycled you lose a little bit of mass on top of the mass that is lost in use. So even countries like Australia that have a high amount of recycling, require supplement from a constant inflow of virgin Iron Ore or scrap from outside the loop eg scrap steel from imported cars and appliances)

—————————
Take Bangladesh for example, their steel industry runs on recycled steel, but it’s not a closed loop, it relies on imported steel via the ship breaking yards.

So even though they are using recycled steel for almost all their steel, they are actually drawing down the steel stocks of the ship building nations such as China and Korea, who Australia supply Iron ore too.

 

[divs4ever]

well i see various hints that FMG has plans to value-add in the future , not just de-carbonize iron ore production

now i don't see this as a bad direction ( especially the value-adding part )

BUT if it does choose to sell processed products , how successful will it be , would Australia become a big customer or would FMG have to rely on exports , IF Australia manufactured more , i would say the move would be a no-brainer , but is Australia's manufacturing heart big enough to make Twiggy's dream come true

we COULD make Australia self-sufficient in steel needs if we really tried , we have the raw resources ( almost all of them )

or do we still rely on outsourcing to cut costs ( so we can export competitively )

 

[Value Collector]

well i see various hints that FMG has plans to value-add in the future , not just de-carbonize iron ore production

now i don't see this as a bad direction ( especially the value-adding part )

BUT if it does choose to sell processed products , how successful will it be , would Australia become a big customer or would FMG have to rely on exports , IF Australia manufactured more , i would say the move would be a no-brainer , but is Australia's manufacturing heart big enough to make Twiggy's dream come true

we COULD make Australia self-sufficient in steel needs if we really tried , we have the raw resources ( almost all of them )

or do we still rely on outsourcing to cut costs ( so we can export competitively )

Any attempt at FMG producing steel will no doubt be very small at first, and if viable would grow over time.

The steel production I am guessing would be limited at first to products that are traded as basic commodities.

————————
Take that Baked bean can we discussed earlier for example, it begins its life as a huge roll of sheet steel called “hot rolled steel”.

These rolls of steel are used to produce all sorts of things from cans, pressed steel panels for appliances, cars, signs, sinks, roofing, cabinets, tool boxes etc etc etc.

When Companies producing any of these products look to buy these rolls of steel to feed into their factory they are often importing them from China and the arrive in shipping containers, we could easily supply them from an Australian steel mill, it just comes down to price most of the time, and increasing also green credentials may play a part to.

 

[Value Collector]

You can see in this video a roll of steel being unrolled and cut into sheets, then in the second video these sheets get turned in to beaked bean tins.

These rolls are readily tradable and are sold around the world into all sorts of factories.