China's spending on foreign resources seen rising

Despite a sharp dip in economic growth this year and next, Chinese investment in foreign companies should continue to surge as the country tries to lock in access to resources, a mining conference in Toronto was told on Monday.

Chinese foreign direct investment outside the financial sector hit $40.5 billion last year -- up from a measly $700 million in 2001 -- and should continue to climb for at least the next two years, Kobus van der Wath, managing director of business strategy firm Beijing Axis told the Prospectors and Developers conference.

"This is one of the most important trends unfolding in the mining sector, and one that I think is likely to continue," he said in a presentation entitled "China Inc is going global."

The sentiment should be welcome among the hundreds of capital-starved junior miners that have come to the conference to strengthen industry ties, look for financing opportunities, and explore partnerships with other companies.

Flagging global growth and tight credit markets have sapped demand for metals and limited financing options for explorers and developers of industrial metals.

While the growth slump will not spare China, the country's appetite for access to foreign resources has shown no signs of easing, van der Wath said.

He noted that foreign direct nonfinancial investment announced in February alone was $25 billion, due largely to state-owned Aluminum Corp of China's $19.5 billion investment in Australian miner Rio Tinto (RIO.AX).

On China's role as a top consumer of metals, van der Wath said China's expansion story is far from over, although he said said that in the short term, the country's trajectory is "changing significantly".

Copyright and Exemption Declaration :¢ÙAll articles, pictures and videos that are marked with "China Aluminum Network" on this website are copyright and belong to China Aluminium Network (www.alu.com.cn). When transshipment, any media, website or individual must list the source from "China Aluminium Network (www.alu.com.cn)". We seek legal actions against anyone that disobey this. ¢ÚArticles that marked as copy from others are for transferring more information to readers, do not represent or endorse their opinions or accuracy and reliability. When other media, website or individuals copy from our website, must keep the source. Anyone that changes the articles' sources will hold the responsibilities for copyright and law problems. We also seek legal actions against anyone that disobey this. ¢ÛIf any articles copied by our website concern the copyright and other problems, please contact us within one week.