The demand today for Australian commodity resources has never been higher. The ferocious demand for resources by China and other developing nations (such as India) have led to record levels of Australian commodity exports. No matter what the commodity, Australian exports are surging - be it iron ore, oil, coal, alumina, or liquefied natural gas.

 

In 2005, infrastructure projects planned and committed around Australia were valued at $106bn. In 2006 this jumped to $157bn, then rose to $168bn in 2007, with growth offset by several major projects completing. By 2008, the value of these projects had skyrocketed to $275bn, despite the meltdown in global share markets and easing commodities prices - which have all now rebounded, as the world realises that China's urbanisation and industrialisation is unstoppable.

 

The incredible extent of China's growth is hard to grasp. Imagine building a city the size of Adelaide in a year. China builds four Adelaides every year. Between 2005 and 2020, it plans to build 59 cities - the

China is experiencing the mass urbanisation of its people, the likes of which has never been seen before

in human history, with hundreds of millions of poor, rural Chinese 'heading for the city'. They want their 'middle-class' lives just like the Western world - all 1.3 billion of them.

 

Over the next 20 years to 2025, a phenomenal 354 million people from small regional towns are expected to move to urban areas. That's 17 million of them - or, the entire adult population of Australia - moving into hundreds of cities around China every year. Iron ore is needed to build the steel frames for new apartments, coal is needed to fuel the power stations to provide them with electricity, copper is needed get it there, aluminium is needed to make the appliances to fill these apartments - and so on. And, one country has all these commodities and more - Australia.

 

Value of Australian Energy Exports, $bn
Source: Australian Bureau of Agriculture and Resource Economics