Index for July 2011

Volume 10, Issue 8

  • (LNG Watch, 11 August 2011, Port Moresby) A landowner frustrated at being overlooked for employment and at unequal distribution of money paid for damages to the environment, attacked two expatriate employees with a machete at the Komo LNG international airfield, closing down construction at the ECA financed airfield and LNG conditioning plant sites. Police said ExxonMobil ordered a work stop and gathered all its 9800 national and expatriate employees behind closed gates at the Pioneer Camp at Komo while police and security guards kept the area under heavy surveillance for fear of further attacks by locals. ECAs involved in this project's financing include the US Ex-Im Bank, EFIC, SACE and JBIC.

Volume 10, Issue 7

  • (ECA Watch, Brussels, 21 June 2011) The 14th consultation meeting between CSOs and the Working Party on Export Credits and Credit Guarantees and the Participants to the Arrangement on officially supported Export Credits took place in Paris on June 21 2011. The agenda of this meeting covered three topics: Arrangement issues, ECG issues and other issues.
  • (Dow Jones, Rio de Janeiro, 12 July 2011) Brazilian mining company MMX Mineracao e Metalicos SA said it hired Banco Itau BBA and WestLB do Brasil to raise $1.8 billion to finance expansion of an iron ore mine in Minas Gerais state. The banks will raise the new funds from national and international banks and development banks and export credit agencies. Meanwhile, MMX is being fined for environmental infractions in the Serra Azul region of Minas Gerais state according to the state's environmental and water resources agency known as Sisema.
  • (inewsone, Berlin, 15 July 2011) After deciding to phase out nuclear power plants by 2022, Germany is now debating whether to support its nuclear industry in setting up nuclear plants in other countries. Germany has a multi-billion Euro nuclear industry which employs around 33,000 people. ‘We do not want nuclear power and we cannot say ok we do not want nuclear power plant but we support nuclear power plants in other countries,’ said Ursula Heinen-Esser, parliamentary state secretary, German Ministry of Environment.
  • (Reuters, Atlanta, 21 July 2011) On the face of it, American Airlines would not appear to be in a good position to buy 460 planes, as its parent, AMR Corp has posted more quarterly losses than profits in recent years. But that is where aircraft financing and leasing companies come in... Airbus and Boeing have financial arms and offer financial support or leasing when necessary and the United States and Britain, France, Germany and Spain, the EU countries where Airbus is based, offer government backed export credit guarantees. The use of these schemes soared during the financial crisis as private sources dried up. But airlines in the lending countries cried foul because an international deal meant that only airlines from other countries could benefit.
  • Texas Insider reports that the Cato Institute is pressing for the US Export-Import Bank to limit it's activities only to U.S. exporters which face unfair competition from subsidized firms abroad, and that that activity be an interim step to being wound down altogether. Meanwhile, the National Association of Manufacturers strongly urges Congress to reauthorize the Bank without delay.
  • (Reuters, London, 20 July 2011) Bahrain received a financial boost with the signing yesterday of loan documents on the US$300m Muharraq sewerage waste treatment project which is being procured under a public private partnership (PPP). South Korean export credit agency Kexim will provide political and commercial cover, with around US$50m of the loan uncovered. Meanwhile, the New York Times reports that Bahrain has taken on the likeness of a police state.
  • (Left-Foot-Forward, London 8 July 2011) Away from the political maelstrom of the News of The World hacking scandal, the UK government released the 2010-11 annual reports and accounts of the Export Credit Guarentee Department (ECGD). ECGD helped facilitate the £114 million sale of an “Airbus multi-role tanker transport” – a plane that can fuel other planes mid-air - to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) armed services. Human Rights Watch reports that the UAE expanded its crackdown on civil society on May 2, 2011, by dissolving the elected board of directors of the Teachers’ Association and is also currently arresting pro-democracy activists after a petition was gathered calling for free elections in the country.