Trade Group defends China's role in mining procurement feud

The Australia China Business Council (ACBC) has defended Beijing’s push to sell more goods and services to the

Australian resources sector, after a tirade of recent claims that the Chinese are locking Australian companies out of lucrative procurement contracts.

"For developers who procure directly from China, in many instances this is driven by the need for further cost reduction," ACBC China representative Paul Glasson said.

Glasson said Australian companies often turned to China as the only option for financing and this was sometimes offered on the condition that procurement decisions also favoured Chinese firms.

"The purchase of Chinese equipment and engineering services is not a precondition to resource off-take, but in some circumstances it may be to accessing certain financing facilities (from) China," Glasson said.

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