Resources & Energy
Our resources and energy business comprises the exploration, mining, processing and trading of energy products and mineral resources as well as power generation. We hold interests in projects in China, Australia, Brazil, Peru, Gabon, Indonesia and Kazakhastan.
Global demand for commodities remained soft throughout 2015 and is expected to continue in the near term. A sharp decline in the price of commodities, especially for crude oil, iron ore and coal, significantly depressed the performance of our resources and energy business. The lower price of coal, however, positively impacted our coalfired power generation business in China.
For the year 2015, the resources and energy business recorded revenue of HK$45.7 billion, a 12% decrease from 2014. It incurred a loss of HK$17.3 billion, mainly due to a substantial loss and asset impairments for CITIC Resources, resulting from the low oil prices and softening in both demand for and selling prices of commodities. The business also recorded a HK$12.5 billion after tax non-cash impairment charge on the Sino Iron Project, our magnetite iron ore project in Western Australia.
Nevertheless, the Sino Iron Project achieved steady progress in 2015, with the completion of our third and fourth lines and start of production. The final two lines will be completed and enter trial production in the first half of 2016.