Project Y

More documents

Recommendations

Info

44 // RESOURCES it all began with a pork belly RESOURCES For ages it was possible to become incredibly rich or poor in no time at all when trading with raw material. The driving force behind this phenomenon is the fact that resources on earth are limited. Plus the mechanism of supply and demand. // ANDreAS eDer A n almost impenetrable wall of noise. Shouts mix with loud grumbling and unintelligible fragments of words. Figures and strange terms are called out. Arms fly up in the air and are lowered quickly in some other place. The atmosphere is that of a soccer stadium in the 89 th minute with the home club one goal behind. The air is filled with the stench of immorally high profits. And that of devastating losses. All caused by deep-frozen pork belly. This raw material marked a turbulent era in the history of trading in commodities futures. The 1980s film ‘Trading Places’ with Dan Aykroyd and Eddie Murphy gave a good insight into the world of raw material speculation. Times have changed. The global importance of raw materials steadily increased ever since the great era of the legendary Chicago CME (Chicago Mercantile Exchange). Up to the end of the last millennium pork belly was still traded using analogue technology. By now ‘trading’ exclusively is done electronically. The changes
in the food industry killed the pork belly. Raw material for the industrial production of modern goods and products became much more important. the Market deterMines the Price Trading in resources (that are dealt at international stock exchanges as their own asset category with high volatility) is a major part of speculations. This constitutes a critical factor for companies in the construction industry. Costs have to be calculated at a time when the purchase price at a delivery date can hardly be estimated. Large construction companies tended for quite a while to create and secure their own resources such as gravel pits. In 2002 Austria alone produced more than 100 million tons (approximation) of raw minerals such as sand, gravel, natural stone, lime, adobe, clay, marl, slate, gypsum or other industrial minerals. This equates to a value of about 1.1 billion Euro and in total secures about 14,600 jobs in sectors such as construction industry, farming, transportation and municipalities. Without mineral resources such products as houses, streets, water channels, glasses, TVs, computers, mobile phones, medications or cosmetics would simply not exist. The need on raw construction material is 10 tons per year and person. In areas with a high population density this need is even higher. Tendency increasing. An 20 sec. // CMe – ChiCAGo MerCAntile exChAnGe The once legendary pork belly trading place ‘chicago board of Trade (cbOT)’ merged in 2008 with the world‘s second largest trading place for derivatives, ‘cMe group inc.’. The 60s saw the beginning of highly risky commodities futures with pork belly. Speculators from around the world were drawn by its incredible volatility. As the food industry started to change in the 90s the great pork belly era drew to a close. in 1992 the platform ‘globex’ introduced electronic trading at cMe. in 2006 the ‘globex’ traded papers already covered 72 % of the volume of all trading combined. This is equivalent to a value of 1,015 billion Dollar. TERMS Futures: A deal on the purchase/sale of a good at a later point in time and at a firmly fixed prices Volatility: The degree of variance in financial market parameters (prices of shares etc.) Asset category: Description of a fund‘s investment policy. average of 450 tons of raw mineral is needed for a family home with basement. A single kilometre of motorway even requires 160,000 tons. econologY vs. econoMY DEcological factors drastically increased the requirements placed on mining and processing raw materials. Emissions and energy consumption must be reduced considerably and renaturation and recultivation measures taken into account. Top of the list is the protection of habitats of endangered fauna and flora. The high demand on the quality of raw materials affects availability as well costs to control these properties. Mining opportunities become less and less as the population density and environmental awareness increase. This results in longer and more expensive transportation routes and an increasing environmental burden. Thus recycling wins importance. Reducing the production of raw minerals would reduce the national production by a factor of 9.34. The construction industry would be affected considerably. A shortage of raw minerals however is not likely. And price variations on raw material markets are manageable provided pork belly isn’t used for construction. // Ü www.cmEgroup.com 45
Page 1 and 2: Photo: Business office HOCH ZWEI, V
Page 3 and 4: 1.2009 Andreas Eder ALPINE Head of
Page 5 and 6: TOP TOPICS BRIDGE ACROSS THE DANUBE
Page 7 and 8: »An unused hour is A lost hour« I
Page 9 and 10: 1944 1963 1968 2005 2006 2008 Dietm
Page 11 and 12: Supporting formwork of ‘Danube br
Page 13 and 14: “Simultaneous construction of sup
Page 15 and 16: The ultimate construction site LEAD
Page 17 and 18: A container village in the city of
Page 19 and 20: insights PAGE 20 PAGE 30 DIVA-Award
Page 21 and 22: VIERTEL ZWEI is a quiet and green o
Page 23 and 24: closE to thE wind A wind turbine co
Page 25 and 26: ought his love for this sport from
Page 27 and 28: Its cross-vaulted roof style remind
Page 29 and 30: dates are increasingly becoming sho
Page 31 and 32: GO EAST ‘Balkan Fever’ does not
Page 33 and 34: Beska Bridge The construction of a
Page 35 and 36: insights PAGE 38 St. Barbara not on
Page 37 and 38: climb and press INNOVATIONS The coo
Page 39 and 40: TUNNELLING Even though more machine
Page 41 and 42: SHORTCUTS CONCRETE MIXING PLANT ON
Page 43: insights PAGE 30 A survey was condu
Page 47 and 48: RENEWABLE ENERGIES Almeria has an a
Page 49 and 50: engineering. The stability of fresh
Page 52: www.alpine.at More Facts More Infor

Project Y

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?