Economist Vivek Dhar, Director of Mining and Energy Commodities Research at Commonwealth Bank, has shared some insight into how US President Donald Trump’s economic policies could impact Australia’s heavy haul rail industry.
Speaking at the annual Heavy Haul Rail conference in Perth, which is organised by Informa and running from March 26-27, Dhar spoke about a range of global, environmental and domestic impacts on market conditions for heavy haul rail.
Dhar acknowledged that the geopolitical landscape has shifted quite significantly with President Trump in power, and there is a lot of uncertainly at the moment.
However, he said he wouldn’t necessarily look at the current “trade wars” as something negative.
“When you have tariffs, there is actually an opportunity in play,” he said.
“Certainly, when it comes to soft commodities, we’ve seen that fail.”
He gave an example of the Canadian Board of Alcohol Control, who have started pulling US alcohol from their shelves in response to US tariffs on Canadian goods.
“That opens the door for say, Australian wine,” he said.
For extensive coverage of Heavy Haul Rail, pick up the May issue of Rail Express.
