BHP Group will be double-checking its advertising copy in future after publishing full-page advertisements that mistakenly claimed major international business CPB Contractors was based in Western Australia.
BHP Group will be double-checking its advertising copy in future after publishing full-page advertisements that mistakenly claimed major international business CPB Contractors was based in Western Australia.
The weekend advertisement was part of a series promoting BHP’s local content achievements, and highlighted CPB’s role as one of the main contractors on the miner’s $US3.6 billion South Flank iron ore development.
However, it mistakenly referred to work going to “WA companies like CPB based in Perth” and claimed that CPB was “a WA-based business in Perth”.
Far from being a local firm, CPB (formerly Leighton Contractors) is one of the largest contracting groups in Australia and New Zealand and is headquartered in Sydney.
It is a wholly-owned subsidiary of ASX-listed CIMIC Group, which is 71 per cent owned by German group Hochtief, which in turn is controlled by Spanish construction giant Grupo ACS.
A spokesperson for BHP acknowledged the error but emphasised the CPB contract would nonetheless deliver local jobs.
“One hundred per cent of the work CPB has been contracted to do for South Flank is being completed in WA, creating about 500 local WA jobs and bringing $287 million into the local WA economy,” the spokesperson said.
“The advertisement will be amended to correct this mistake yet still acknowledge the important local content and local WA jobs that have been created as part of CPB’s contract with South Flank.”
BHP expects about 85 per cent of its spending on South Flank will be awarded to companies based in Australia, about 90 per cent of which will go to companies based in WA.
These figures are on a par with most of the big iron ore projects completed in WA over the past decade and reflect the large amount of civil contracting.
CPB, for instance, has been contracted to deliver bulk earthworks, concrete and underground services.
South Flank is one of 198 projects listed on the Business News database of projects either under way, likely or possible in WA.
https://www.businessnews.com.au/index/project
The database includes 52 mining projects, seven of which are iron ore projects.
It notes that contractors on South Flank include WA businesses such as Monadelphous, NRW Holdings and Decmil along with foreign-owned firms such as Fluor and Clough.
Rio Tinto has also been promoting its local content achievements, using sponsored content in a daily newspaper to promote its work with WA businesses such as trucking firm Matic Group and Davies Wear Plate Systems.