Dalma wrote;
>Largest exporter globally,China could well double this every 5 years.

Won't happen. Globalisation has already started winding down.
China's exports of steel and furniture to the US has already fallen.
The reason is the rising cost of transport across the Pacific.
As oil prices rise more products will become uneconomical to export
around the world.
Finally even bulk cargoes such as iron ore and coal from Australia
will become too costly. I am not surprised that Dalma has not taken
this bit of nasty info into account as neither have our financial
genius in both industry and government.

The price of oil by around 2015 is expected to be around US$150 and
rise much higher in the years around the end of the decade.

These are factors which need to be taken into account when deciding
long term contracts. In these contracts who pays the freight ?
Are the prices FOB ?

How do you get out of these contracts when fuel prices make the deal
uneconomic ?
Not being in the business I don't know, do you ?

If I might add to my last post;
Have you noticed that financial announcers on TV always comment that
a rise in oil prices is good news ?
Typically something like this;

Commodities have been positive today with oil rising 2% to US$80 today.
All with a big smile.
Rising oil prices are bad news no matter which way you look at it.
In the US a financial crash will reoccur at 4% of GDP.
That figure appears to be the equivalent of around US90 to $100.
You can see how close the US is sailing to the wind.