PERTH (miningweekly.com) – While the Queensland Major Projects Pipeline Report has shown a 58% increase in major project work during 2017/18, private sector investment, particularly in the mining sector, is falling.

The report, compiled by the Queensland Major Contractors Association, Construction Skills Queensland and the Infrastructure Association of Queensland, identified 190 major projects in the 2018 pipeline, with an engineering value of A$39.9-billion, compared with the 166 projects valued at A$39.1-billion in the 2017 pipeline.

Of the projects currently in the project pipeline, some A$20.2-billion worth of projects are classified as public projects, with A$19.7-billion classified as private projects.

Some A$16.1-billion of the projects tagged in the 2018 pipeline remain unfunded, with 33 of these projects, valued at a combined A$6.9-billion, classified as unlikely.

Indian major Adani’s Carmichael coal project, which will have a total cost of about A$16-billion, was also categorised as unlikely, with the outcome of the project having the potential to significantly change the outlook for the category.

Five liquefied natural gas (LNG) projects were included in the report, two bauxite and aluminium projects, as well as 30 coal projects.

A number of other mineral projects, including the Dugald River project, the Ravenswood extension project, the SCONI scandium project and the Charles Towers gold project, were also included in the project pipeline.

The report noted that mining and heavy industry share of total major project work decreased in 2016/17, falling to just 20% of major project work done, from a peak of 85% in 2014/15.

At the 2013/14 peak, mining and heavy industry construction, pipelines construction and railways construction accounted for about 90%, or A$35.9-billion, of the total A$39.2-billion of privately funded engineering construction. Since then, resources-related engineering construction has simply plummeted, the report found.

The completion of the “once in a generation” large liquefied natural gas (LNG) projects in Queensland saw mining and heavy industry major project work collapse to just A$700-million in 2016/17.

Major downstream LNG project construction has now ceased and activity in 2016/17 was solely supported by LNG sustaining work and upstream field developments, estimates of which have been revised downwards given lower than expected activity in this area, both historically and in the forecast.

Meanwhile, mining investment nationally is expected to decline by about 78% from the 2013/14 peak, although mining equipment purchase and exploration has started to recover across most commodities.

In Queensland, private investment in the mining and heavy industry sector was expected to fall by some 72% over the next five years.

By region, Northern Queensland has the strongest major project growth prospects over the next five years, with the value of projects in the pipeline worth A$8.2-billion, 361% higher than the previous five years.

At A$13.6-billion, South East Queensland still commands the largest share of major project work listed in the pipeline, and is itself 167% higher than the actual work done over the past five years, albeit not all of this is currently funded.