Industry giant, Rio Tinto has announced it will move towards having shorter payment terms for Australian supplies in a bonus for small to mid sized businesses. This will see businesses with less than $10 million in turnover paid by Rio within 20 days from the invoice date.
The announcement this morning has big benefits for the mining and supply industry statewide. The Chamber of Minerals and Energy of Western Australia’s (CME) Chief Executive Paul Everingham said the resources sector had extensive procurement processes and initiatives to ensure small local businesses benefited from the multi-billion dollar projects of some of the State’s largest mining and oil and gas companies.
“The resources sector is continuing to demonstrate its commitment to local jobs, training and procurement to meet the current and future demands of industry,” he said.
“If there is discretion to deviate from standard payment terms, some members also offer lower payment terms to small, local and Indigenous businesses on a case-by-case basis. Rio Tinto is doing just that with its new policy, which will ensure 90 per cent of its Australian business suppliers are paid within 20 days.”
With assistance CME WA