OREANDA-NEWS. -13 April 2016: Fitch Ratings says mining services companies' revenues and margins will remain under pressure as miners continue to focus on reducing costs amid lower commodity prices.

Mining companies continue to move operations in-house, renegotiate service contracts to reduce value or scope, extend payment terms and limit further exploration as they seek to minimise costs and restore profitability. This directly impacts the work contracted to mining services companies, either squeezing margins, delaying cash inflows or reducing the pipeline of work available.

The decision last week by Fortescue Metals Group Limited (BB+/Negative) not to renew its contract with Downer EDI Limited (Downer, BBB/Stable), as its moves to an owner-operator model at its Christmas Creek mines, highlights this trend. Fortescue had also reduced the scope of the contract in February 2015. In addition, Rio Tinto Ltd (A-/Negative) announced last week that it was extending its supplier payment terms to 90 days from 45 days for contracts greater than USD3m, and to 60 days for contracts under this threshold. Other solutions over the past year include Atlas Iron announcing a profit sharing arrangement linked to iron ore prices with its contractors to address the impact of price volatility on its returns.

Fitch expects mining service companies with limited operations outside the resources sector to be more affected by the mining companies' actions because they have fewer opportunities to replace lost revenues. Fitch downgraded Emeco Holding Limited's Issuer Default Rating by two notches to 'B-' in September 2015, which reflected the impact of the prolonged weakness in global commodity markets on its profitability, cash flows and scale. The recent insolvencies of Civil Australia Holdings and WDS Ltd. continue to highlight the increasing challenges smaller mining service companies face in this new environment.

Larger and more diversified engineering firms, such as Downer, are likely to be less affected by the miners' actions. Their exposure to other sectors, including infrastructure and civil sectors, allows them to mitigate any loss of mining services revenue.