Posts filed under 'minerals and metals'
Mumbai : Shares of Hindalco Industries Ltd, India’s biggest aluminium producer, hit a 7-year high on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) on Monday amidst speculation that the company is becoming a takeover target.
Rumours about Alcan Inc partnering Anil Agarwal-promoted Sterlite Industries Ltd to make a bid for Hindalco in an attempt to fend off a hostile takeover attempt by New York-based Alcoa Inc, set the Hindalco stock on fire.
The markets had hammered the stock ever since the company announced its $6 billion acquisition of Canadian sheetmaker Novelis earlier in February this year.
The Hindalco stock climbed 4% to close at Rs 146.6 on the BSE. The stock earlier climbed as much as 11 % to Rs 156.25, its biggest gain since September 13, 2000.
“The Aditya Birla Group does not comment on such wild, baseless, speculative news stories,” was the official comment from the group.
An industry observer added, “Such rumours are deliberately floated by the stock markets to hike the share price and help minority shareholders exit a stock that has been underperforming.” Hindalco last month completed buying Novelis Inc.
“The acquisition is just over and now the integration of the companies, which is a huge task, is being undertaken,” said Giriraj Daga, an analyst at Khandwala Securities Ltd in Mumbai.
“There’s too much going on for Hindalco to become a takeover target or buy a company. The takeover stories are baseless.”
The $24 billion Aditya Birla Group, one of India’s oldest family-owned businesses with interests in metals, cement, financial services, telecommunications and fertilizers, own about 27% of Hindalco.
State-run insurance companies, which own a 12.15% stake, may back Kumar Mangalam Birla if the company becomes a takeover target, analysts said. “Indian institutions will stand by Hindalco,” Daga said.
Source : Financialexpress.com
June 5th, 2007
MUMBAI (AFP) - India’s largest steelmaker Tata Steel, part of the Tata group conglomerate, said fourth-quarter net profit climbed by 41 percent, lagging analysts’ forecasts, as raw material costs rose.
Net profit for the quarter ending March 2007 rose to 11.03 billion rupees (270 million dollars) on sales, which increased 21.5 percent to 50.6 billion rupees.
Analysts had forecast net profit of 11.84 billion rupees.
Full-year net profit rose 20.4 percent to 42.22 billion rupees (1.03 billion dollars) on sales, which grew 16.25 percent to 179.85 billion rupees.
During the year, the firm bought Anglo-Dutch steel group Corus in a 13.7-billion-dollar deal, catapulting it to sixth-largest global steelmaker from 56th.
Tata Steel said it completed its acquisition of Corus on April 2 this year.
Quarterly earnings were hit by rising raw material costs, particularly input costs for iron ore and zinc, along with rising freight rates, the company said.
“Freight rates and the cost of raw materials was not as good as it could be,” B. Muthuraman, managing director of Tata Steel, said.
“Steel companies will have to find ways to improve margins, considering the rising costs,” he told India’s NDTV television network.
Iron ore and metal prices, along with freight costs, “are likely to remain high, partly offset by lower coal prices in 2007,” the company said.
“Steel prices increased in the first quarter and are expected to remain high in the second half across most markets,” it added.
Tata Steel said in a statement that steel production rose during the full year by nine percent to 4.93 million tonnes.
The company forecast global steel demand for the year would rise by 5.9 percent to 1.179 billion tonnes.
The merged Tata Steel-Corus company, with steel production of 25.6 million tonnes annually, will be “a compelling vision in steel” with an increased market presence and a lower-costs advantage, Tata Steel said.
“The combine will be better equipped to face intensifying competition arising from consolidation in the industry globally,” Tata Steel said.
Source : Business Standard
May 18th, 2007
TOKYO: Nippon Steel said on Thursday it was still in talks with Arcelor Mittal over details of their alliance pact, which would allow the world’s largest steelmaker to use Nippon’sautomotive sheet technology.
this week that Nippon Steel president Akio Mimura and Arcelor Mittal chairman Lakshmi Mittal are in tough talks over conditions for using the sheet technology, one of Nippon’s strongest competitive points.
Mittal, which is pushing into the high-end, automotive sheet steel market in Brazil, wants to use the technology globally, while Nippon Steel wants to impose regional restrictions, NHK said.
Nippon Steel, the biggest beneficiary of strong worldwide sales of Japanese cars, last July reluctantly agreed to extend its technology-sharing agreement with Arcelor Mittal, after its ally Arcelor was bought by Mittal in a hostile bid.
“We have been in talks with Arcelor Mittal on how to cooperate, including what to do with our joint ventures in China and the United States, since last July,” a Nippon Steel spokesman said. He declined to comment on details of the talks or on the NHK report.
Nippon Steel and Arcelor Mittal operate joint ventures for car sheet steel production in the United States and China. They are considering boosting output at the two ventures to cope with surging demand from Toyota Motor and other Japanese carmakers with plants in the region.
The Chinese venture is owned 50% by the country’s top steel maker, Baosteel Group, a unit of Baoshan Iron & Steel Co.
Thanks to strong demand from carmakers and the ability to produce light, strong and rust-resistant steel sheet, Nippon Steel is expected to post a record profit for a fourth consecutive year to March 2008.
Source: Economic Times
May 11th, 2007
PERTH, Australia (AP): Mining ministers from Asia-Pacific countries ended a meeting Wednesday with an agreement to explore free trade in metals and minerals.
Australia’s Resources Minister Ian Macfarlane, the meeting’s host, said ministers at the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, also known as APEC, agreed after a three-day meeting in this west coast city to examine what effects freeing up trade in minerals and metals would have on the sector.
“We discussed regulatory frameworks and agreed they should not be unduly prescriptive, but should strive to establish performance goals and outcomes,” Macfarlane said in a statement.
The study will also explore practical ways to increase trade and investment opportunities among the 21 APEC members.
“We have taken the first step to achieving a long term vision of an APEC free trade agreement,” Macfarlane told reporters. “This would dwarf every other FTA ever written.”
APEC members include some of the biggest mineral producers — Australia, Canada, Chile, Peru and the United States — as well as some of the most voracious consumers of commodities, such as China and Japan.
Macfarlane said the mining ministers’ meeting also adopted a set of nonbinding principles for the industry, including pursuing policies that enhanced sustainable production, trade and consumption of minerals and metals.
Mining ministers and senior officials met in Perth for the first in a series of ministerial meetings that will culminate in an APEC national leaders’ summit in Sydney in September.
February 22nd, 2007
Mumbai : Shares of Hindalco Industries Ltd, India’s biggest aluminium producer, hit a 7-year high on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) on Monday amidst speculation that the company is becoming a takeover target.
