Earlier this week, we caught an interesting article about the steel industry. No, this piece doesn’t involve falling steel prices or vertical integration. Instead, the article discusses the historical “Steel City,” Pittsburgh, and its interaction with Iraq, highlighting a Pittsburgh native’s efforts to help reconstruct Iraq.

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This is Part Two of a Two Part Series. Part One is here.  
So we can probably expect metals prices to continue to weaken, at least in the short term. The turning point, when it comes (and volatility will be the order of the day in the meantime) may be into 2009. In the meantime, buyers […]

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This is Part One of a Two Part Series 
In light of recent turbulence in the financial markets what is the outlook for metals prices for the balance of 2008/9? The impact of major bank failures are in themselves mostly short lived as far as the metals markets are concerned. Although some of the firms involved such as Lehman […]

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At the mining market’s earlier peak, private equity funds steered clear, avoiding miners and their high valuations. “Valuations were too high to provide the returns they sought, while booming demand from institutional and individual, or ‘retail,’ investors for mining shares meant smaller companies could easily obtain capital for their projects through stock sales,” the Wall […]

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How do you know if your economy is in a rough spot? Take a look at the financial metric Days Sales Outstanding or DSO as it is commonly called. Days Sales Outstanding refers to the number of days it takes a company to pay after they have received an invoice. And wouldn’t you know, it’s […]

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Less than two weeks ago, we wrote that recent problems in the mining sector have hit zinc and nickel the hardest. Several mines have reported difficulties with higher costs and troubles with potential outputs and expansions, not to mention dilemmas from lower prices. Now, Purchasing.com reports that a Canadian zinc mine finally had to shut […]

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The Brazilian iron ore producer Vale has issued an addendum to its iron ore sales contracts for Chinese buyers hiking the price by 20% from September 1st reported SBB. Vale has been angered by the Australian producers Rio Tinto and BHP breaking the previous accord and managing to achieve significantly higher FOB prices than Vale […]

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A recent UBS research report broadly supports the predictions made in our detailed metals review posted in a series of articles over the last few weeks on steel here, here, and here as well as here on base metals. UBS sees certain metals such as zinc, aluminum and copper being supported around current levels on the supply side by […]

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Recent comments by Cheng Siwei, vice-chairman of the standing committee of the National People’s Congress, in China suggest that for the time being the gradual managed appreciation of the Renminbi against a basket of currencies has come to an end. As domestic growth slows and exports in certain sectors have been hit by the global […]

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As if further evidence was needed for the strength of the emerging economies over mature ones Diageo, the global drinks giant, has posted it’s annual results with a breakdown by region. Like the Economists magazine BigMac index which measures purchasing power parity of currencies by comparing the cost of a Big Mac around the world, […]

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