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QUICK CHAT #17- Start after Market closes 11/13/09 17 comments
Uh, oh. Treasury forecast 2010 Deficit = 2 Trillion dollars. Here's what a trillion dollars looks like, in case you haven't seen this!
www.pagetutor.com/trillion/index.html
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Let's revisit Great Panther after the offering is complete, after 11/17/09!
(junior silver miner with Mexican property)
It's Friday the 13th, Bank Failure Night. How many banks do you think the FDIC will close this weekend? Get your number into the pool...
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
India’s Iron Fist Thumps In Canada
Wed, Nov 11, 2009
Featured Articles, Iron Articles
By Kishori Krishnan Exclusive To Iron Investing News
The world’s eighth-largest steel maker, India’s Tata Steel Ltd (TISC.BO), has said it expects its European unit Corus to be operating at full capacity by the end of the fiscal year in March.
Corus, Europe’s second-largest steelmaker, operated at 80 per cent capacity in October.
In a bid to ensure adequate supply to Corus’s European plants, Tata Steel signed an C$ 300 million agreement with New Millennium Capital Corp of Canada.
The aim: to develop an iron ore mining project. The firm aims to start production from the second quarter of 2011.
New Millennium expects estimated reserves of 100 million tonnes of ore that can be shipped directly, and the firm expects an annual output of 4 million tonnes.
Tata Steel is reported to 80 per cent in the joint venture for the project. The Indian major holds the rights on the entire output from the project.
Already, Tata Steel owns a 19.9 per cent stake in New Millennium.
Vietnam project
Not just in Canada, Tata Steel is also looking at Vietnam and plans to invest US$ 5 billion to develop an iron ore mine.
The firm has formally accepted an offer from Vietnam’s Ha Tinh province to build a steel plant there.
The local authorities have offered 725 hectares of sea-facing land for a steel plant, 150 hectares for a township and 37 hectares for ancillaries.
Tata Steel’s 4.5-million-tonne project was stuck because of land dispute.
More deals
Meanwhile, the world’s biggest mining company BHP Billiton (BLT.L) is not content to sit idle, following its 50-50 iron ore deal with Rio Tinto (RIO.L).
In a numbers position, the likes of which is being much debated, the tie-up of mining giants BHP Billiton (BHP.AX) and Rio Tinto (RIO.AX)’s Western Australian iron ore assets is expected to propel the duo to the top of the global trade.
Of course, there are bids and counter bids.
What this would achieve is current number one Brazil’s Vale (VALE.N) will have to be content with a lower rung.
Vale has decided to boost investment by more than 30 per cent to around $12 billion next year in Brazil.
The company is to invest more than $5 billion by 2015 to boost production capacity in the mining state of Minas Gerais.
For some time now, critics have been keen to scupper the two giants’ proposed iron ore joint venture. Even China, the buyer of more than half all globally traded iron ore, and steelmakers spanning the globe from Japan to Europe, is amongst the list of critics.
Stakeholders maintain this would lead to monopolistic atmosphere, since Rio, BHP, and Vale control about 70 per cent of global seaborne iron ore trade.
The key ingredient in steel-making, iron ore is shipped from mines in top exporters Australia and Brazil to consumers such as China, which takes almost half the globe’s production, and Japan and South Korea.
Binging out
Incidentally, China’s appetite for iron ore rose 35.7 per cent in the first nine months of the year to 469.4 million tonnes.
Its imports however fell almost 30 per cent to 45.47 million tonnes, down from a record the previous month, but still high enough to raise further concerns about oversupply in the country’s steel sector.
Steel product exports stood at 2.71 million tonnes over October, up nearly 10 per cent compared with September.
Prices in India
Sustained demand from China has already pushed spot Indian benchmark prices up to more than $100 per tonne for the first time since mid-August.
The spot price of Indian iron ore Fe 63.5/63 per cent showed impressive gain of 3 per cent during week 46 surpassing the psychological barrier of US$ 100 per tonne CNF.
The markets sentiments seems to be inching forward to the fact that the Chinese steel market bottomed out with a gain of 1 per cent during last week.
After peaking at US$ 82 per tonne on August 7 2009, it declined by 24 per cent or US$ 20 per tonne by September 11 2009. Then it picked up steam.
Brazil story
Meanwhile, another Brazilian miner Ferrous Resources do Brasil is looking to fund an iron ore complex by raising $2.7 billion, Bloomberg reports.
The miner is planning to raise the money through a combination of debt, an initial public offering and investment from a strategic partner.
Ferrous, which is planning to borrow about $1.3 billion, is in talks about financing the Viga and Serrinha projects in Minas Gerais state, in exchange of iron ore supplies.
Company news
Labrador Iron Mines Holdings Limited (TSX: LIM) has entered into an agreement with New Millennium Capital Corp to exchange their respective mineral licences in Labrador. The Canadian firm tied up with an Indian major, Tata Steel, on Wednesday.
The exchange eliminates the fragmentation of the ownership of certain mining rights in the Schefferville area.
Labrador is developing direct shipping iron ore deposits on properties in the Labrador Trough of Canada’s main iron ore producing region in the Province of Newfoundland and Labrador near Schefferville, Quebec.
Instablogs are blogs which are instantly set up and networked within the Seeking Alpha community. Instablog posts are not selected, edited or screened by Seeking Alpha editors, in contrast to contributors' articles.
This post has 17 comments:
Heres what a trillion dollars looks like is amazing!!! More people should see this so they understand the gravity of the deficits we are facing
Here's a link that might help for your research. www.tickerspy.com/blog...
Sorry, I don't know this sector, and I know I would have to research thin cell, photovoltaic, etc. Not on my radar screen right now.
On Nov 13 05:47 PM robert.b.ferguson wrote:
> O.G. Greetings. Have you looked at Chinese solar stocks. That index
> (CHSOL) has been murder all year -71%. Still dropping like a rock
> -6.5% this month. Suddenly today it shoots up 9% ahead of next weeks
> earnings. What's your take on this? Funny business or just speculation
> on earnings by day traders?
Are you doing anything with CDE? I have stayed away so far.
What about GWM I thought about adding some more today when it was down around .22 but decided to leave some dry powder in my account instead.
bl124w.blu124.mail.liv...
Funny you should mention gwm.
GWM has news: www.gwmg.ca/media/news....
It's in a channel and it's missing the rally. Does this look compelling to you? Tell me what you think. I'm watching it but not entering yet. I wouldn't hesitate to average down, but want to see where it goes in this channel. Either up or down. It's got to fall to .21 or below on the low side as a closing price for me to get interested in adding more. I won't do it while it is in this channel, which appears to be narrowing, but lower. It hasn't performed with the market since mid october. I would say be patient and watch the channel.
On Nov 13 07:01 PM SAS70 wrote:
> OG
>
> Are you doing anything with CDE? I have stayed away so far.
>
> What about GWM I thought about adding some more today when it was
> down around .22 but decided to leave some dry powder in my account
> instead.
On Nov 13 07:46 PM Mayascribe wrote:
> OG: That's an amazing pictoral of money.
>
> bl124w.blu124.mail.liv...
On Nov 13 08:01 PM optionsgirl wrote:
> We'd be happy with a tiny corner!
I bought 4 cooper tires last year for my plow truck for around 600.00. One of my guys went last week to get the exact same tires from the same dealer and this year they are 800.00. Inflation her we come!!
Meant here instead of her we come
On Nov 14 12:03 PM SAS70 wrote:
> Maya
>
> I bought 4 cooper tires last year for my plow truck for around 600.00.
> One of my guys went last week to get the exact same tires from the
> same dealer and this year they are 800.00. Inflation her we come!!
Thinking about all that money on pallets reminded me of a guy working at Treasury (no longer) who was on the team designing the new $100 bills back a few years. One day he and his team had just left the vault where they tested the new bills. They had a rule that never could just one member of the team enter the vault alone (to avoid the obvious temptation). He realized that he had left his briefcase in the vault, stopped suddenly and asked one of the other team members to re-enter the vault with him so he could retrieve the briefcase. The other members ignored the rule and let him enter alone. He quickly snatched a few bundles of $100 bills, stuffed them into his briefcase, and exited quickly so as to not arouse suspicion. He performed this maneuver several times throughout the testing period (over several months) and never raised any suspicion. But the idiot deposited the money into several bank accounts in order to earn the interest. He didn't realize it but the whole team was being watched by federal agents of the Treasury just in case. If hadn't been so greedy and just stuffed the bills in a box in the closet, he could have gotten away with his scheme. It wasn't premeditated. It was just a lax application of controls. It kinda reminds me of how the banks got away with killing our economy. They probably tested the procedure to see if they could. Then, since no one in the government seemed to care, they just kept doing it more and more until things got out of hand. The only difference is: my guy went to jail.
I need to buy tires where you do or at least switch brands.
What did you do in transport industry?
SAS & Mark: I upgraded the original tires and bought Goodyear Forteras: $211.00 per, with a 70,000 mile 6 year guarantee. Those warranties never hold up anyway. I especially like that they waived the "disposal" charge. Pleaze: They make football fields and doormats and a bunch of other stuff out of used tires.
Here's something I always look forward to this time of year, only it's happening three days earlier than the earliest ever: The Crazy Canadian robins have arrived! Yep, this started about ten years ago. Robins by the hundreds are arriving today, beginning their winter feast gobbling up red holly berries by the thousands. It's wild out there, eh!
Please don't laugh at me for being so cheap on my tires, but I live on a mountain and no matter what I buy they wear out fast with all the curves going up and down. For my civic, I bought four General Altimax radials with 60K warranty for $367 total (including labor, balancing, etc). For my Element I bought Remington all weather radials with only a 50K warranty for $459 total (including labor, balancing, etc.)
Well, okay, maybe Scrooge can laugh.
You were in LTL the profitable side of trucking. Although I remember some big ones like corn flake going out. My first business was a trucking company. My Grandpa lent me 8K to buy an old GMC Astro. I pulled flatbed hauling steel out of Pittsburgh. I wasn't making any money with one so the obvious decision was to expand. That's when the big bucks started rollin. I should clarify that rollin means OUT and not in. I am glad to be OUT of that industry today.
I did learn a lot. On a list of things you can do wrong in business I checked off at least half of them.
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