TPT May 2008

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From the AmericaS
May 2008 80 ›
current technology does not have any appreciable impact on this
challenge.”
• Some committee members expressed approval of the
commitments made by BP and Shell in alternative energy
sources. But Mr Markey wants to see even more of an effort
on their part: investment of at least 10 per cent of their profits in
renewables and alternative energy sources.
The Houston Chronicle’s Mr Ivanovich reported that Rep
Emanuel Cleaver, of Missouri, asked Mr Simon to comment on
the $400 million 2005 retirement package of a former Exxon
Mobil chairman.
“That is in the past,” Mr Simon said – adding that the package,
which was decided by outside directors, was not inconsistent
with the cushion taken with them into retirement by other
executives of comparable stature.
Steel
ArcelorMittal unit sues US Steel Canada over
iron mine
ArcelorMittal Dofasco Inc is suing US Steel Canada Inc for $1.8
billion for allegedly having reneged on a deal to sell its stake in a
Labrador iron ore mine. As reported by Peter Brieger of the Financial
Post (Toronto, 27 March), the lawsuit also names the Ohio firm of
Cleveland-Cliffs Inc for helping derail the alleged sales agreement
when skyrocketing world prices for iron ore cast the mine, and its
potential, in a new light.
“By reason of their own self-interest, Cliffs and US Steel did not
proceed in good faith,” reads the 23-page claim filed 20 March
by the Canadian unit of Luxembourg-based ArcelorMittal. “[The
defendants] realized the real value of the Wabush Mines joint
venture and the fact that they should never have agreed to sell their
respective interests.”
Mr Brieger wrote, “ArcelorMittal is asking the Ontario Superior Court
of Justice to force its longtime partners to honour a deal that calls
on them to sell their 71 per cent share in the mine for $427 million.”
Otherwise, reads the claim, the two companies should pay $1.8
billion in damages to Dofasco.
US Steel now owns Dofasco’s long-time rival Stelco: also, like
Dofasco, with headquarters in Hamilton, Ontario.
› In other news of ArcelorMittal, the world’s largest steel maker
has confirmed plans to sell its Sparrows Point steel mill in
Baltimore, Maryland, to the Russian steel company OAO Severstal
for $810 million. ArcelorMittal agreed in February 2007 to the sale of
Sparrows Point to resolve US Justice Department antitrust concerns
about production of tin-plated steel. Sparrows Point, the only fully
integrated producer of flat rolled steel on the East Coast of the US,
has a capacity of 3.9 million tons of crude steel.