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From the
AmericaS
73
M
arch
/A
pril
2007
According to the Mint, the metal value of a current-issue penny,
made of copper-coated zinc, is more than one cent. The Mint places
the commodity metal value of a pre-1982 penny – composed of
95 per cent copper and still accounting for a large percentage of
those coins in circulation – at 2.13 cents.
As to the five-cent piece, made of a copper-nickel blend, its metal
value is now 7 cents. When manufacturing costs are factored in,
every penny costs the Mint 1.73 cents to produce; every nickel,
8.74 cents. If even 1 per cent of the 150 billion pennies and
20 billion nickels in circulation were to be withdrawn from circulation,
the replacement cost to the American taxpayer would be $43 million,
the Mint estimates.
The new ban also forbids the export of pennies or nickels in any
significant quantity. The Mint’s purpose here is to block large-scale
movement of the coins to countries where recycling them for the
metal content could be economically feasible.
Elsewhere in metals . . .
›
In another noteworthy Russian acquisition in the US (see
‘Oregon Steel-Evraz deal’
above
),
Norilsk Nickel
has entered
into a definitive agreement to buy all of the nickel assets of
OM Group
(Cleveland, Ohio) for $408 million in cash. The transaction
was expected to close in the first quarter of 2007. OM Group is a
vertically integrated international producer and marketer of value-
added, metal-based speciality chemicals and related materials, whose
management concluded that its nickel business is a non-core asset.
In light of today’s historically high nickel prices, OM Group believes
that its timing here is ideal. The company operates manufacturing
facilities in the Americas, Europe, Asia, Africa, and Australia. Norilsk
Nickel is Russia’s largest mining and metallurgical company and the
world’s largest producer of nickel and palladium, as well as a major
producer of platinum and copper.
›
Alcoa
announced an investment of more than $6 million to
expand core manufacturing capabilities at its
Howmet Product
and Services
operation in Morristown, Tennessee. Completion is
scheduled for midyear and full functioning by the end of the year.
The installations will include a high-temperature tunnel kiln that will
boost kiln capacity by some 10 per cent, new prebake ovens, and
Tempcraft presses.
Pittsburgh-based Alcoa, the world’s largest producer and manager
of primary aluminium, said that expanded capability in producing
alumina core bodies will enable it to better serve its aerospace
customers, who are placing
“unprecedented demands on [our]
capacity.”
In other news of Alcoa, on 4 January the company formally
opened its aluminium brazing sheet plant in Kunshan City, China.
A joint venture of Alcoa and
Yencheng Engraving
established
in April 2006,
Kunshan Aluminum Products Co Ltd
produces
heat exchanger materials for automotive and other industrial
HVAC applications and complementary common alloy aluminium
products. This is Alcoa’s third flat-rolled products facility in China. In
full operation it will produce 50,000mtpy of aluminium brazing sheet
primarily for the Asian automotive market.