TPT March 2007

From the AmericaS

Around the companies . . . › IDOD Systems (Grant Park, Illinois) has awarded its first European license to the Wuppermann Group (Leverkusen, Germany) for use of the IDOD in-line process for continuous hot- dip galvanizing on both the inside and outside of tube and pipe. According to the Preston Pipe Report for January, Wuppermann will employ the process at its Judenburg plant in Austria, with shipments to US customers scheduled to commence in June. IDOD says that its system applies an ASTM A-53 zinc coating to both surfaces of extremely thin or thick-wall tube and pipe, and that it is guaranteed to yield galvanized product that will not chip or flake during fabrication. The German company will produce round tubulars in sizes 1.3" to 4.5" and shapes in the range 0.39" to 5.12". › Ipsco Inc , the Canadian maker of steel pipe for oil and natural gas exploration, on 1 December announced the completion of its acquisition of NS Group Inc (Newport, Kentucky) for US$1.46 billion in cash. With this added capability in energy-related tubular products, IPSCO could achieve combined annual sales of over $4 billion, compared with $3 billion in 2005. Canada accounted for 32 per cent (about $979 million) of those sales. IPSCO now expects to boost its growth in the US, where it estimates sales opportunities for OCTG to be three times greater than in Canada. According to Tenaris SA , of Argentina, the world’s largest maker of OCTG, the US creates almost half the annual global demand for 10.5 million metric tons of pipe for oilfield applications. › General Electric said on 15 January that it would pay $4.8 billion in cash for Smiths Aerospace , the cockpit electronics arm of the London conglomerate Smiths Group. Analysts saw another sign that GE (Fairfield, Connecticut) is acting on its intention to get out of underperforming businesses and redirect capital into areas of faster growth. Earlier in the month GE had said it would acquire drilling-equipment maker Vetco Gray Inc (Houston, Texas) for $1.9 billion. GE also said it would seek a buyer for its lagging plastics business. The terms of its British deal call for GE to pay about 1.8 times the Smiths unit’s 2006 sales. Given the intense activity in the aerospace business, analysts said GE had little prospect of negotiating a lower price.

Matters of trade

Prospects are dimming for a US-South Korea trade agreement Officials of both governments resumed free-trade talks on 15 January, but the US and South Korea seemed unlikely to harmonize their differences before the June 30 expiration of President George W Bush’s ‘fast-track’ authority to move an agreement quickly through Congress. After that, the opposition Democrats who control the new Congress can place amendments on the trade deal, making prompt ratification unlikely. A pact would give Washington its biggest success since the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) a decade ago. But talks stalled over Washington’s demand for greater access for American cars, among other exports, and over Seoul’s insistence on changes in US antidumping rules as applied to South Korean steel, cars, and other products. Seoul also wants goods produced by South Korean factories in North Korea included in the agreement. South Korea is America’s seventh-largest trading partner, with bilateral trade topping $74 billion a year. According to the International Trade Commission, a US federal agency, an accord could lift American exports to South Korea by $19 billion, while Korean exporters could expect to make an additional $10 billion in sales in the United States. • The Bush administration will renegotiate the language covering labour rights in free trade agreements it has reached with Peru, Colombia, and Panama, to help ensure approval for the deals by the new Democratic Congress. John K Veroneau, deputy United States trade representative, said on 18 January that the three countries had been notified and predicted that an agreement on revised language could be reached without too much delay. The announcement was the strongest signal to date that President George W Bush is prepared to modify his trade policies in light of Democratic control of the House and Senate. Democrats, backed by American labour unions, have long complained that the free trade deals negotiated by the administration do not include enough protections for American workers.

Dorothy Fabian , Features Editor (USA)

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