TPT September 2012

Global Marketplace

Elsewhere in metals . . . › A growing environmental movement in China has begun to make polluting projects harder to build. On 3 July, strong protests against the planned construction of one of the largest copper and molybdenum smelting complexes anywhere prompted local officials in southwestern China’s Sichuan Province to backpedal. The local government of Shifang, the planned site of the smelter, announced in a statement that construction of the $1.6bn complex had not merely been suspended: it was halted permanently. The smelter had been intended as the centrepiece of the economic revitalisation of an area devastated by the 2008 Sichuan earthquake, but a crowd estimated by local residents at several thousand strong demonstrated its opposition. As noted by Time (4 July), the earthquake destroyed two chemical plants in Shifang, forcing 6,000 people to evacuate when 80 tons of ammonia leaked. Fears linger about the susceptibility of industry to damage and the possibility of more such dangerous leaks after a natural disaster. Sichuan Hongda Chemical Industry Co, China’s third-largest zinc producer, was to have erected the smelter. On news of the cancellation the company’s shares slumped 9.2 per cent, its biggest drop since November 2010.

CERAMIC WELD ROLLS Innovative Solutions Our unique Technide ® S10 Ceramic Weld Rolls have exceptional wear life and are used with great success within the tubing industry. - Lasts up to 20 times longer than conventional steel rolls. - Saves up to 20% on energy costs. - Reduces machine downtime and maintenance. - Better surface quality of product, reduces galling marks. › As reported from New Delhi in the Wall Street Journal (3 July), the Steel Authority of India Ltd and Japan’s Kobe Steel Ltd were to sign a joint-venture agreement within the week to set up an iron processing plant in India with a capacity of 500,000 metric tons of nuggets per year. The information was attributed to Indian steel secretary DRS Chaudhary, who said the 50-50 partnership would make a total investment of $272mn in the plant, to be set up in the eastern town of Durgapur. The two companies in 2010 entered into an initial agreement to make nuggets using Kobe technology. infrastructure, especially delays in construction of a 186-mile rail link to serve the planned Acu works. › Other Brazilian news – from Nomura International, the London-based subsidiary of the Japanese financial services group – concerned the German steelmaker ThyssenKrupp AG’s proposed sale of its stake in the Companhia Siderurgica do Atlantico (CSA) works, also in Rio de Janeiro state. Nomura said the sale could provide potential investors with “an attractive alternative to greenfield investment in a Brazilian steel mill, given the likely [capital expenditure] overruns and delays typically associated with building out capacity in Brazil.” The Nomura research report (4 July) continued, “The confirmation that Wuhan continues to consider investment in Brazil keeps us comfortable that a sale of CSA will be possible in the next 12 months.”

Dorothy Fabian , Features Editor (USA)

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September 2012