Salzgitter poised for steel acquisition in Europe

Bloomberg today reports that Salzgitter is now on the acquisition path. As industry consolidation continues, so the German steelmaker is expected to announce a steel sector takeover that according to Bloomberg will be medium-sized.

Salzgitter, which is Germany's second largest steelmaker, is expected to announce the acquisition within the coming months.

For original Bloomberg report, see http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601100&sid=atWtSOi3Xkco.

Although the Bloomberg report itself offers no further clues as to the potential target, the prediction from the www.steelonthenet.com team is that the target will either be the steelmaking assets of ThyssenKrupp, or the long product business of Voestalpine.

blogger@steelonthenet.com

New Report Refutes Global Warming [BlackDiamond]

A recent report from Britain's Sir Nicholas Stern warned of the devastating
economic effects global warming could have on the world in coming years.

But a British researcher has added his voice to those saying the 'hysteria'
over manmade global warming distorts the truth.

Stern - former chief economist at the World Bank - cautioned that if
greenhouse gas emissions weren't significantly reduced, by 2050 the global
economy would shrink by up to 20 percent, millions of people would be
permanently displaced and droughts would plague the earth.

Now journalist Christopher Monckton, who was a policy adviser to Margaret
Thatcher, has published a detailed report attacking the manmade global
warming theory from various angles - including the so-called 'medieval warm
period'.

The United Nations, which has issued a widely quoted report on global
warming, 'abolished the medieval warm period - the global warming at the end
of the First Millennium A.D.', according to Monckton.

A U.N. report in 1996 'showed a 1,000-year graph demonstrating that
temperature in the Middle Ages was warmer than today', Monckton writes in
Britain's Sunday Telegraph.

'But the 2001 report contained a new graph showing no medieval warm period.
It wrongly concluded that the 20th century was the warmest for 1,000 years'
. . .

'Scores of scientific papers show that the medieval warm period was real,
global and up to [5 degrees Fahrenheit] warmer than now'.

'Then, there were no glaciers in the tropical Andes; today they're there.
There were Viking farms in Greenland; now they're under permafrost. There
was little ice at the North Pole - a Chinese naval squadron sailed right
around the Arctic in 1421 and found none'.

Monckton also writes that Antarctica has cooled and gained ice-mass in the
past 30 years, and the oceans have cooled sharply in the past two years.

He calculates that global temperatures will rise only 18 to 2.5 degrees in
the coming century, 'well within the medieval temperature range'.

And he suggests that rather than point to greenhouse gases as the culprit
behind any measurable global warming, we might blame the sun. He cites a
scientist who maintains that in the past half-century the sun has been
warmer, for longer, than at any time in at least the past 11,400 years.

Monckton's conclusion: Politicians, scientists and bureaucrats contrived a
threat of Biblical floods, droughts, plagues, and extinctions worthier of
St. John the Divine than of science'.

He also remarks: 'Al Gore please note'

blogger@steelonthenet.com

2007 iron ore price rise to be under 10 percent

A Reuters report today suggests that the 2007 iron ore price increase will be under ten percent. World iron ore prices increased by 19 percent in early 2006, after a jump of over 70 percent in early 2005, fuelled by demand from China.

The prediction of a less than 10 percent rise is from POSCO. It comes just before the annual price negotiations which commence later this month.

For Reuters report, see http://asia.news.yahoo.com/061116/3/2szj3.html

blogger@steelonthenet.com

Direct reduced iron - DRI - free newsfeed

Steel industry portal http://www.steelonthenet.com has just added a direct reduced iron (DRI) newsfeed to its collection of other steelmaking raw materials newsfeeds.

To access this free iron unit news resource, please visit: http://www.steelonthenet.com/feeds/dri.php

Kind regards.

Dr Andrzej M Kotas
Chief Executive

www.steelonthenet.com

Stainless steel prices at a record high [MEPS]

MEPS today report that stainless steel prices are at a record high, and seem set to advance still further in the coming months.

Transaction prices for cold rolled 304 in Europe and North America (including surcharges) now exceed $US 4,500 per tonne - which is unprecedented.

For original report, see http://www.meps.co.uk/editorial10-06.htm.

blogger@steelonthenet.com