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Wire World is pleased to provide this on-line news service that extracts Wire & Cable Industry news from leading international newspapers and news agencies published daily at Midnight GMT. News Published Today

News releases published in the past 2 weeks

London January 22-23 FKI buys 52.85% of Chinese steel wire maker for US$1.63 million FKI PLC said Friday it bought 52.85 % of Tianjin Golik No 1 Steel Wire Rope Co Ltd for US$1.63 via the purchase of equity from co-investor, Golik Holdings, and a subscription for new equity in Tianjin No 1. The stake purchase will enable FKI's steel-wire rope manufacturer, Bridon, to access the large and growing Chinese market for elevator rope, it said. Following the transaction, which is subject to approval by the Chinese authorities, Tianjin No 1 will be renamed Bridon Tianjin Rope Ltd and will have new funds of US$ 1 million available for investment. FKI plc is a major international diversified engineering group that in its portfolio own companies such as ACCO Chain Products and Bridon ropes

Milan January 22-23 Pirelli receives 10 offers for cable operations, 4-5 buyers short listed Pirelli & C SpA chairman Marco Tronchetti Provera said the company has received about 10 offers for the cable operations it is selling and that four to five of the bidders will go forward to the next stage of the sale process. The proceeds of the cable sale will be used to strengthen the group's remaining businesses, Tronchetti said during a shareholders meeting called to approve a capital increase.

Kuala Lumpur January 22-23 Cheap Cheaper Cheapest - Malaysian supplier looks to cut cost. Wonderful Wire and Cable Bhd (WWC), a manufacturer of electrical wires and cables, may move some of its Malaysian manufacturing activities to either China or Vietnam, sources said yesterday. Our source was told the company's top management had looked into the matter, but hasn't made a decision, pending a more detailed study. It is, however, believed a decision to relocate might be made by as early as the fourth quarter of this year. Among the factors that may sway WWC to move is the supply of labor, material and overall costs. The company wants to relocate because the cost of manufacturing in Malaysia has risen over the past few years. The market size in Malaysia is considered small, valued at about RM100 million a year, with little room to grow because demand for copper wires and cables had taken a beating with the increased use of optical fiber cables. The China market may give WWC a shot in the arm due to the large number of construction jobs available there, while Vietnam is being considered due to the low labor cost and also because of its close proximity with China. The company may also set up a manufacturing plant in Doha, Qatar to tap into the West Asian market. The plan to move into the West Asian market is part of the company's wider plan to expand its base, and is not part of its proposed relocation plan, our source said. However, the plans to go to West Asia may only take place if the company manages to secure financial backing. For the cumulative three financial quarters ended September 2004, WWC posted a net profit of RM 3.43 million on the back of RM68.51 million in sales.

Brantford January 22-23 Is the steel industry over investing? Or will wire producers face shortages. World crude steel production in the eleven months to November 2004 for the 62 countries reporting to the IISI was 945.2 million tons. This was 9% higher than the eleven months total in 2003. The November month total was 9.4% up on November 2003 at 89.8 million tons. All the regions of the world showed an increase in steel production in both the month and the eleven months total except for Oceania. Using past statistics to forecast the future is a little bit like driving a car looking through the rear view mirrors. Long products represents about 1/3 and wire rod 10% of total and the past trend among rod producers has been to downsize downstream processing while flat steel producers has invested in galvanizing and painting lines. To this one should factor in that flat steel producers currently appear to be investing at a proportionally higher rate than producers of long products. For the wire producers the results in 2005 and 2006 and beyond will largely depend on how well they are able to gauge the rod market. Leggett & Platt purchased a portion of the idled Northwestern Steel & Wire mill in Sterling, Ill and brought it on stream. Bankrupt Stelco Inc. as part of its restructuring efforts has shutdown its Rod facility leaving its subsidiary Stelwire to shop in the open market for Rod. Currency shifts just add another dimension of uncertainty. A new report out of Brisbane Australia compiled by Merrill Lynch says that cheap imports, a softer construction market and higher input costs were likely to impact negatively on the Australian steel industry in 2005. For more steel data use this link.

Bremen Indiana January 21st Copperfield plans 82,200-square-foot new facility. Bremen Indiana cable and wire manufacturer Copperfield LLC is planning an expansion that the company believes could lead to as many as 30 new jobs by the fall. The new building will be used to produce and insulate copper wire, said Jim Merritt, Copperfield's chief financial officer. "It's basically a general growth of our business," Merritt said. "We continue to expand." The company hopes the new manufacturing space will be ready by the summer. But construction can't start until the ground warms up, Merritt said. Although some details of the expansion are still being worked out, Merritt said the company could add between 12 to 30 new employees. The cost of the expansion has not yet been determined, Merritt said. The 15-year-old company employs about 260 workers, including 160 in Bremen. It manufactures automotive and appliance wire, welding cable, battery cable, brake cable and irradiated wire, among other products. Copperfield has been growing rapidly since 2000. In March 2003, the company completed the purchase of a substantial portion of Fort Wayne-based Essex Electric Inc.'s automotive and industrial products unit, a move that nearly doubled the size of the Bremen company. But Copperfield had been on the march before that purchase. In January 2000, the company purchased Elkhart wire insulator CopperCon. Two years later, Copperfield bought the Bremen Insulated Wire Division of Wisconsin-based Industrial Electric Wire & Cable. The company has posted record sales for each of the past five years, Merritt said. Although he did not disclose sales figures, Merritt said Copperfield's sales rose 49 percent in 2004. In addition to its main Bremen complex, Copperfield has operations in Fort Wayne, Lafayette and Orleans, Ind. and in Nogales, Ariz.

Jakarta January 21st Indonesia to link nation with optic fiber cable network The government of Indonesia is set to issue a tender for the construction of Palapa Ring optic fiber networks, which will be used as the backbone for the country's telecommunication system. The tender for the project, which is estimated to cost up to US$1 billion, will be held in the second quarter of this year, an official from the Post and Telecommunications Directorate General Susilo Hartono said. The project involves submarine cable extending from North Sumatra to Papua, a distance of 25,000 kilometers, Susilo said. Susilo's comments were in contract to those from Post and Telecommunications Director General Djamhari Sirat, who said the project was still being studied. Sirat said a feasibility study is expected to take six months.

Dunkirk New York January 21st Strong turnaround for US stainless producers now evident The Dunkirk Specialty Steel segment of Universal Stainless & Alloy Products Inc. reported record sales of $10.5 million and operating income of $1.2 million. This compares with sales of $4.5 million and an operating loss of $428,000 in the fourth quarter of 2003 and sales of $9.5 million and operating income of $1.2 million in the prior quarter. Dunkirk's sales rose 134% over the fourth quarter of 2003, as it continued its ramp-up in 2004. The 10% increase in fourth quarter sales over the prior quarter is primarily due to increased selling prices and surcharges to offset higher material costs. The operating income only improved slightly over the prior quarter due to a 22% increase in raw material costs.

Wujiang City,Jiangsu,China January 21 JiangSu HengTong fiber-optic cables adopt slim steel wires JiangSu HengTong Photoelectric Stock Co. Ltd has released a new series of fiber-optic cables ideal for applications in high density and complexity of centralized cables such as host apparatus or domain centers of big network systems. The company reduced the diameter of the cables and adopted slim steel wires to enhance flexibility, according to Zhang Bin, manager of the layout commission department. The series has already acquired patent protection from mainland China's State Intellectual Property Office. JiangSu HengTong, a subsidiary of the HengTong Group Co. Ltd, accounts for about 15 percent of the total sales revenue of the mainland's fiber-optic cable industry.

Irvine California January 21 CTC &General Cable Introduce TransPowr(TM) ACCC/TW Bare Overhead Conductor a new technology that provides up to twice the capacity. Composite Technology Corporation a leading US developer of high-performance composite core cables for electric transmission and distribution cables, through it's subsidiary CTC Cable Corporation (CTC), and General Cable Industries, Inc., the principal US operating subsidiary of General Cable Corporation, announced the introduction of the TransPowr(TM) ACCC/TW bare overhead conductor at the 2005 General Cable National Sales Conference. The TransPowr ACCC/TW bare overhead conductor integrates General Cable's ACSS/TW technology and CTC Cable Corporation's carbon and glass fiber core technology. These two technologies have been combined to create a transmission and distribution conductor that is vastly superior to all existing bare overhead conductors in a number of key performance areas -- greater capacity, sag reduction, and lower electrical line losses. These performance advantages quickly and cost-effectively increase the capacity and reliability of existing transmission and distribution corridors.

New Holland, Pennsylvania January 21st Berk-Tek ADVENTUM LC - World's First UL Listed Fiber Optic Cables LC Cables Berk-Tek, A Nexans Company, announces the Underwriters' Laboratory (UL) listing of Adventum™ LC - the world's first limited combustible fiber optic cable. The limited combustible Adventum LC cables will carry the fire hazard classification listing of FHC 25/50 and meet the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) 255 Standard Test Method of Surface Burning Characteristics of Building Materials, and the NFPA 259 Standard Test Method for Potential Heat of Building Materials. Because limited combustible (LC) rated cables help to minimize the potential fuel load and produce up to 20 times less smoke than comparable plenum rated cables they offer enhanced life-safety and electronic asset protection for facilities such as hospitals and healthcare facilities, as well as mission critical data centers and storage area networks. "Smoke is the primary issue for both time-to-exit concerns and potential electronic equipment damage," said Beni Blell, Fiber Optic Business Manager at Berk-Tek. "The key feature of the Adventum LC design is its superior fire safety performance over the current optical fiber non-conductive plenum (OFNP) rating." Berk-Tek is the first optical fiber cable manufacturer to produce an optical fiber cable that is safety listed as meeting the stringent limited combustible requirements, the company said.

Seoul January 20th Taihan Wire asks court to stop Jinro Industries take-over The battle for Jinro Industries continues as company's biggest creditor Taihan Electric Wire Co. applied for a court injunction to prevent the acquisition of Jinro Industries Co. by its rival LG Cable Ltd. "We submitted the application Tuesday to the Seoul High Court challenging the December decision by a lower court to allow LG Cable acquire Jinro Industries," said Kim Young-hwan, planning team manager of Taihan. Earlier on Jan. 6, Taihan appealed to the Seoul High Court to overturn the lower court decision in favor of LG Cable's acquisition. If LG Cable, the nation's leading cable producer, is successful in acquiring Jinro Industries, it will have more than half of the domestic wire market, restricting fair competition, another Taihan official claimed. Though LG Cable and the Taihan-led consortium were chosen as preferred bidders for Jinro Industries in August, LG Cable was selected as the prime bidder in October. LG Cable's bid price was 80 billion won (US$77.2 million). LG Cable had originally planned to complete the takeover by March through a capital reduction of Jinro Industries this month by issuing new shares and repaying debts in early March. Jinro Industries, a mid-sized cable maker, was placed under court receivership in 2003 in the wake of a debt crisis at its former parent company and the nation's largest soju producer, Jinro Co. Jinro Industries produces shipboard cables, fiber-optic cables, power cables, aluminum wire and bare copper rods. Taihan is the largest secured creditor and holds more than 70 per cent of Jinro Industries' secured debt. Taihan is the flagship of Taihan Electric Wire Group, South Korea's 29th-largest conglomerate, while LG Cable is a subsidiary of LS Group, the 15th-largest conglomerate, which changed its name from LG Cable Group Wednesday. The High Court is scheduled to pass judgment on Taihan's request after about a week, company officials said.

Seoul January 20th LG Cable to change name to LS Cable LG Cable Ltd said that it plans to change its company name to LS Cable, highlighting its separation from LG Group and stressing changes in the company's business strategy. Names of its units, including LG Industrial Systems Co, will be changed accordingly. "LS means 'leading solution,' implying the change of our business focus into being a solutions provider" rather than a device manufacturer, it said in a statement. The new company name is subject to shareholder approval at an upcoming meeting in March. LG Cable Group is the 22nd largest business group in South Korea with 16 units under its wing and combined total assets of 5.1 trln won. It separated itself from LG Group in 2003.

London January 20th Super-fast broadband over existing phone lines could effect fiber demand. The British daily The Guardian carried a story yesterday about a relatively new technology that could be disturbing news for fiber optic cable producers at a time when business had hjust started to perk up. According to The Guardian The cable companies work on video on demand, the rest of the telecommunciations industry is preparing for the arrival of the next wave of super-fast broadband services, enabling cheap calls, speedy downloading and video on demand through existing phone lines. Last Friday Britain's main broadband standards body agreed to support a new technology called ADSL2+ which can send information down BT's local network of copper wires at up to 18Mb a second - or 35 times faster than current broadband services. Similar technology has been used in France and Sweden to offer customers so-called converged communications, incorporating everything from very high-speed broadband to multi-channel TV, video on demand and free local and national phone calls. The first services using ADSL2+ could be rolled out by the end of the year, says Gavin Young, chief technology officer at Bulldog Communications, part of Cable & Wireless. "The higher speed enables you to bundle more and more services rather than just offering internet access. It will also mean that more and more people within a home will be able to simultaneously use the internet and still get broadband." The technological standard behind ADSL2+ was agreed last year but its introduction in the UK has been hampered by the fact that it interferes with another technology - VDSL. Other countries that have implemented ADSL2+ have been forced to ban VDSL.

Bangkok January 20th Thai Sahaviriya Grp Consolidates Units; Ups Steel Output The Sahaviriya Group, Thailand's leading steel maker, is consolidating companies within its group to five from 10 previously, the group's top executive said Wednesday. Chief Executive Wit Viriyaprapaikit said the group also plans to boost its downstream steel production in preparation for its planned steel smelter. He said the group aims to increase its steel plants' production capacity to meet rising demand. He added that the group among other things plans to expand its B.P. Wire Rod Ltd. unit's capacity to 800,000 tons a year in April from the current 300,000 tons a year. The unit's capacity will be raised to 2 million tons a year in the future, depending on domestic steel demand. It is expected to generate around THB40 billion-THB50 billion in revenue.The group is also considering listing Phrapradaeng Shape Steel and B.P. Wire Rod on the local bourse in 2006, Wit added. He said another unit, Bangsaphan Barmill PCL, which makes steel bars, plans to increase its capacity to 2 million tons a year in the future from the current installed capacity of 720,000 tons a year.

Celaya,Mexico January 19th Deacero's rod mill expansion project in Celaya underway Mill builder Danieli SpA has been contracted by Mexico's Deacero S.A. to carry out an expansion of the mini-mill at Celaya, to be completed by mid-2006. Danieli designed and built the greenfield operation in 1998, with an EAF melt shop, continuous caster, and two rolling mills for bar and wire rod products. No specific details on the additional capacity were released. Plans for the new melt shop call for a 120-metric ton, full-platform split-shell electric furnace; a 120-mt inert-roof ladle furnace; and a six-strand "Fast-Cast" continuous caster. The high-speed machine will cast 120-180-mm square billets in a hot-charging arrangement to the rolling mill. According to Danieli, the new caster "will embody all latest technologies for processing of commercial steel grades and provision will be made for future implementing of conticasting of higher steel grades." The rolling mill is detailed as an 18-stand arrangement plus a 10-pass high-speed finishing block, to produce 5.5 to 16-mm-diam. wire rod in coils weighing up to 3 mt. It will be a duplicate of the existing rolling mills at Celaya, with the latest advances in long-product rolling control technologies. Electrical systems and Level 2 automation will be supplied by Danieli Automation.

Manila Philippines January 19th Negros-Panay submarine power cable link project has been deferred Budgetary constraints and other financial considerations has forced National Transmission Corp. (Transco) to delay by a year the implementation of the Negros-Panay component of its P4.4-billion Cebu-Negros-Panay (CNP) interconnection project. A source privy to the matter said the Department of Energy had recommended that construction of the Negros-Panay line be shelved for a year, taking into consideration Transco's limited capital expenditure budget as well as the viability of constructing the line. Pre-construction activities, however, like right-of-way acquisitions, could already be conducted in preparation for actual construction, the source said. The CNP line was supposed to be completed by the end of this year.

Santiago Chile January 19th Copper exports hit record US$14.3billion in 2004 Chile exported a record US$1.61 billion worth of copper in December, 138% higher than same-month 2003, to end 2004 with an unprecedented US$14.3billion in copper export revenue, 91.2% higher than 2003, the country's central bank reported Monday. The unrivalled performance by Chile, the world's largest producer of the red metal, was mainly due to higher copper prices, which averaged some US$1.30/lb last year compared to US$0.807/lb in 2003 on the London Metal Exchange (LME). The result was also due to increased copper production, forecast to rise 9.4% to 5.36Mt in 2004 thanks to expansions at state copper company Codelco's operations, the giant Escondida copper mine, controlled by Melbourne-based BHP Billiton (NYSE: BHP) and Collahuasi copper mine, jointly controlled by UK's Anglo American (LSE: AAL) and Canada's Falconbridge. Chile's official copper output for 2004 will be announced on January 29 by the country's national statistics office INE.

Pittsburgh January 19th Core supplying Charter Steel annealing furnaces Core Furnace Systems been offered a turnkey contract to provide the four STC (Short Time Cycle) furnaces to Charter Steel for its coiled-wire processing center and distribution operation in Rising Sun, OH. The project will raise the total of STC furnaces at the site to eight. The installation is expected to be complete by December 2005. The 28-metric ton batch furnaces will feature endothermic gas generators, and will carry out spheroidizing and lamellar pearlitic annealing of coiled rod and wire. Core says its energy efficient furnaces offer low product variability and superior temperature uniformity. Also, Core will design and supply the control and automation systems for the installation, including Levels 1 and Level 2 controls.

Concord Ontario January 18th METAVAN breaks into North America market after only 5 months of local presence HOWAR Equipment Inc. is proud to announce its successful signing of a contract worth over $300,000 for 30" (760 mm) steel reels to a North American facility manufacturing Bead Wire. The reels are manufactured by METAVAN N.V. of Belgium (Est. 1958) who has been represented by HOWAR Equipment in North America for just 5 months. The high quality of the specially engineered Bead Wire reels have stood out from the competition, with the careful attention to detail that METAVAN employs during its special manufacturing program. Due to the specialized pressed steel reel manufacturing equipment, METAVAN is also able to provide unsurpassed lead times and quality consistency when manufacturing the reels. METAVAN manufactures a full line of shipping and process pressed steel reels for the wire and cable industry. For further details on the products available from HOWAR Equipment, phone: (905) 738-4010 or E-Mail sales@HowarEquipment.com or visit www.HowarEquipment.com

Fort Wayne Indiana January 18th - Happy days are here again - mid west rust belt gears up to meet manufacturing boom output up 4% tax breaks works as does a weak dollar. As corporate America feeds an insatiable domestic and global economy, it needs metal, motors and magnet wire. 2004 marked the return of the Rust Belt as industrial companies turned grease into greenbacks. Manufacturing output - excluding computers, communications and semiconductors - is on track to grow for the first time in three years and is expected to be up 3.8 percent in 2004 compared with the previous year, said Tom Runiewicz, a Philadelphia-based senior economist with Global Insight. "2004 was a transition year," Runiewicz said. "It was the first time in three years that we've seen some positive growth" in manufacturing output. And with manufacturing accounting for about 29 percent of northeast Indiana's workforce as of the end of 2003, it couldn't have come sooner. A trifecta of pent-up demand, tax incentives and the need for increased capacity will make 2004 "the strongest year for machine tools since 2000, with all indications for future growth in 2005," Ralph J. Nappi, president of the American Machine Tool Distributors' Association, said in a statement last week.The manufacturing sector performed better than expected last year in part because of the falling dollar, said Charalambos Aliprantis, professor of economics at Purdue University in West Lafayette.A depressed dollar made American-made products more affordable as compared with foreign-made goods, he said. Customer demand at Paragon Tube Corp. increased about 20 percent in 2004 compared with the previous year, company vice president Thomas Carter said. The Fort Wayne-based tube manufacturer, employs about 22. The steel tubes are used in the automotive, agricultural and other markets.

Paris January 18th Steel output to set record in 2005 OECD forecasts. Worldwide steel output, powered by robust Chinese economic momentum, is expected to hit a new record this year, but the dizzying surge in prices seen in 2004 should eventually spark resistance from consumers, the OECD has predicted. After breaking through the one-billion-ton barrier in 2004, production is projected to rise by about five percent in 2005 and 3.5 percent in 2006, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. Output last year came to 1.05 billion tons, up 8.7 percent from 2003. China was responsible for more than a quarter or 26 percent of the 2004 total. While steel prices are expected to edge still higher in the first half of 2005, "they will then stabilize and in some cases undergo a readjustment," said Franco Mannato, a steel economist at the OECD. "We can't have an infinite increase in prices," he said. "Steel after all is one of the most important base materials in the world and price increases have repercussions everywhere. We have to realize that at a certain moment steel producers ... will have to limit the increases." Economists are meanwhile predicting that the currently fragmented global steel industry should see further consolidation in the years to come similar to movements that produced such giants as Arcelor in 2002 and Mittal in 2004. At an OECD conference here last week, World Steel Dynamics produced a list of 45 potential takeover targets in the sector as well as 11 possible buyers. The list represents 60 percent of world steel output. The 11 potential buyers are world leader Mittal Steel, the European-based Arcelor, Nippon Steel and JFE of Japan, POSCO of South Korea, BaoSteel of China, Nucor, US Steel and Commercial Metals of the United States, Severstal of Russia and the Brazilian-US-Canadian firm Gerdau. Among the 45 targets are heavyweights such as Corus of Britain, ThyssenKrupp of Germany, Riva of Italy and Sumitomo Metals of Japan. "This forecast of possible combinations, of course, is highly theoretical and speculative," the study said.

Concord Connecticut January 18th Former Tyco executives on trial for grand larceny. As Tyco International's former bosses head back to trial in New York on charges they looted the company, the federal court in Concord is sorting through a wave of civil lawsuits from former employees and investors that could swamp the court for years. Former CEO Dennis Kozlowski and former chief financial officer Mark Swartz are headed to trial today, January 18th, on grand larceny counts alleging they looted $600 million from the company. Their first trial ended in a mistrial in May after a juror received a menacing letter.In Concord, many lawsuits deal with alleged wrongdoing by executives who ran key Tyco operations in Exeter and other Seacoast communities. One case, Rosemarie Strumpf v. Neil R. Garvey, et al., was brought on behalf of individuals who lost millions buying stock in TyCom Ltd., a Tyco subsidiary that grew out of a merger between Simplex Wire and Cable in Newington and AT&T Submarine, a cable-laying operation based in New Jersey.

Rio de Janeiro January 18th Brazilian Aluminum output hits record 1.46Mt in 2004. Brazil's aluminum production increased 5.6% in 2004 to 1.457Mt, the highest on record, local aluminum association Abal reported. Domestic consumption of manufactured aluminum products rose an estimated 10.7% to 737,500t last year, according to Abal's preliminary data. Final results will be available later this year. "Aluminum producers worked at maximum capacity this past year, which allowed the export and domestic markets to grow," Luis Carlos Loureiro, director of economic statistics at Abal, told BNamericas. Brazilian manufacturers exported 1Mt of aluminum products worth US$2.7bn last year, the association said. Strong growth should continue in 2005, Loureiro said. The outlook for 2005 puts overall aluminum production at 1.49Mt, with domestic consumption of 840,000t, he said.

Cartage Missouri January 18th Interesting rod mill technology introduced at former Northwestern Steel & Wire. Sterling Steel Co. LLC, a Leggett & Platt subsidiary, ordered Danieli's EWR-Endless Welding Rolling technology for its 12-in. rod mill in Sterling, IL. It will be the first EWR installation in the U.S. and the 13th installed worldwide. Start-up is expected late this year. Situated between the reheat furnace and the first rolling stand, the EWR flash-welds billets head-to-tail to allow Sterling to roll material without interruption, improving plant productivity, efficiency, material yield and production costs. The new Sterling Steel EWR line will be designed for automatic continuous welding of 130x130 mm, 11-m-long billets at rates of up to 100 tond/hour, for low, medium and high carbon spring steels. The order also calls for a new shear to be installed at the coil reforming station to divide the wire rod into finished coil weights. "The billet-welding process is particularly beneficial in wire rod mills," Danieli notes, "as it enables production of 'customized-weight' coils, granting higher product marketability. Extra-heavy coils can be produced, even starting from relatively low billet weights." As earlier reported Sterling Steel operates the former Northwestern Steel & Wire plant in Sterling, IL.

Beijing January 17th China needs 1.5 million tons of specialty steel rod in 2005 A preliminary forecast shows that in 2005, China's total demand for special rod steel will be 1.5 million tons; special wire steel, 5.5 million tons; special plate steel, 5 million tons; and seamless tubes, 400,000 tons. According to Secretary-General Hu Mingxiang of China Association of Special Steel Enterprises, the country's iron and steel industry will enter a stable development period in 2005, but the special steel sector will develop at a faster pace in the year. Hu holds the view that the performance of special steel enterprise in 2005 will be featured by high production costs, high prices and a limited space for profit due to the scant supply of raw materials such as waste steel, pig iron and ferroalloys. The demand for special rod steel in 2005 will include 5.2 million tons of steel alloy structure steel, 1.5 million tons of steel for gears, 1.6 million tons of steel for bearings, 1.3 million tons of stainless steel and 400,000 tons of alloy steel for springs. It is predicted that of quality special steel produced domestically, low-end products will be balanced in supply and demand or a little bit oversupplied, while high-end products will be in scant supply. The production of value added special steel products or those with hi-tech content and the export of special steel will also see a rapid growth in 2005. According to Hu, the automobile, diesel engine, engineering machinery, power generation and bridge sectors will have a strong demand for special steel in 2005 and the consumption of special steel by these sectors will be greatly increased. However, Hu noted that there is no obvious sign that the production capacity of special steel, especially high-end products, will be expanded in the country in the year.

Orangeburg, SC January 17th Carpenter Technology Raises Prices on Specialty Wire Products The Specialty Alloys Operations unit of Carpenter Technology Corporation has announced that it will increase base prices 7-13 percent on all premium-melted alloys in all product forms, effective immediately on all new orders. Carpenter said that demand continues to be extremely strong in markets that utilize its premium melted products. Price increases are necessary to recover increased costs associated with raw materials, supplies and energy. Furthermore, Carpenter Specialty Wire Products, a business unit of Carpenter Technology Corporation, announced that it will increase transactional prices by 9 - 12 percent on all products for orders booked on or after January 17, 2005. CSWP said that the price increases are in response to higher demand for its products, as well as increases in operational costs. Raw material surcharges will remain in effect.

Tokyo January 17th Sumitomo Electric establish 2 wire harness facilities in China Sumitomo Electric Industries Ltd. has established two new production sites for wire harnesses in China. One site is located in Huizhou, Guangdong Province, and the other is in Wuhan, Hubei Province. The Huizhou plant is slated to begin operating in January 2006 with 450 employees, while the Wuhan factory is set to be launched in November with a staff of about 400.The facilities will supply products to the local joint ventures of Toyota Motor Corp. and Honda Motor Co. The plants will be operated by newly founded local manufacturing firms, each of which are 60 per cent owned by Sumitomo Electric Industries and 40 per cent owned by its subsidiary, Sumitomo Wiring Systems Ltd. The Huizhou company is capitalized at US$5 million, and the capitalization for the Wuhan operation totals US$4 million.

Amsterdam January 16th Mittal Steel debuts Chinese market Mittal Steel has gained an entry in the industry's hottest market through the $314 million purchase of a stake in China's eighth largest player, wire services announced Friday. The deal, announced that awaits regulatory approval and could give billionaire Lakshmi Mittal access to China's south, away from regions dominated by Chinese firm Baosteel, which commands a tenth of the market. Other global giants, from Posco to Arcelor, have been keen to expand their businesses in China, which accounts for a fifth of the world's steel output and a quarter of its consumption. Mittal agreed to buy a 37.17 per cent stake, or 656.25 million institutional shares, in Hunan Valin Steel Tube & Wire Co. Ltd., which holds most of the production assets of state-run parent Valin Iron & Steel Group. Mittal's offer - at 3.96 yuan a share - represents a discount of 13 per cent to listed Valin's traded shares. Its yuan-denominated A shares - open to select foreign investors - had jumped 6 per cent this week to close at 4.54 yuan on January 13. Trading was suspended on January 14. It provides us with our first production platform in the world's fastest growing steel market. After the purchase, Valin Group would also own 37.17 per cent of Valin Tube & Wire

London January 16 Europeans get left behind in African development. The past year has seen China, the Middle East and Asia picking up the slack after the Soviet Union and the Europeans threw in their towel in despair after billions of development aid had been wasted during the past half century since independence from Colonial rule. U.N. the World Bank IMF and various national export development agencies has disperse funds that has ended up up in the pockets of corrupt local politicians, with little or no tangible effect on the living conditions among the general population of this continent, so rich in natural resources. China now is looking seriously into helping Zimbabwe to get its resource industry going - Lakshmi Mittal's Ispat is lending a helping hand to Nigeria's ill-fated Ajaokuta Steel Company Tehran and Dakar on Saturday signed a joint statement and four cooperation agreements paving the ground for expansion of mutual ties. The agreements include a memorandum of understanding (MoU) providing for Iranian participation in Sengal`s development projects, one on cooperation in the mines sector, another on construction of a Samand automobile production line in Dakar and a contract with a bank for a 24-mln-euro credit to fund a power transmission project. The contract providing for a 24-million-euro power transmission line was signed between the managing director of Iran`s Export Development Bank, Norouz Kehzadi, and the head of Senegal`s National Electrical Company.

Editor's 2005 forecast use this link

Our summary of news that occurred during the Christmas & New Year Holidays
December 16 2004 - January 15 2005