27 avril 2007
Risk Alert for Copper & Iron Core
Since Begining of 2007, raw material price began to increase again!
Copper: Major threats to supply
1) Exceptionnally heavying buying in China (first quarter of 2007)
2) Brisk demande growth in Brazil, Russia and India
3) Mining & Smelling troubles in Chili, Indonesia & Agentina
Prices could hit $3,85 by mid summer
Iron Ore
Iron Ore inflation will keep steel pricey in 2008 arrive 10% in 2008 $92, in 2009 $95
Risk Alert: Miner are not catching up with demande as expected (China & India)
Iron Ore may stay at records height through 2013
Making China your second home market: An interview with the CEO of Danfoss
* In an interview, Danfoss CEO Jørgen M. Clausen discusses the challenges of making China this industrial-control company's "second home market."
* After glimpsing Greater China's many business opportunities on a journey through the old Silk Road, Clausen launched a strategy to achieve market shares similar to those Danfoss holds in Europe.
* Establishing R&D centers in China and acquiring local companies, Clausen says, is the way to address the key challenge: widening the company's product range to include products designed for the huge mass market. * Clausen explains that Danfoss aggressively protects its intellectual property, lobbies government officials tirelessly, and trains Chinese managers to speak their minds.
This article includes the following exhibit:
* Biography of Danfoss's Jørgen M. Clausen
23 avril 2007
Valeo research program for emissions reduction to receive significant funding from French Industrial Innovation Agency
Paris, France, March 5, 2007 - Valeo today announced that the French Industrial Innovation Agency (Agence de l’Innovation Industrielle, AII) has agreed to provide 61 million euros in funding for its research program LOwCO2MOTION™, which aims to improve vehicle engine efficiency and contribute to reducing CO2 emissions.
Thierry Morin, Valeo Chairman & CEO, commented: “This funding recognizes the value of the work that Valeo engineers have been undertaking in this field for several years and will allow us to offer the market new solutions that can provide up to 30% fuel savings with a significant reduction in CO2 and pollutant emissions.”
The program focuses on two major innovations. The first is the camless system, in which the camshaft in engines is replaced by electromagnetic actuators that operate each valve independently. By controlling residual gases, minimizing pumping losses and deactivating cylinders and valves, this technology reduces fuel consumption and pollutant emissions by 20% for gasoline engines. It also provides enhanced performance and driving comfort due to an increase in low-end engine torque. A version for diesel engines will also be developed.
The second major innovation, totally compatible with the camless system, is a next-generation mild hybrid based on Valeo’s StARS+X technology. In addition to the Start-Stop function which cuts off the engine when the vehicle is at a standstill, this system features a regenerative braking function, where energy generated during braking is recovered. The program includes the development of a new high-efficiency, high-power alternator technology as well as ultracapacitors, enabling a 10 to 15 % reduction in fuel consumption. These innovations will be enabled by new mechatronic technologies which are also part of the program
The LOwCO2MOTION™ program represents a total investment of 212 million euros over a four-year period. The AII funding is subject to the approval of the European Commission.
For more information, contact:
Remy Dumoulin
Investor Relations Director
Tel.: +33 1 40 55 29 30
Kate Philipps
Communications Director
Tel.: +33 1 40 55 20 65
21 avril 2007
Polo, Small but Tough
050508polo
Vidéo envoyée par YaleLIAO
20 avril 2007
HRB spot steel price rise continues mixed
SteelBenchmarker™ reported that the U.S. hot-rolled band (HRB) spot price for March 26 rose 1.8 percent to $622 per ton, FOB the mill for the fourth consecutive rise. The world export HRB price rose 2.2 percent to $596 per ton, FOB the port of export, for the seventh consecutive rise. The Chinese HRB ex-works price slipped 1.8 percent to $432 per ton, for the second consecutive time. The Western European HRB price rose 2.1 percent to $674 per ton, ex-works, for the eighth time.
The four benchmark prices for hot-rolled band included in the March 26 report are:
U.S.—$622 per metric ton, FOB the mill—up $11 per ton from $611 two weeks ago but down $76 per ton from the peak of $698 on July 24, 2006.
World Export Price—$596 per metric ton, FOB the port of export—up $13 per ton from $583 two weeks ago but still down $14 per ton from the peak of $610 on June 12, 2006.
Western Europe— $674 per metric ton, ex-works—up $14 per ton from $660 two weeks ago and topping by $43 per ton the previous peak of $631 on July 24, 2006.
China— $432 per metric ton, ex-works—down $8 per ton from $440 two weeks ago and down $32 per ton from the peak of $464 on June 12, 2006.
Twice each month, SteelBenchmarker publishes steel benchmark prices for hot-rolled band, cold-rolled coil, rebar, and standard plate in the U.S., Western Europe, mainland China, and the world export market.
19 avril 2007
Manufacturing gets in gear
By Maria Varmazis
Purchasing
April 5, 2007
Bosch and Timken team up for improved steel
Over the next two years, Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Spansion, currently the largest global supplier of NOR flash, will roll out a roadmap to reorganize operations and speed up information transfer along the supply chain. While still in the implementation stage of this rollout, executive vice president of operations Jose Mejia, and vice president of supply chain management Wilhelm Sterlin, both say that getting their manufacturers integrated in supply chain operations is a big part of Spansion’s operational overhaul that will take place in the next two years.
“We are revving up the ability of the manufacturing organization to move faster in providing supplies,” says Sterlin. “We’re connecting our applications areas with our final manufacturing organizations as well as connecting procurement in a much tighter manner with the needs of the manufacturing engines.” Sterlin and Mejia say this paradigm shift is all part of an effort to change the perception of the semiconductor fab as a time sink that the entire supply chain has to “plan around.”
With a wide global supply and customer base, Mejia believes increased communication between semiconductor fabrication nodes will allow for decreased leadtimes and greater flexibility in project prioritization. Part of the plan to get these nodes to exchange production information more quickly uses technology to the best possible advantage. Spansion is rolling out E2Open software, which will provide work-in-progress tracking as well as finished goods inventory. “Spansion expects to gain significant process efficiencies from implementing an integrated inventory management system across Spansion’s internal and external supply chain,” says vice president of business process integration Michael Lipsey.
Changes in the supply chain communications won’t just affect collaboration at the manufacturing level, but it’s one of the areas where the changes will have some of the greatest impact. Mejia says given the fluctuations in product demand for semiconductors, it’s a long-term cost-savings effort to get information to manufacturers more quickly so they can be more responsive to demand variations.
“The faster that information is sent the faster the collaboration takes place around where we should prioritize material or what kind of devices we might need,” says Mejia. “You need to have an infrastructure that can respond quickly, and the only way to get that is to allow my fabs to know what’s going on out in the field in a matter of minutes rather than days, weeks, or months later.”
Increasing flexibility and responsiveness in the supply chain is not a new strategy, says supply chain management vice president Sterlin, and leveraging new software is just one part of the two-year program Spansion is rolling out. The general roadmap is still in the fundamental stages, but Sterlin says it involves keeping his suppliers as close by as possible. Some of his global suppliers have offices in the same building, which aids in fast and regular collaborations. “I want to have my vendors at my fingertips. I’ll make sure they’re very close by,” says Sterlin.
Spansion steps up response times
over the next two years, Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Spansion, currently the largest global supplier of NOR flash, will roll out a roadmap to reorganize operations and speed up information transfer along the supply chain. While still in the implementation stage of this rollout, executive vice president of operations Jose Mejia, and vice president of supply chain management Wilhelm Sterlin, both say that getting their manufacturers integrated in supply chain operations is a big part of Spansion’s operational overhaul that will take place in the next two years.
“We are revving up the ability of the manufacturing organization to move faster in providing supplies,” says Sterlin. “We’re connecting our applications areas with our final manufacturing organizations as well as connecting procurement in a much tighter manner with the needs of the manufacturing engines.” Sterlin and Mejia say this paradigm shift is all part of an effort to change the perception of the semiconductor fab as a time sink that the entire supply chain has to “plan around.”
With a wide global supply and customer base, Mejia believes increased communication between semiconductor fabrication nodes will allow for decreased leadtimes and greater flexibility in project prioritization. Part of the plan to get these nodes to exchange production information more quickly uses technology to the best possible advantage. Spansion is rolling out E2Open software, which will provide work-in-progress tracking as well as finished goods inventory. “Spansion expects to gain significant process efficiencies from implementing an integrated inventory management system across Spansion’s internal and external supply chain,” says vice president of business process integration Michael Lipsey.
Changes in the supply chain communications won’t just affect collaboration at the manufacturing level, but it’s one of the areas where the changes will have some of the greatest impact. Mejia says given the fluctuations in product demand for semiconductors, it’s a long-term cost-savings effort to get information to manufacturers more quickly so they can be more responsive to demand variations.
“The faster that information is sent the faster the collaboration takes place around where we should prioritize material or what kind of devices we might need,” says Mejia. “You need to have an infrastructure that can respond quickly, and the only way to get that is to allow my fabs to know what’s going on out in the field in a matter of minutes rather than days, weeks, or months later.”
Increasing flexibility and responsiveness in the supply chain is not a new strategy, says supply chain management vice president Sterlin, and leveraging new software is just one part of the two-year program Spansion is rolling out. The general roadmap is still in the fundamental stages, but Sterlin says it involves keeping his suppliers as close by as possible. Some of his global suppliers have offices in the same building, which aids in fast and regular collaborations. “I want to have my vendors at my fingertips. I’ll make sure they’re very close by,” says Sterlin.
On paper it all looked good. Automotive supplier Robert Bosch North America was developing a fuel injector system for diesel engines and, as part of that process needed to machine steel for the part. Bosch wrote a spec for the low-alloy steel and steel supplier Timken Co. provided the steel as requested.
But it didn't work. The hot-rolled annealed steel was difficult to machine at the Bosch plant in Charleston, S.C., and was creating excessive metal buildup on the edges of the tool, impacting quality of the final product.
"Our specification was drawn up based on what appeared to be acceptable both from a machining and performance standpoint," says Wilt Staples, purchasing engineering at Bosch. "But as time went on, when the product was introduced to the higher volumes and higher speed machines and other equipment changes, it became apparent that our specification was too broad. Problems developed in machining."
The problems puzzled the supplier, Timken just as much as Bosch's team. "We were producing a soft annealed material for Bosch and we couldn't understand why they were having trouble machining it," recalls Dave Henderson, a metallurgical engineer with Timken. "But that's where the close relationship between buyer and supplier comes in. It's sometimes difficult to capture it all in the specification—they're difficult to write and interpret."
Rather than go back out to the market to put the project out to bid, Bosch focused on a deeper collaboration with Timken to help solve the problem. Staples presented the problem first to a team at Timken's plant in Canton, Ohio. Timken then assembled a team that visited Bosch's facility in Charleston to watch the process and ask a lot of questions.
A machine expert in Timken's technical services group helped determine that it was the high surface-to-core hardness gradient that made it difficult to machine. Timken actually needed to increase the hardness of this material to help Bosch improve its machining because it could be machined at a lower temperature, Henderson says. "Usually, you think if it's softer you can machine it better. We needed to increase the hardness to improve the machinability in this case. So that meant we had to change the process."
Timken presented Bosch with a product created through a hot-rolled temper process, which would produce steel that would machine more effectively during Bosch's heat-treatment process.
From there, a sample was developed and tested extensively in Bosch's production process. Staples and a team from Bosch visited Timken several times and vice versa. "The personal interactions and being able to see the processes at the other side is very important to developing ideas and strategies," says Henderson.
But before giving it the final green light, Bosch conferred with its primary customer on the project to ensure the new process and the end-product would meet their needs.
"Timken worked with us very closely through the entire process," Staples says. "The key to this project was their taking the time to understand our situation and our taking the time to explain in detail what our issue was and what we needed to achieve. There is rarely going to be a perfect relationship. To be able to make adjustments requires give and take on both ends. Sometimes it's a learning experience—we don't always have the best ideas."
—David Hannon
InStron emphasizes collaboration
When it came time to redesign a product at Norwood, Mass.-based InStron, Global Procurement Director Tom Murphy knew he had to pull all his available resources together to come up with the best solution. This meant purchasing sat down with both design engineers as well as external manufacturers to collaborate on all the details.
"We have a handset that controls the end product, and that's built by a contract manufacturer," says Murphy. "We're involving them with the design decisions of which switches we might use, how we might design the printed circuit boards and the skins. They're in there from start to finish."
This tactic of getting manufacturers involved in planning pays dividends. Murphy says the process allows for manufacturers and design engineers to give him the most cost-effective solution to a design issue, while the contract manufacturers improve their customer relationships and design engineers keep the product to specifications. If in-house manufacturers are making the product, they too are brought in to collaboration meetings. It's all part of the development process at InStron, which changed about four years ago, to make sure "the design is as good as it can be getting out of the gate," Murphy says.
When a product requirement comes in, Murphy calls the meeting with design and manufacturing to get the collaboration started as early as possible. If the manufacturer cannot make the product, purchasing knows ahead of time, avoiding later surprises. Most of the time, however, the meetings confirm that the manufacturer can make what engineering needs.
For the handset, purchasing, engineering and manufacturing are about halfway through their planning process for a new product. But already they've decided to change the switch technology and plastics in the component as well as add an organic LED display—all at the same cost as the old version.
It can take a bit of juggling to get all involved coordinated enough to come together to discuss design plans, even when the work is being done internally. And not everyone sees eye to eye when it comes time to critique design plans.
Despite the difficulties working together can bring to product design reviews, Murphy believes the change in corporate mindset from isolation to collaboration is worth it. "In the old days what used to happen is engineering would just design the parts, throw them over the fence and we would have to deal with it, and that doesn't happen here anymore," he says.
Precious metals prices could see cyclical peaks this year
UBS securities analyst John Reade is forecasting higher average prices for all five precious metals in 2007. In fact, he expects new cyclical highs—and in some cases all-time highs—for all five. In his scenario, he sees gold averaging $700/troy ounce, silver at $14, platinum at $1,225, palladium at $350 and rhodium at $5,500.
Reade says precious metals tend to move higher collectively, driven by investment liquidity and physical scarcity, but also by the rate of global economic growth, the value of the dollar and the cost of crude oil. "Institutional investment into commodities—what we have called the Wall of Money—has been a key factor in lifting metal prices to the highs seen in 2006," says Reade. "Although it is hard to quantify, we suspect there will be less net new money entering commodities in 2007." Still, chief economist Larry Hatheway at UBS Investment Bank doesn't expect a wholesale exit from commodities in general, or precious metals in particular.
One of the characteristics of the strong metal performance between the third quarter of 2005 and the second quarter of 2006 was heavy participation from such leveraged investors as the hedge funds. "In contrast, these investors were much less involved in the precious metals market since May 2006," says Reade, "and even less so after September when the slump in oil triggered weakness in gold and the other precious metals." He suggests that the extent to which these investors return to precious metals this year will be an important determinant as to whether these markets will be exciting or dull (for traders and investors).
Global economic growth is clearly slowing, Reade suggests in his outlook report, with the main contributors to the slowdown being decelerating U.S. economic activity and a slight softening of the rampant Chinese economy. UBS Securities has lower than consensus forecasts for global growth and sees end-2007 growth at below-trend before recovering, he says. Importantly, however, growth in basic materials and commodity intensive economies should remain strong and supportive of metals demand.
"Growth is important for the outlook for precious metals in 2007 although mostly indirectly as these metals are driven more by investment flows than by fundamental demand," says Reade. And where fundamental demand is more important, precious metals will be supported by strong growth in important jewelry markets such as India, China and other developing markets in Asia and the Middle East. "Environmental demand will help platinum group metals demand, as ever-tightening auto emission standards will require greater platinum usage."
| Gold | Silver | Platinum | Palladium | Rhodium | |
| 2005 | 604 | 11.55 | 1142 | 320 | 2026 |
| 2006 | 604 | 11.09 | 1145 | 317 | 4498 |
| 2007/F* | 700 | 14.00 | 1225 | 350 | 5500 |
| Source: Purchasingdata.com; *Forecast: UBS Securities | |||||
Alloying and Plating Metals : Buyers will pay even more than they planned in 2007
By Tom Stundza
Purchasing
March 1, 2007
"Price containment has been a challenge," a senior buyer of nonferrous metals reports from Florida. "The upward pressure is growing."
He's correct, according to market analysts, who have changed their minds and now see transaction prices for nickel, zinc, tin and lead increasing to new annual average highs in 2007. Reason: Expectations of supplies creating market surpluses are being toned down until at least 2008.
The metals mavens say that global economic activity is likely to remain brisk in 2007 despite some cyclical headwinds in North America and Europe. That will maintain growth in demand for stainless and specialty steels used in machinery and construction and coated carbon and alloy steel used in consumer goods and commercial products. And then there's China. After four years of double-digit growth, the economic forecasters now expect China's growth to cool slightly just below 10%. Still, that will be enough to keep global nonferrous demand and prices elevated.
Rising inventories at the various commodity exchanges late last year convinced many analysts that global demand had slowed sharply in the fourth quarter, setting the stage for their 2007 forecasts of supply growing and prices heading for decline. But, as the new calendar year started, threats of supply disruptions from labor strife in Canada, Indonesia, Australia and elsewhere rekindled sourcing worries and triggered stronger-than-expected prices for zinc, nickel, and tin.
Analysts now suggest that world nickel, tin, and zinc supplies could stay quite tight through midyear. "That's why nickel and tin, especially, have been setting fresh price highs lately," says analyst William Adams at BaseMetals.com. "Ongoing concerns over supply seem to be the main driving force in pricing of these two metals."
A report authored by the Global Nonferrous Group of analysts at Merrill Lynch & Co. also projects that nickel and zinc demand growth could outpace the expected supply expansions for these metals.
 Earlier forecasts of price slippage for key nonferrous metals have been tossed aside. Supply now looks to be outpaced by demand for at least another year. |
Base metals prices rose sharply on the London Metal Exchange (LME) in January, and then fell sharply in early February. Although still high, early first quarter prices of the alloying and plating metals have been erratic—reacting downward to economic reports of weakened manufacturing or reacting upward to the reports of de-stocking at warehouses. "There seems to have been good levels of trader and investor buying underpinning the market," says Adams, "but the end-use buyers appear to have been in no hurry to chase even-higher prices."
It's not that buyers ever want to pay higher prices but the nonferrous pricing spike of 2006 generally was unexpected. That's why the global materials manager for a tire maker in Ohio is especially upset that the price of zinc, which averaged $2.04/lb the fourth quarter, was twice the $1.02 cost of the first quarter of last year and better than three times the 64¢ cost of 2005. The purchasing manager for a car key manufacturer in Georgia also is peeved about zinc deliveries, but not the price (which slipped to $1.72 in January).
About 75% of the zinc alloying and coating metal used nationally is imported and "deliveries are becoming a big problem," he says, "since the leadtimes from offshore have become long." A buyer at an auto parts manufacturer in South Carolina agrees that "buying from foreign suppliers can be difficult, because they do not give the same type of customer service and as a result the leadtimes of materials are horrible."
U.S. geological survey commodity reports note that 55% of the total zinc consumed in the U.S. is used in galvanizing, 21% in zinc-based alloys for die casting, 16% in brass and bronze smelting and 8% in myriad other applications. That's pretty much the ratios offshore as well, where global zinc consumption grew by almost 4% even though North American and European use slipped from 2005 volume.
Slowing economic growth and high zinc prices are reducing zinc consumption in the U.S. This is evident from galvanized steel production cutbacks in response to slower growth in the construction sector and a weak automotive sector. Still, strong U.S. non-residential construction is more zinc-intensive than is home-building. However, worldwide, zinc prices are likely to push higher in 2007 from the February pricing of around $1.50/lb, as supplies are likely to remain tight. It is believed that the world zinc market recorded a supply deficit of 500,000 metric tons in 2006.
| World stainless steel prices are 95% higher than a year ago. What’s behind the price hikes? The continued rise in the price of nickel, chrome and cobalt alloys that make stainless corrosion resistant; nickel alone is selling for 177% more than a year ago. |
"Overall, robust demand growth in China has been the driving factor behind the increase in 2006 and early 2007 consumption," says analyst Daniel Brebner at UBS Securities' London office. "Besides, the U.S. now has only a limited impact on overall zinc demand (since) China's share of global zinc consumption is 2.6 times bigger than that of the U.S."
Also bullish on zinc is Patricia Mohr, a vice president and commodity market research economist at Scotiabank in Toronto, who says that with global consumption surpassing supplies, "zinc prices are likely to stay high in the first half of 2007, before significant mine expansion begins to trim prices in late 2007 and 2008." Brebner agrees that "strong demand growth, supply shortfalls and falling stocks have prompted market tightness, which will continue to translate into price strength in 2007—with a peak in the first half of the year supported by stocks at historical lows."
Although refined consumption growth in 2007 will be softer than that in 2006, stocks have been drawn down to such low levels that the global refined market is now heavily dependent on China being able to significantly increase its exports of refined zinc to satisfy global demand for metal, says an analysis by Brook Hunt & Associates in London. Demand will ease as a result of high prices, eventually, but a market surplus won't become apparent until 2008, says Helen Henton, head of commodity research at Standard Chartered Bank in Johannesburg, South Africa.
World stainless steel prices are 95% higher than a year ago. What's behind the price hikes? The continued rise in the price of nickel, chrome and cobalt alloys that make stainless corrosion resistant; nickel alone is selling for 177% more than a year ago. That's partly because world nickel mine production was at an all-time high in 2006, but didn't keep up with demand. Austenitic (nickel-bearing) stainless steel accounts for two-thirds of global primary nickel use. Stainless steel production accelerated and remained strong during the second half of 2006 to reach almost 28 million metric tons in 2006, a rise of 15% from 2005, according to the International Stainless Steel Forum.
Strong nickel consumption growth is forecast this year and next, because of continued robust growth in global output of stainless steel—and expanded output of superalloys. When combined with reasonably constricted supply growth, the market is projected to continue the growth in already record-high nickel prices.
Mohr says that "China's enormous growth in stainless steel production is likely to continue in 2007 by a projected 35%." Of the 32 commodities covered in Scotiabank's commodity pricing index, "nickel was the top performing commodity in 2006—climbing an extraordinary 159% over the past year." Mohr forecasts that "a super-cycle is expected in nickel, with prices staying strong through 2008."
U.S. Geological Survey commodity analyst Peter Kuck says that mergers and acquisitions have completely changed the structure of the global nickel industry since 2004—and trigger concern among buyers that global demand for the metal will outstrip supply long before key, new mining projects can be completed.
A tight nickel market is in prospect until 2009, agree other analysts, who point to start-up delays at new mining/smelting operations at Ravensthorpe in Australia and Goro in New Caledonia. Several other companies are having startup issues with various forms of acid leach technology to recover nickel at greenfield sites in Cuba, Guatemala, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Turkey, and the Philippines.
That's why the Brook Hunt analysis projects a deficit nickel market in 2007–2008, keeping prices at a peak in 2007—with only some moderation anticipated from 2008 onwards. By then, Kuck of the Geological Survey says five automobile manufacturers plan to boost nickel demand in the manufacture of nickel-metal hydride (NiMH) batteries to power their gasoline-electric hybrid vehicles for the 2008 and 2009 model years.
| Nickel | Zinc | Tin | Lead | |
| 2000 | 392 | 51 | 247 | 21 |
| 2001 | 294 | 43 | 205 | 22 |
| 2002 | 338 | 39 | 203 | 23 |
| 2003 | 437 | 38 | 222 | 23 |
| 2004 | 628 | 48 | 386 | 40 |
| 2005 | 666 | 64 | 335 | 44 |
| 2006 | 1102 | 148 | 397 | 58 |
| 2007/F* | 1360 | 170 | 401 | 59 |
| Source: London Metal Exchange, *Forecast: Consensus | ||||
Early 2007 price scenario for key alloying and plating metals is rather bullish with some, like nickel, trading in the first quarter well above consensus expectations for the year.
Steel prices are increasing briskly
By Tom Stundza
Purchasing
April 18, 2007
Sheet steel prices have moved upward from $508/ton in February and probably will be around $600 June—which won’t be as high as the $640/ton the mills have targeted. 
The analysts have been forecasting as high as $600 in May based on what Aldo Mazzaferro of Goldman Sachs in New York pins to “short supply, rising global prices and a lack of imports.” Actually, he and other analysts suggested that April transactions on hot-rolled steel sheet would fall within a wide range of $540 to $580 per ton and elevate to a span of $580 to $600 in May. In contrast, Purchasingdata.com projected a sales-price average at $555 in April, rising to $580 in May.
In reality, the average calculated for April deliveries in the latest survey of buyers at manufacturing plants and processing distributors is $555 as higher scrap prices indeed are pushing steel prices upward. However, early buys for deliveries in May have averaged $590/ton, or $10 over the original Purchasingdata.com estimate.
The sales prices for April and May may have been skewed somewhat by a thin market. North American demand has been anemic all year and many end-user and service center buyers have remained on the sidelines with more than enough inventory. “Second quarter demand remains soft in the timeframe that typically is the year's strongest quarter,” says analyst Timna Tanners at UBS Securities in New York. And, given soft market conditions, she writes in a note to clients, “many buyers may believe the recent rebound for hot-rolled coil pricing is undeserved.”
Still, higher offshore prices—averaging $600 in Europe—continue to discourage imports into the U.S. market. “Demand in other global regions is very strong, and there are higher prices there compared to the US market,” says Mazzaferro. “Those are the major reasons for the import-supply reductions in the U.S.”
16 avril 2007
New Chinese Brand Debuts at Geneva Auto Show
As if China didn't have enough car brands, over a hundred, competing for buyers, there is a new brand that debuted at the Geneva Auto Show...the Huachen.
Huachen is made by Brilliance from Auto China and marks the first time a Chinese automaker has attended an international exhibition outside of China.
Detroit, Tokyo, Frankfurt and Paris or next.
Would you buy a car "made in China?" Or is it too soon?