31.07.2008 - Teck strikes $14B coal deal
From thestar.com: As the zinc market continues to tarnish, Vancouver's Teck Cominco Ltd. is staking a bigger claim in the metallurgical coal business through a friendly $14 billion (U.S.) bid for the Fording Canadian Coal Trust that would make it the top exporter of the steelmaking commodity in North America. The proposed deal gives Teck – a highly diversified miner with interests in everything from base metals to gold and the oil sands – full control of the world's second-largest seller of sea-borne metallurgical coal at a time when coal prices are skyrocketing, with heavy demand from steelmakers in Asia, South America and Europe. Once the world's largest zinc producer, Teck is trying to cut its exposure to the metal after prices plunged 46 per cent in the past year on excess supply, while coal prices have more than doubled. "It makes sense for them. They're basically moving into one of the commodities that has a strong near-term outlook and away from zinc, for which the outlook is not positive," said mining analyst Haytham Hodaly of Salman Partners in Vancouver......Full Article Source
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