| A handful of companies that have dominated almost every kind of raw-material business in Japan for decades may take as much as $13 billion in charges during the current fiscal year. The global commodity slump is squeezing the “sogo shosha,” or general trading houses like Mitsubishi Corp. that supply everything from gasoline and steel to seafood and noodles in resource-poor Japan.
They invested in metals and energy only to see prices fall. Already, Sumitomo Corp. has taken a $650 million writedown at a nickel project in Madagascar. Its rivals will probably report impairments as soon as this week, says Goldman Sachs Group Inc...............................................Full Article: Source
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