Quick Steel News Roundup

China is now a net exporter of steel

BEIJING (AFX) - Output of steel and steel products in China reached a new record last year on overcapacity, while imports dropped dramatically, Morgan Stanley said. 'With rapid capacity expansion in flat products by Chinese mills, we have seen two major trends in 2005 -- accelerating steel production and a continued dramatic decline in net imports,' Morgan Stanley said in a research note. December crude steel output reached 32 mln tons with full-year crude steel output up 29 pct year-on-year to a record high of 348 mln tons, while finished steel production last year surged 38 pct to 369 mln tons, Morgan Stanley said.
The brokerage added that if semi-finished steel products were included, China already became a net exporter of 458,000 tons in 2005.
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Dofasco Bidding war nearing the end

The bidding war between Europe's two biggest steel groups, Arcelor and ThyssenKrupp, for Dofasco, a mid-sized Canadian steelmaker, draws to the end. Thyssen, based in Düsseldorf and the world's 10th-largest steel group, has until 7am tomorrow to decide whether to match or surpass Luxembourg-based Arcelor's C$71 a share offer, which values Dofasco at nearly £3bn. "The ball is on the other side of the Rhine," sources said in Luxembourg at the weekend, increasingly confident that last week's offer by Arcelor, the world's number two steelmaker, may have been the final trump in a prolonged poker game.
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CCAA vet to get $4.1-million from Stelco
The chief restructuring officer of Stelco Inc. and his firm, Stonecrest Capital Inc., will be paid in excess of $4.1-million out of a total of more than $100-million in fees pocketed by lawyers, accountants and others in the two-year restructuring of the legally insolvent steel maker.Hap Stephen, a principal of Stonecrest and a veteran of creditor protection sagas at Eaton's and Algoma Steel Inc., will receive a $2-million fee once Hamilton-based Stelco successfully emerges from protection. He was paid $2.1-million between when he was first hired in September, 2003, and August, 2005.
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