TPT March 2013

Global Marketplace

› Switzerland’s oldest private bank on 3 January acknowledged that, from about 2002 to 2010, the firm – Wegelin & Company, founded in 1741 – helped dozens of wealthy American customers to dodge taxes by hiding more than $1.2bn in secret accounts. The guilty plea, in a federal district court in New York, obliges Wegelin to pay $74mn in fines, restitution and forfeiture proceeds to the US government. Although Wegelin is no longer active, obtaining a guilty plea from a company with no business operations in the US was something of a coup for the US Justice Department. More broadly, the admission of guilt represents a victory for the administration of President Barack Obama in its crackdown on Americans who use offshore banks to evade taxes. Steel A stake in two Canadian mines advances China Steel’s goal of securing its supplies of iron ore ArcelorMittal said in a 2 January statement that a group led by China Steel Corp and Posco had agreed to pay $1.1bn in cash for 15 per cent of ArcelorMittal Mines Canada Inc. According to the ArcelorMittal website, the deal will give the purchasers access to two open-pit mines that together produce about 15 million metric tons of iron ore concentrate a year and more than 9 million mt of iron oxide pellets. The world’s largest steel maker, based in Luxembourg, is believed to be mulling the sale of up to one-third of its Canadian unit, which yields some 40 per cent of Canada’s iron ore. As noted by Bloomberg News (2 January), China Steel’s stake will bring closer a goal of meeting, by 2015, 30 per cent of its iron ore and coal needs from mines in which it has investments. According to the Taiwan-based company’s website, China Steel and Posco, the largest South Korean steel maker, will share the output of the Canadian mines proportionate to their interests in the venture. Bloomberg reporters Yu-Huay Sun and Michelle Yun recalled that Posco, with the Hong Kong-based trading company Noble Group Ltd and Korean investors, recently withdrew its A$1.2bn (US$1.3bn) offer for Sydney-based Arrium Ltd after the board of the Australian steel maker and iron ore producer declined to engage with the group. Elsewhere in steel . . . › In other news of ArcelorMittal, on 30 November the company won a ruling in a US appeals court that upholds its Usibor patent as applicable to cold-rolled steel

I n t e r n a t i o n a l T r a d e F a i r f o r M e t a l l u r g y , M a c h i n e r y , P l a n t T e c h n o l o g y & P r o d u c t s

T h e I n t e r n a t i o n a l T u b e a n d P i p e T r a d e F a i r i n R u s s i a

I n t e r n a t i o n a l T r a d e F a i r f o r A l u m i n i u m a n d N o n - F e r r o u s M e t a l s , M a t e r i a l s , T e c h n o l o g i e s a n d P r o d u c t s

25 – 28 June 2013

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March 2013