perhaps the gloves are off..., page-3

here's another article.. been searchinfor news but nothing directly linked to SDL has come up. I do note, BHP RIO in price hike talks.. china not happy with this.. Sinosteel very aggressive at the moment..

could totally be on the wrong path but it looks something like a late on market raid of sorts.. maybe tomorrow it'll be clear as mud ;)

best of luck to all holders
Davo


5:58 AM Apr 1, 2008 Robert Gottliebsen


Lessons from President Huang

When you isolate three clear messages from the KGB interrogation of the President of Sinosteel, Tianwen Huang, and then look at the background to those messages, a new era emerges in the development of the Chinese resource market and China’s planned escalation of resource sourcing. The clear messages are:

China will develop its Western provinces and this will underpin its demand for steel.
Among the Western provinces are Tibet and the resource province of Xinjiang. Both have pressure from traditional inhabitants wanting more control or independence. The crackdown in Tibet has received most global prominence, but Xinjiang is even more important to China. Big investment will be required in these provinces to maintain Chinese stability. This is good news for Australian resource stocks which underpin the Australian share market.

Sinosteel can develop the Midwest iron ore deposits faster than Australia’s Midwest Corporation and this would be good for WA.
Not surprisingly President Huang did not link the need to fast-track the Midwest iron ore deposits to the BHP-Rio merger and their current tough price stance. But outsiders like me believe the two events are at least partly connected.

The Chinese are prepared to put aside political considerations and invest in Zimbabwe and other African countries.
Who else but the Chinese would invest in Zimbabwe at the moment? Yet that’s exactly what Sinosteel has done. Zimbabwe has enormous mineral potential and Sino is clearly prepared to take the political risk of investing in the metal businesses, not jut in Zimbabwe but other African countries. If they pull off this daring political gamble, the Chinese will emerge as enormous mineral producers and BHP-Rio will find that their main competitors are companies closely linked to their customers