Hi Westcott,
That could be very good for SDL as Iron Ore pellets is at US$ 107/t (31 Nov 2014).
IMO, 2015 could be the year for SDL as everything (funding, etc..) could be finalised by mid-2015 of before.
http://www.infomine.com/investment/metal-prices/iron-ore-pellets/
More steel mills look to buy at good quality of ore grade with less carbon emission , it bode well with European markets and now China, that are fighting pollution : "China smog crackdown boosts high-grade iron ore"
http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/2a031fd4-8786-11e3-ba87-00144feab7de.html#axzz3NuAgR9zQ
Companies producing good grade of concentrate / pellets make more money even at current low iron-ore price : so always target at low cost producer with quality product ...
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-...-62-on-higher-iron-ore-output-lower-costs.htm
Ferrexpo Offsets Low Iron-Ore Price With High Pellet Premium (Bloomberg):
Ferrexpo Plc (FXPO)’s first-half profit surged 62 percent as rising demand for its high-quality iron ore pellets fetched bigger premiums in a market facing falling prices of the steelmaking raw material because of a glut.
Pellet sales are rising, following increased supplies of lower-quality iron-ore concentrate, Chief Financial Officer Chris Mawe said today in a phone interview. Steelmakers need to mix the high- and low-quality ore for production, he said.
Iron ore, which entered a bear market in March after supplies from Australia and Brazil rose, fell 29 percent this year to $95.5 a metric ton. Premiums for pellets in western Europe and northeast Asia increased 36 percent to $38 a ton and Chinese spot-market premiums climbed 61 percent to $29 a ton, Mawe said.
Net income advanced to $203.3 million from $125.6 million a year earlier, Baar, Switzerland-based Ferrexpo, which mines and processes the ore in Ukraine, said today in a statement. The dividend was unchanged at 3.3 cents a share. Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, or Ebitda, rose 32 percent to $321 million, the company said.
“Production, cost control and revenue enhancement have all been better than we expected,” Rob Clifford, an analyst at Deutsche Bank AG, said in a note. “The two key overhangs remain out of control of the management; the political crisis in the Ukraine, and rising taxes. The stock remains significantly undervalued relative to our expectations and we believe that a significant amount of the downside has been priced in.”
Lower Costs
Ferrexpo shares declined 1.7 percent to 130.1 pence at the close in London.
Production costs were cut 23 percent to $47.8 a ton in the period from $61.8 a ton a year earlier, helping offset the effect of lower prices, Mawe said.
The company, controlled by Chief Executive Officer Kostyantin Zhevago, plans to invest as much as $1.5 billion to double iron-ore output to 20 million tons a year by 2016. It increased total pellet production in the first half by 2.3 percent after ramping up the Yeristovo mine.
Ferrexpo’s facilities are located in central Ukraine in the Poltava region, 313 kilometers (195 miles) south of Kiev and 425 kilometers north of Donetsk. While the operations have run normally throughout the period, Ferrexpo is monitoring the situation closely.
Ukraine Fighting
Fighting in Ukraine has continued since Russia annexed the Crimean peninsula in March following the ousting of Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych in February.
“The area that’s affected is relatively small and remote from our operations,” Mawe said. “But it’s very difficult to predict how it would develop.”
Zhevago, a lawmaker in Ukraine, was once part of the political bloc led by former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, who was freed from prison after Yanukovych’s removal. Zhevago is investing in new markets to reduce Ferrexpo’s reliance on the country. The company last year bought 14.4 percent of Brazilian iron-ore producer Ferrous Resources do Brasil.
“It was an option to grow our business in Brazil and still is,” Mawe said.
To contact the reporter on this story: Firat Kayakiran in London at
[email protected]
