Bris, Really??? Buffett said that??? Let see... Canadian and...

Bris,

Really??? Buffett said that??? Let see...
Canadian and American Rail companies deal in commodities a lot...they freight it everywhere.
ConocoPhillips, ExxonMobil, PetroChina to name a few were all a mythical positions by his company?
And doesn't he personally own a farm, or two, that provides agriculture commodities?
He has a chunk of Deere supporting the agriculture commodities sector

What he (Warren Buffett) may have said was he doesn't trade in commodities and probably made reference to the commodities markets and futures like gold, oil, precious metals, agriculture etc...as pure plays. Which would make sense as he is considered a value investor not a trader or a naïve punter.

As for selling ARI to an Indian or Chinese rubbish company for peanuts, I think that is the realm of Ziptel or other leg-endary app. experiment companies...ARI is a wee bit more than an iron ore mining company in case you hadn't noticed and its iron ore is more its own feedstock than put to the market as a base ore commodity, also the reprocessed steel through the old Smorgon arc-melting processing plants - clever self sustaining. There geographic spread and presence is admired and envied. Their vertical integration in steel products from ore processing to finished goods is not matched by many.

As for government bailing them out, I agree. Should not and will not ever happen. We moved to a free market and user pay economy a long time ago and that type of intervention will cause more damage and backlash than the last 20 years union disputes, combined.

However I might suggest the government (departments, agencies et al. not ministers) fail to propose and put in place effective economic safeguards and constantly leave us open for business (up for sale) like flies to a cowpat.

I think you might have got ARI confused with another company. LYC perhaps?

Cheers.