Snowstorms and frigid temperatures across much of the USA the past six weeks have stalled shipments, forcing some manufacturers to shut down for days and delaying deliveries to some retailers.
The snarls have compounded the effects of weather on the economy. Last week, the government reported that factory production fell sharply in January. Some workers have seen reduced hours and pay.
The disruptions are also helping drive up some trucking rates ��costs that could get passed through to consumers.
"It has a massive ripple effect through the supply chain and the economy," says Bob Costello, chief economist of the American Trucking Association.
Ports in New York and New Jersey have been especially hard hit. Not only did New Jersey ports close during each big storm but operations were slowed afterward as workers moved snow to make room for shipping containers, says Evans Papantourous, owner of EP Transportation and Logistics. The firm hires trucking companies for shippers.
Hormel Foods Corporation processes, markets, and sells consumer-branded meat and food products. The company operates in five segments: Grocery Products, Refrigerated Foods, Jennie-O Turkey Store, Specialty Foods, and International & Other. The Grocery Products segment offers shelf-stable food products, including canned luncheon meats, shelf-stable microwaveable meals, stews, chilies, hash, meat spreads, flour and corn tortillas, salsas, and tortilla chips in the retail market. The Refrigerated Foods segment provides branded and unbranded pork and beef products for retail, foodservice, and fresh product customers. The Jennie-O Turkey Store segment offers branded and unbranded turkey products for retail, foodservice, and fresh product customers. The Specialty Foods segment is involved in the packaging and sale of various sugar and sugar substitute products, salt and pepper products, liquid portion products, dessert mixes, ready-to-drink products, sports nutrition products, g elatin products, and private label canned meats to retail and foodservice customers. This segment also processes, markets, and sells nutritional food products and supplements to hospitals, nursing homes, and other marketers of nutritional products. The International and Other segment manufactures, markets, and sells its products internationally. Hormel Foods Corporation sells its products through sales personnel, as well as through independent brokers and distributors primarily in the United States, Australia, Canada, China, England, Japan, Mexico, Micronesia, the Philippines, and South Korea. The company was formerly known as George A. Hormel & Company and changed its name to Hormel Foods Corporation in January 1995. Hormel Foods Corporation was founded in 1891 and is based in Austin, Minnesota.
Advisors' Opinion: - [By Dan Caplinger]
One reason why Shuanghui might have noticed Smithfield came from the pork producer's March quarterly report, when the company topped estimates due largely to the strength of its packaged-meat business. That report had some major shareholders calling for Smithfield to break up its business into multiple parts, separating its more lucrative packaged-meat business from hog production and its international operations. Hormel (NYSE: HRL ) , which focuses primarily on the packaged side of the business, boasted a higher earnings multiple than Smithfield, spurring calls for Smithfield to unlock potential value.
- [By Matt Thalman]
While the major indexes all fell today, one industry in particular experienced some major moves itself. The food industry had a number of companies that dropped by more than 1% today. Shares of J.M. Smucker (NYSE: SJM ) fell 6.54%, while Campbell Soup (NYSE: CPB ) dropped 1.53%, and Hormel Foods (NYSE: HRL ) declined 2.7%. So what caused the declines?
- [By Dividends4Life]
Linked here is a detailed quantitative analysis of Hormel Foods Corp. (HRL). Below are some highlights from the above linked analysis:
Company Description: Hormel Foods Corp. is a multinational manufacturer and marketer of consumer-branded food and meat products.
Hot Trucking Companies To Invest In 2015: Re/Max Holdings Inc (RMAX)
Re/Max Holdings, Inc., incorporated on June 25, 2013, is a franchisor of real estate brokerage services. Its business is to recruit and retain agents and sell franchises. The Company operates in two business segments: Real Estate Franchise Services, and Brokerage and Other. The Company operates in the real estate brokerage franchise industry in more than 90 countries, including the United States and Canada. Effective December 31, 2012, the Company acquired certain assets of RE/MAX of Texas. Effective November 30, 2012, the Company sold substantially all of the assets of owned and operated regional franchising operations located in Eastern Australia and New Zealand and entered into regional franchising agreements with new independent owners of these regions.
The Real Estate Franchise Services reportable segment comprises the operations of its owned and independent global franchising operations. The Brokerage and Other reportable segment contains the operations of its 21 owned brokerage offices in the U.S. which represent less than 1% of RE/MAX brokerages in the U.S., the results of operations of a mortgage brokerage company in which the Company owns a non-controlling interest, the elimination of intersegment revenue and other consolidation entities, as well as corporate and professional services expenses.
Advisors' Opinion: - [By Ben Levisohn]
Shares of Re/Max Holdings (RMAX) have surged out of the gate as investors scoop up shares following the real-estate brokers IPO.
Reuters Shares of Re/Max priced at $22, above the range of $19-$21 it had been seeking. The Associated Press has the details:
Re/Max Holdings Inc. has raised $220 million in an initial public offering of its common stock.
Re/Max is giving the underwriters a 30-day option to buy up to an additional 1.5 million shares to cover any excess demand.
The company anticipates about $194.2 million in net proceeds, after underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses. Re/Max plans to use the proceeds to reacquire regional Re/Max franchise rights in some markets, redeem preferred membership interests and buy back ownership stakes from existing shareholders.
�Re/Max shares have jumped 21% to $26.67 at 10:32 a.m. Investors might want to reconsider jumping in, however. Here’s what I wrote about IPOs�back in 2011 and it still stands today. The IPO game is notoriously dicey for retail investors. That’s because most of the shares sold at the low offering price go to institutions; only about 20% go to individuals, according to Jay Ritter, a finance professor at the University of Florida.
That means most people must settle for buying new shares during their first few days of trading��rom the bigger investors who are selling. This scenario proved disastrous for investors who bought hot Internet companies near the end of the dot-com boom, just before they crashed.
Most IPOs, in fact, fail to pan out for small investors. Excluding the first day of trading, the average IPO underperforms similarly sized companies by 3.4 percentage points a year during its first five years of trading, according to Prof. Ritter’s data.
The IPO has a mixed impact on other real-estate related companies.�Realogy (RLGY) has fallen 0.2% to $43.62, while Vector Group (VGR), wh
- [By Sue Chang]
RE/MAX Holdings Inc. (RMAX) �is likely to report earnings of 26 cents a share in the first quarter.
Hot Trucking Companies To Invest In 2015: QEP Midstream Partners LP (QEPM)
QEP Midstream Partners, LP (QEP), incorporated on April 19, 2013, is a limited partnership formed by QEP Resources, Inc. to owns, operates, acquires and develops midstream energy assets. The Company�� primary assets consist of ownership interests in four gathering systems and two Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC)-regulated pipelines, through which it provides natural gas and crude oil gathering and transportation services. The Company�� assets are located in, or are within close proximity to, the Green River Basin located in Wyoming and Colorado, the Uinta Basin located in eastern Utah, and the portion of the Williston Basin located in North Dakota. As of December 31, 2012, the Company�� gathering systems had 1,475 miles of pipeline and an average gross throughput of 1.8 million british thermal units per hour of natural gas and 18,224 barrels of crude oil.
Green River System
The Company�� Green River System, located in western Wyoming, consists of three complimentary systems owned by Green River Gathering, Rendezvous Gas and Rendezvous Pipeline and gathers natural gas production from the Pinedale, Jonah and Moxa Arch fields. In addition to gathering natural gas, the system also gathers and stabilizes crude oil production from the Pinedale Field, transports the stabilized crude oil to an interstate pipeline interconnect, and gathers and handles produced and flowback water associated with well completion activities in the Pinedale Field. The Green River Gathering assets are comprised of 405 miles of natural gas gathering pipelines, 61 miles of crude oil gathering pipelines, 81 miles of water gathering pipelines and a 60-mile, FERC-regulated crude oil pipeline located in the Green River Basin. The Rendezvous Gas assets consist of three parallel, 103-mile high-pressure natural gas pipelines, with 1,032 million cubic feet per day of throughput capacity and 7,800 basic hydrogen peroxide of gas compression. Rendezvous Pipeline�� sole asset is a 21-mile, FERC-regu! lated natural gas transmission pipeline that provides gas transportation services from QEP�� Blacks Fork processing complex in southwest Wyoming to an interconnect with the Kern River Pipeline.
Vermillion Gathering System
The Vermillion Gathering System consists of gas gathering and compression assets located in southern Wyoming, northwest Colorado and northeast Utah, which, when combined, include 454 miles of low-pressure, gas gathering pipelines and 23,197 basic hydrogen peroxide of gas compression. The Vermillion Gathering System is primarily supported by life-of-reserves and long-term, fee-based gas gathering agreements with minimum volume commitments, which are designed to ensure that it will generate a certain amount of revenue over the life of the gathering agreement by collecting either gathering fees for actual throughput or payments to cover any shortfall. The primary customers on our Vermillion Gathering System include Questar, Samson Resources Corporation (Samson Resources), QEP and Chevron USA, Inc. (Chevron).
Three Rivers Gathering System
Three Rivers Gathering is a joint venture between QEP and Ute Energy Midstream Holdings, LLC (Ute Energy) that was formed to transport natural gas gathered by Uintah Basin Field Services, L.L.C., an indirectly owned subsidiary of QEP (Uintah Basin Field Services), and other third-party volumes to gas processing facilities owned by QEP and third parties. The Three Rivers Gathering System consists of gas gathering assets located in the Uinta Basin in northeast Utah, including approximately 50 miles of gathering pipeline and 4,735 basic hydrogen peroxide of gas compression.
Williston Gathering System
The Williston Gathering System is a crude oil and natural gas gathering system located in the Williston Basin in McLean County, North Dakota. The Williston Gathering System includes 17 miles of gas gathering pipelines, 17 miles of oil gathering pipelines 239 basic hydrogen peroxide o! f gas com! pression, and a crude oil and natural gas handling facility, located primarily on the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation.
The Company competes with Enterprise Products Partners, L.P., Western Gas and The Williams Companies, Inc.
Advisors' Opinion: - [By Lauren Pollock]
QEP Resources Inc.(QEP) plans to separate its midstream business, QEP Field Services Co., into a separate entity, including its interest in QEP Midstream Partners LP(QEPM).
- [By Jon C. Ogg]
QEP Midstream Partners L.P. (NYSE: QEPM) was started as Buy at Janney Capital, and note that four other firms started coverage earlier this week.
ServiceNow Inc. (NYSE: NOW) was started as Buy with a $55 price target at Canaccord Genuity.
Hot Trucking Companies To Invest In 2015: Silver Spruce Resources Inc (SSE)
Silver Spruce Resources Inc. is a junior exploration company. The Company�� operations consist of the exploration for precious and base minerals with a focus on uranium, mainly in the Central Mineral Belt of Labrador, which include Popes Hill, the Popes Hill JV with Great Western Minerals Group, and the MRT, RWM and Straits properties. The Company�� projects include Double Mer Property, Mount Benedict Property, Big Easy Property, MRT Property, Pope�� Hill area, Red Wine Mountains and Straits Property. The Snegamook Lake property is located just to the southeast of Snegamook Lake in central Labrador, in the western part of the Central Mineral Belt (CMB), consists of 86 claims. The Fishhawk lake is located to the southeast of Snegamook Lake in central Labrador, in the western part of the CMB, consists of 164 claims. On August 22, 2012, the Company purchased a uranium exploration property in the CMB of Labrador from Virginia Energy Resources Inc.
Advisors' Opinion: - [By Dan Dzombak]
Icahn's other new position is Seventy Seven Energy (NYSE: SSE ) , which was spun off from Chesapeake Energy (NYSE: CHK ) on June 30 of this year. For every 14 shares an investor owned of Chesapeake, the stockholder received one share of Seventy Seven Energy. As Icahn holds a 9% stake in Chesapeake Energy, he also holds a 9% stake in Seventy Seven Energy, though the latter's smaller size means it is only a 0.1% position in Icahn's portfolio. Seventy Seven Energy was Chesapeake's energy services segment, and Chesapeake still makes up 80% of the company's revenue. Given $1.5 billion in debt and a drop in oil prices that threatens to slow Chesapeake's drilling, Seventy Seven Energy stock has dropped 75% from its spinoff price.
- [By Namitha Jagadeesh]
SSE Plc (SSE) slid 5.8 percent to 1,489 pence as Citigroup said in a note that the supplier of gas and electricity would suffer the most from price caps or other forms of government intervention because it gets 97 percent of revenue from the U.K.
- [By Ben Levisohn]
Offshore drillers have company now that falling oil prices are hitting the shares of Helmerich & Payne (HP), Patterson-UTI Energy (PTEN), Nabors Industries (NBR) and Seventy Seven Energy (SSE)–and for good reason, say Susquehanna’s Charles Minervino and Kai Wang. They explain:
Hot Trucking Companies To Invest In 2015: Nuveen Municipal Value Fund Inc.(NUV)
Nuveen Municipal Value Fund, Inc. is a closed-ended fixed income mutual fund launched by Nuveen Investments, Inc. The fund is managed by Nuveen Asset Management. It invests in the fixed income markets of the United States. The fund also invests some portion of its portfolio in derivative instruments. It invests in undervalued municipal securities and other related investments the income, exempt from regular federal income taxes that are rated Baa or BBB or better. It employs fundamental analysis with bottom-up stock picking approach to create its portfolio. The fund benchmarks the performance of its portfolio against the Standard & Poor?s (S&P) National Municipal Bond Index. Nuveen Municipal Value Fund, Inc. was formed on April 8, 1987 and is domiciled in the United States.
Advisors' Opinion: - [By Aaron Levitt]
Everyone hates paying taxes. So when investors have the ability to get a 7.3% taxable-equivalent yield, they should jump at the opportunity. As one of the largest and oldest municipal CEFs, the Nuveen Municipal Value Fund (NUV) makes it possible.
Hot Trucking Companies To Invest In 2015: ArcelorMittal SA (MT)
ArcelorMittal, incorporated on June 8, 2001, is a global steel producer. During the year ended December 31, 2010, ArcelorMittal had steel shipments of approximately 85 million tons and crude steel production of approximately 90.6 million tons. ArcelorMittal produces a range of finished and semi-finished products. ArcelorMittal produces flat products, including sheet and plate, long products, including bars, rods and structural shapes, and stainless steel products. The Company operates in five segments: Flat Carbon Americas; Flat Carbon Europe; Long Carbon Americas and Europe; Asia, Africa and Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) (AACIS), and Distribution Solutions. ArcelorMittal also produces pipes and tubes for various applications. ArcelorMittal sells its products in local markets and through its centralized marketing organization to a range of customers in approximately 174 countries, including the automotive, appliance, engineering, construction and machinery industries. On February 18, 2011 ArcelorMittal and Nunavut Iron Acquisition Inc. announced they had taken up over 93% of the Baffinland Iron Mines Corporation (Baffinland) under their joint offer. On January 25, 2011, ArcelorMittal approved the spin-off of ArcelorMittal�� stainless and specialty steels business into Aperam. On September 20, 2010, ArcelorMittal Poland completed the acquisition of Zaklady K Zdzieszowice. On July 23, 2010, the Company completed the acquisition of ArcelorMittal Ostrava. On July 5, 2010, the Company completed a disposition of the Anzherskaya coal mine in Russia.
Flat Carbon Americas
ArcelorMittal�� Flat Carbon Americas segment has production facilities in both North and South America, including the United States, Canada, Brazil and Mexico. As of December 31, 2010, ArcelorMittal USA had 18 production facilities, consisting of four integrated steel-making plants, one basic oxygen furnace/compact strip mill, six electric arc furnace plants, five finishing plants, and two coke-makin! g operations. ArcelorMittal USA�� operations include both flat carbon and long carbon production facilities. ArcelorMittal USA�� main flat carbon operations include integrated steel-making plants at Indiana Harbor, Burns Harbor and Cleveland. ArcelorMittal USA, through various subsidiaries, owns interests in joint ventures, including ArcelorMittal Tek, ArcelorMittal Kote, Double G Coatings, PCI Associates, and Hibbing Taconite Company. ArcelorMittal USA also owns several short-line railroads that transport materials among its facilities, as well as raw material assets. ArcelorMittal USA operates an iron ore mine through its wholly owned subsidiary ArcelorMittal Minorca. ArcelorMittal Coal Group USA, LLC and its subsidiaries operate surface mines and deep mines in McDowell County, as well as a surface mine in Tazewell County.
ArcelorMittal Tubarao (AMT), a wholly owned subsidiary of ArcelorMittal Brasil, has two production facilities: the Tubarao integrated steel making facility and the Vega finishing complex. ArcelorMittal Lazaro Cardenas (AMLC) is a steel producer in Mexico. AMLC operates a pelletizer plant, two direct reduced iron plants, electric arc furnace-based steel-making plants and continuous casting facilities. ArcelorMittal Dofasco Inc. (Dofasco) is a North American steel solution provider and manufacturer of flat rolled steels. Its products include hot-rolled, cold rolled, galvanized and tinplate, as well as tubular products and laser-welded blanks. ArcelorMittal Mines Canada is a North American producer of iron ore products, including concentrate and several types of pellets. During 2010, the mines in aggregate produced 15.1 million tons of pellets and concentrates.
Flat Carbon Europe
ArcelorMittal�� Flat Carbon Europe segment has production facilities in Western and Eastern Europe, including Germany, Belgium, France, Spain, Italy, Luxembourg, Romania, Poland, Macedonia, Estonia and the Czech Republic. ArcelorMittal�� Flat Carbon Europe segm! ent has p! roduction facilities in Western and Eastern Europe, including Germany, Belgium, France, Spain, Italy, Luxembourg, Romania, Poland, Macedonia, Estonia and the Czech Republic. During 2010, ArcelorMittal Bremen GmbH produced 3.3 million tons of crude steel. The facilities of ArcelorMittal Liege Upstream are located in two main plants along the Meuse River: the Seraing-Ougree plant, which includes a coke plant, a sinter plant and two blast furnaces, and the Chertal plant, which includes a steel shop with three converters, a ladle metallurgy, two continuous caster machines and a hot strip mill. During 2010, ArcelorMittal Liege Upstream produced 0.9 million tons of crude steel. ArcelorMittal Atlantique is part of ArcelorMittal Atlantique et Lorraine, which is wholly owned by ArcelorMittal France. It has four plants in the north of France, located in Dunkirk, Mardyck, Montataire and Desvres. During 2010, ArcelorMittal Atlantique et Lorraine S.A.S. produced 5.3 million tons of crude steel.
During 2010, ArcelorMittal Eisenhuttenstadt GmbH produced 1.9 million tons of crude steel. It produces and sells a range of products, including hot-rolled, cold-rolled, electrical and hot dip galvanized and organic-coated rolls to automotive, distribution, metal processing, construction and appliances industry customers in Germany, Central and Eastern Europe. ArcelorMittal Mediterranee S.A.S. operates a flat carbon steel plant in Fos-sur-Mer. It also operates a finishing facility for electrical steel located in Fos-sur-Mer. ArcelorMittal Mediterranee S.A.S.�� principal equipment consists of one coke oven plant, one sinter plant, two blast furnaces, two basic oxygen furnaces, two continuous slab casters, one hot strip mill, one pickling line, one cold rolling mill and two continuous annealing lines. ArcelorMittal Mediterranee�� products include coils to be made into wheels, pipes for energy transport and coils for finishing facilities for exposed and non-exposed parts of car bodies, as well as the constructio! n, home a! ppliance, packaging, pipe and tube, engine and office material industries. ArcelorMittal Gent is an integrated coastal steelworks. ArcelorMittal Liege produces a range of steel grades, including a range of construction steels and micro-alloyed grades.
ArcelorMittal Piombino manufactures galvanized and organic-coated steel products. During 2010, it operated one pickling line, four-stand tandem mill, three hot dip galvanizing lines and three organic coating lines. ArcelorMittal Piombino�� products are sold to European customers, primarily in the distribution, appliance and construction industries. During 2010, ArcelorMittal Dudelange operated two hot dip-coating lines, producing Alussi and Aluzinc, and two electro galvanizing lines for appliances and industries. ArcelorMittal Sagunto is a flat steel finishing products. The facilities consist of a pickling line, a regeneration plant for hydrochloric acid and a full continuous five stands tandem mill. ArcelorMittal Sestao�� equipment consists of two electric arc furnaces, two continuous slab casters, one hot rolling mill and one pickling line. During 2010, ArcelorMittal Sestao produced 1.3 million tons. ArcelorMittal Sestao is a supplier of hot-rolled, pickled and oiled coils to the Spanish market. Its range of production includes cold forming and drawing steels, structural steels, cold for re-rolling, direct galvanization, dual phase, weather resistance and floor plates.
ArcelorMittal Poland S.A. (AMP) is a steel producer in Poland. AMP�� Zdzieszowice Coke Plant produces and supplies coke to ArcelorMittal subsidiaries and third parties. AMP produces coke and a range of steel products, including both long products and flat products. Its product range includes slabs, billets, blooms, sections, rails, hot-rolled sheets and strips, cold rolled sheets and strips, galvanized sheets, heavy plates, wire-rods, wires and other wire products and coated sheets and coils. During 2010, ArcelorMittal Galati S.A. produced 1.9 million tons! of crude! steel which were sold as plates, hot-rolled coil, cold rolled coil and galvanized products for the Romanian, Turkish and Balkan markets. ArcelorMittal Ostrava a.s. produces both flat and long carbon products. ArcelorMittal Annaba produces both flat and long carbon products.
Long Carbon Americas and Europe
ArcelorMittal�� Long Carbon Americas and Europe segment has production facilities in North and South America and Europe, including the United States, Canada, Brazil, Argentina, Costa Rica, Mexico, Trinidad, Spain, Germany, France, Luxembourg, Poland, Romania, Morocco, Algeria, Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Czech Republic. ArcelorMittal Brasil S.A. is a long-rolled steel producer and the wire steel producer in Latin America in terms of both capacity and sales. During 2010, ArcelorMittal Brasil S.A.�� steel production facilities included one integrated plant, one semi-integrated steel plant, three mini-mills, nine wire plants and three plants that produce transformed steel products. In addition, ArcelorMittal Brasil S.A., through its subsidiary, produces charcoal from eucalyptus forestry operations that is used to fuel its furnaces in Juiz de Fora and or to exchange for pig iron with local producers, and through the jointly controlled entity Guilman Amorin, produces energy used to supply the Joao Monlevade plant. During 2010, it produced 3.4 million tons of crude steel and a total of 3.3 million tons of rolled products, of which 0.6 million tons were processed to manufacture wire products. Andrade Mine is an iron ore producer located in the Minas Gerais state of Brazil. In 2010, Andrade Mine produced 1.6 million tons of iron ore.
ArcelorMittal Mineracao Serra Azul is an iron ore producer located in the Minas Gerais state of Brazil. It supplies sinter feed to ArcelorMittal plants in Europe and domestic market and also lump ore for local pig iron producers and certain ArcelorMittal Brasil integrated plants. During 2010, ArcelorMittal Mineracao Serra Azul produ! ced 3.3 m! illion tons of iron ore. It produces rebars, wire rod, merchant bars, special bar quality (SBQ), wires, wire mesh, cut and bend and drawn bars. Acindar�� own distribution network can also service end-users. ArcelorMittal Point Lisas Ltd. is a steelmaker in the Caribbean. During 2010, ArcelorMittal Point Lisas exported substantially all of its wire rod shipments, to steel manufacturers in South and Central America, the Caribbean and the United States. ArcelorMittal USA produces both flat and long carbon products. During 2010, ArcelorMittal Montreal Inc. produced 1.8 million tons of crude steel. ArcelorMittal Duisburg GmbH�� production facilities are located in Ruhrort and Hochfeld, Germany. During 2010, ArcelorMittal Duisburg GmbH produced 1.2 million tons of crude steel. During 2010, ArcelorMittal Hamburg GmbH produced one million tons of crude steel. ArcelorMittal Poland S.A. produces both flat carbon and long carbon products. ArcelorMittal Ostrava�� production facilities are located in Ostrava, Czech Republic. As of December 31, 2010, ArcelorMittal Energy Ostrava had 11 boilers. During 2010, ArcelorMittal Rodange & Schifflange produced 0.7 million tons of crude steel. During 2010, ArcelorMittal Warszawa S.p.z.o.o. produced 0.5 million tons of crude steel. During 2010, ArcelorMittal Madrid produced 0.4 million tons of crude steel.
ArcelorMittal Zaragoza is located in Aragon, in northeastern Spain. During 2010, ArcelorMittal Zaragoza produced 0.5 million tons of crude steel. During 2010, ArcelorMittal Zenica produced 0.6 million tons of crude steel. During 2010, ArcelorMittal Prijedor produced 1.4 million tons of iron ore. ArcelorMittal Annaba produces both long and flat products. Its flat product range includes slabs, hot rolled and cold-rolled coils and sheets, hot-dipped galvanized products and tin plates, and its long product range includes billets, wire-rods, rebars and seamless tubes. Societe Nationale de Siderurgie (Sonasid) is a steel producer in Morocco and has facilities in! Nador, J! orf and Lasfar. Its facilities consist of one electric arc furnace, one continuous caster, one wire rod and one bar mill. Sonasid produces steel bars and rods. These products include reinforcing bars, wire rods and merchant bars. During 2010, Sonasid produced 0.5 million tons of crude steel. ArcelorMittal Hunedoara�� facilities are located in Romania. Its production facilities are one electric arc furnace, two continuous casters and a sections rolling mill. During 2010, Arcelor Mittal Hunedoara produced 0.1 million tons of crude steel. During 2010, ArcelorMittal Tubular Products division operated 19 operating units in Europe, North America, South America, CIS and Africa. The division caters to the energy, mechanical and automotive tubing and components markets. The facilities include four facilities producing seamless tubes, three facilities producing large diameter welded tubes, 10 facilities producing electric resistance welded (ERW) tubes, one facility producing cold drawn tubes and two facilities producing automotive components using welded tubes.
AACIS
ArcelorMittal�� AACIS segment has production facilities in Asia and Africa, including Kazakhstan, Ukraine, South Africa and Russia. During 2010, ArcelorMittal South Africa Ltd. produced 5.5 million tons of crude steel. OJSC ArcelorMittal Kryviy Rih�� integrated steel plant consists of six coke oven plants, three sintering plants, six blast furnaces, six basic oxygen furnaces, two open hearth furnaces, two blooming mills and six light section / bar mills and three wire rod mills. ArcelorMittal Temirtau�� wholly owned integrated steel plant located in the Karaganda region of Kazakhstan, consists of six coke oven batteries of which six are operating, three sinter plants, four blast furnaces (three of which are operational), three basic oxygen furnaces, two continuous slab casters, one hot strip mill, two cold rolling mills and three tinning lines, one hot dip galvanizing and one aluminum-zinc coating lines, one color ! coating l! ine, two welded pipe mills and a bar mill.
JSC ArcelorMittal Temirtau�� products includes pig iron, continuous caster slabs, hot- and cold-rolled coils and sheets, black plates, covers, tin plates, hot dipped galvanized products, color coated products and welded pipes, bars, sections and re-bars. JSC ArcelorMittal Temirtau has four iron ore mines in central Kazakhstan. ArcelorMittal Northern Kuzbass in Siberia, Russia includes the Berezovskaya and Pervomayskaya mines, as well as the Severnaya coal washery. The main consumers of the coking coal produced are OJSC ArcelorMittal Kryviy Rih and some local coke producers.
Distribution Solutions
Distribution Solutions is primarily the in-house trading and distribution arm of ArcelorMittal. It also provides steel solutions. It services a range of customer industries, including automotive, construction, household appliances, public works, civil engineering and general industry. The range of Distribution Solutions is offered through a network covering 30 countries, while specific solutions are dispatched in five business units: ArcelorMittal Construction Solutions, ArcelorMittal International, ArcelorMittal Projects, ArcelorMittal Total Offer Processing, ArcelorMittal Wire Solutions. The range of distribution solutions is organized across geographical areas through locally empowered management: Benelux, Central and Eastern Europe, France, Germany/Switzerland, Iberia, Italy, the Maghreb, Turkey/Mediterranean, South America, Poland, the United Kingdom/Scandinavia. The processing facilities provide services for flat and long carbon steel, as well as for specialty products, from light finishing work on beams to an integrated offer of slit coils, sheets and blanks.
ArcelorMittal Construction Solutions provides its customers with steel-based solutions for cladding, roofing, flooring and structure. ArcelorMittal International is the global sales network supplying ArcelorMittal products from over 30 mills outside ! of their ! home markets. ArcelorMittal Projects provides distribution solutions and services for projects in foundation solutions, infrastructure, oil and gas and building related steel constructions. ArcelorMittal Total Offer Processing provides a global offer in steel processing, ranging from design to production and from the logistics of steel components to steel solutions for industrial accounts. ArcelorMittal Wire Solutions is a global industrial wiredrawer, serving sectors, such as agriculture, automotive, construction, energy and general industry.
Advisors' Opinion: - [By Ben Levisohn]
After gaining 5.1% yesterday following a surprisingly strong earnings report, U.S. Steel has dropped 1.1% to $39.62 at 11:09 a.m. today, while AK Steel (AKS) has dropped 1.7% to $7.28 and ArcelorMittal (MT) has fallen 1.8% to $12.73.
- [By Victor Selva] �s largest steelmaker, and United States Steel Corp. (X), a steel giant with a long-held dominance in the American market. Instead, I would choose to go long on Gerdau SA (GGB), the second-largest producer in the sector.
Why Not No. 1?
Brazil-based Gerdau has three main advantages. Size ��though it�� a strong pro ��is not necessarily one of them. To start with, Gerdau is a highly integrated company, with annual iron ore production capacity totaling 11.5 million metric tons, enabling it to be over 80% and 40% self-sufficient in Brazil and the U.S., respectively, and thus hedging itself from volatility in raw material prices.
Second, the company has a relatively modern fleet of furnaces, mainly composed of electric arc furnaces (EAFs), which are more energy-efficient than traditional blast furnaces and should result on a more flexible supply.
Last, the location is also a positive factor: with a high geographical diversification, Gerdau has still managed to maintain a strong leadership in the markets where it operates (particularly in Brazil and the U.S.). This allows it, on the one hand, to supply many different markets and therefore reduce risks of local economic underperformances and, on the other hand, to profit from low-cost labor in Brazil. In addition, the upcoming sporting events ��2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympics ��are expected to generate a strong inflow of investments in infrastructure in the country, with Gerdau as a potential beneficiary of this.
In spite of being the biggest worldwide, I believe that ArcelorMittal doesn�� count with these characteristics. Further, as players in the industry are so atomized, being the No. 1 producer implies having only 6% of the global market share, which doesn�� give ArcelorMittal a superior bargain power than its peers. And though it�� still a very diversified and vertically integrated group, its costs will tend to be higher than those of Gerdau, since its furna
- [By Dan Caplinger]
On Friday, ArcelorMittal (NYSE: MT ) will release its latest quarterly results. The key to making smart investment decisions on stocks reporting earnings is to anticipate how they'll do before they announce results, leaving you fully prepared to respond quickly to whatever inevitable surprises arise. That way, you'll be less likely to make an uninformed knee-jerk reaction to news that turns out to be exactly the wrong move.
- [By Dan Caplinger]
ArcelorMittal (NYSE: MT ) will release its quarterly report on Thursday, and given how dire conditions have been in the steel industry in recent years, it's no surprise to see the stock continue to tread water near decade-lows. Increasingly, impatient investors are wondering what it will take to get ArcelorMittal earnings to move substantially higher, and thus far, the company hasn't discovered any secrets to bolstering the hard-hit market.
Hot Trucking Companies To Invest In 2015: Samson Oil and Gas Ltd (SSN)
Samson Oil & Gas Limited (Samson), incorporated on April 6, 1979, is engaged in exploration and development of oil and natural gas properties in the United States. Samson owns a working interest in each of its three material producing properties, through which it has entered into operating agreements with third parties under which the oil and gas are produced and sold. The Company also has 100% working interest in one exploration property and 50% to 100% in a second property. As of June 30, 2012, the Company�� properties included North Stockyard Project; State GC Oil and Gas Field, New Mexico; Davis Bintliff (Sabretooth Prospect), Brazoria County, Texas; Hawk Springs Project, Goshen County, Wyoming, and Roosevelt Project, Roosevelt County, Montana. As of June 30, 2012, the Company along with its subsidiaries produced approximately 87,956 barrels of oil and 214,463 thousand cubic feet of gas.
North Stockyard Project -Williston Basin, North Dakota
Samson has 34.5% working interest in 3,303 acres adjacent to the North Stockyard Oil Field, which is located in the Williston Basin in North Dakota and is operated by Zavanna LLC. Together with the Company�� working interest owners, it has drilled seven wells in this field, six in the Bakken formation and one in the Mission Canyon formation. During July 2012, the Harstad #1-15H well averaged 15 barrels of oil per day (BOPD). The Leonard-23H (10% working interest, 37.5% after non-consent penalty) is a Mississippian Middle Bakken Formation. In July 2011, this well averaged 46 barrels of oil per day. The Company drilled its third Bakken well in the North Stockyard Field, the Gary-24H (37% working interest). During July 2012, this well averaged 75 BOPD. It drilled its fourth Bakken well in the North Stockyard Field, the Rodney-14H (27% working interest). In July 2011, this well averaged 92 BOPD. It drilled its fifth Bakken well in the North Stockyard Field in Williams County, North Dakota, the Earl 1-13H (32% working interest). In Jul! y 2011, the well averaged 193 BOPD. In June 2011, it drilled its sixth Mississippian Bakken well in the North Stockyard field in Williams County, North Dakota, the Everett 1-15H (26% working interest). As of June 30, 2012, the North Stockyard project had net proved reserves of 598,500 barrels of oil and 757,800 thousand cubic feet (of natural gas).
State GC Oil and Gas Field, New Mexico
The State GC oil and gas field is located in Lea County, New Mexico, and covers approximately 600 acres. As of June 30, 2012, the field had two wells, the State GC#1 and State GC#2. Average daily production during the year ended June 30, 2012 from the State GC oil and gas field was approximately 43 BOPD and 37 million standard cubic feet per day. As of June 30, 2012, the State GC oil and gas field had net proved reserves of 65,500 barrels of oil and 87,300 thousand cubic feet (of natural gas).
Davis Bintliff #1 Well (Sabretooth Prospect), Brazoria County, Texas
The Davis Bintliff #1 well is operated by Davis Holdings. During the year ended June 30, 2012, this well averaged 29 BOPD and 2.61million cubic feet per day. As of June 30, 2012, the Davis Bintliff well had net proved reserves of 700 barrels of oil and 66,400 Thousand cubic feet (of natural gas).
Hawk Springs Project, Goshen County, Wyoming
The Company has 37.5%-100% working interest in Hawk Springs Project. The Spirit of America 1 replacement well, Spirit of America 2, was successfully drilled to a total depth of 10,634 feet during the fiscal year ended June 30, 2012 (fiscal 2012).
Roosevelt Project, Roosevelt County, Montana
The well was drilled to a total measured depth of 14,972 feet with the horizontal lateral remaining within the target zone for the entire lateral length. approximately 3,425 barrels of oil have been produced.
Advisors' Opinion: - [By James E. Brumley]
Had Samson Oil & Gas Limited (NYSEMKT:SSN) made the late-July surge and subsequent early-August pullback and then gotten stuck in the mud again, I might not even bother taking a look at it. That's not how it happened though. Since the pullback, SSN has perked up again, perhaps not as hot as it was with the initial rally at the end of last month, but more than hot enough to get my attention. I suspect another surge - perhaps a longer-lasting surge - is in the cards.