OECD's Top 10 Highest CORPORATE Tax Rates

1. Japan --- 39.54%

2. United States --- 39.25%

3. France - 34.42%

4. Belgium --- 33.99%

5. Canada --- 33.5%

6. Luxembourg --- 30.38%

7. Germany --- 30.18%

8. New Zealand --- 30%

8. Spain --- 30%

8. Australia --- 30%


* OECD's 30 member countries: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, United Kingdom and the United States


* CNBC data compilation disclosure: "The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has tracked corporate tax data from its member countries every year since 1981. The tax rates listed here are “combined corporate income tax rates,” a number that includes both national and local levies. It should be noted that the OECD only compiles corporate tax data on its 30 member countries, which do not include the BRIC nations (Brazil, Russia, India, China), as these countries are not currently full members. The lowest OECD Tax rates belong to Ireland (12.5%) and Iceland (15%)."

http://www.cnbc.com/id/30727913

Data Courtesy: CNBC

The U.S - PROOF Steel Industry (A New ERA)

WHAT Recession ?!? WHAT Slowdown ?! The numbers speak for THEMSELVES. Despite a fragile and declining U.S. economy (...shout out to the Alan Greenspan-induced housing bubble...), STEEL companies are earning record Profits selling into the demands of Emerging economies seeking basic INFRASTRUCTURE (exp's of emerging economies = the 'BRIC' countries - Brazil, Russia, India and China). As market commentator Jim Cramer rightfully pointed out a year or so ago, we have entered a brand new ERA for these once massively U.S. demand-dependent steel companies. An ERA that allows steel manufacturers to maintain break-neck profitability and handily 'beat' wall street earning expectations during a U.S. recession.

Time to talk numbers + unveil the Empirical evidence..According to the U.S. Commerce Department, shipments of Steel to the United States declined 11% year over year during the first 5 months of 2008 to about 12 million metric tons. DESPITE the slowdown in the U.S., the worldwide Steel industry continues to GROW.

Witness the below presented EVIDENCE courtesy of the 2Q08 earnings results just recently reported by Globally-diversified steel manufacturers, U.S. Steel (X) and ArcelorMittal (MT). FYI, U.S. Steel is the Largest U.S. steel company by marketcap while ArcelorMittal is the WORLD's largest steel manufacturer by just about any measure you and I can think of (production, marketcap, profits, etc.) :


Highlights from U.S. Steel's 2Q08 (X) :
* U.S. Steel recorded a 123% year over year growth in PROFIT and beat wall street earnings estimates by 50% ! (Stripping out non-recurring items, 'normalized' earnings per share profit was $5.67 or $668 million, topping the $3.82 average estimate of 14 analysts in a Bloomberg survey...this compares to X's 2Q07 earnings of $2.54/share or $302 million)

* Total Company Sales rose 60% to a quarterly record of $6.74 billion vs. 2Q07's $4.23 Billion

* U.S. Steel, which can produce about 27 million tons of the metal a year, has three main units: North American flat-rolled steel; Europe, where it supplies central and Western Europe from mills in Serbia and Slovakia; and tubular products, which sells metal to the oil industry for pipelines...Profit in the flat-rolled unit climbed more than fivefold to $478 million, the company said. Earnings at U.S. Steel Europe increased 22 percent to $298 million, while profit from the tubular business rose 82 percent to $177 million.

* U.S. Steel said it expects results from sales of flat-rolled steel to "improve substantially'' in 3Q08 and for profit from the tubular unit (levered to the oil + gas industry) to rise as prices increase. 3Q08 earnings from the European unit will decrease because of higher raw material costs and planned maintenance, the company said.

* U.S. Steel CEO John Surma on Outlook: "We expect another excellent quarter with continued earnings improvement as price increases implemented during the second quarter and early in the third quarter are expected to improve average realized prices for each of our reportable segments."


Highlights from ArcelorMittal's 2Q08 (MT) :
* Profits increased by 114% year over year to $5.84 Billion and beat analysts expectations by 50% ! (analysts surveyed by Reuters predicted a 2Q08 profit of $3.97 Billion...MT's 2Q07 profits were $2.72 Billion or $1.97/share)

* Total Company Sales were up 39% vs. 2Q07 to $37.8 BILLION (analysts expected $34.7 Billion)

* Total steel shipments for 2Q08 were 29.8 million metric tons as compared with steel shipments of 28.7 million metric tons in 2Q07 (2% increase in shipments)

* ArcelorMittal CFO Aditya Mittal on Outlook: "We are operating at high levels of capacity, we are close to capacity and can't produce much more steel...The strongest growth is coming from newly industrializing economies, such as Brazil, Russia, China and Eastern Europe...In contracts which have been renegotiated and closed, we have achieved significant (price) increases and we expect that trend to continue until the end of the year and in 2009."

Sources:

bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=conewsstory&refer=conews&tkr=X
uk.reuters.com/article/companyNews/idUKL055720920080730?
bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601085&sid=aum3d.CtKKGY&refer=europe


Data Courtesy: Reuters and Bloomberg
Full Disclosure: I own shares of MT.

ArcelorMittal's $6 Billion IRON ORE Plan

ArcelorMittal (MT), the World's Largest Steel company, plans to spend about $6 Billion in the next 5 years in order to boost the output of IRON ORE from its own mines to 80% of its total STEEL production requirements by 2014.

* Iron ore is an essential raw material consumed in the manufacture of STEEL.

* ArcelorMittal's current internal iron ore 'attach' rate is 45%.

* Consistent with the company's above strategy of reducing dependence on external suppliers of its raw materials, Arcelor is also looking to boost internal output of COKING COAL (another essential ingredient for steel). Per my 4/06/08 post labelled 'A Triple for Coking Coal Prices', Coking Coal prices more than tripled from $98/metric ton in 2007 to $300/metric ton in 2008.

* Arcelor's current internal coking coal 'attach' rate is 20%.

ArcelorMittal_to_meet_80%252525_of_iron_ore_needs_from_own_mines_by_2014.html

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* Related to the Always active MT (and iron ore I guess since this involves Brazil and Brazil is the world's largest exporter of iron ore), ArcelorMittal continues to Grow its steel operations in Brazil and recently announced a 70% stake in Brazillian steel processor and distributor, Manchester Tubos e Perfilados S.A. Since Manchester is a privately-owned company financial terms of the deal haven't been disclosed. Per the below link :

arcelormittal-reinforces-its-steel-service/story.aspx?guid=%7B31863225-

- About the TARGET...Manchester was founded in 1989 and is privately owned. It serves the construction segment, which represents 50% of its activity, as well as the industry and automotive segments. Its capacity is 240,000 tonnes per year for end products, and 60,000 tonnes per year for processed products (cut to length and slit products). 2007 net sales were approx $172 million (270 million Reals). The company employs 500 people.

- With the acquisition of Manchester, and with its existing partnership with Gonvarri, ArcelorMittal will widen its product offering in the distribution segment in Brazil...The Group will now offer an extended range of flat products (coils and blanks), profiles, tubes and pipes.

* Lastly, for details related to MT's Gonvarri partnership please refer to my 6/19/08 post labelled 'ArcelorMittal's Voracious Steel Appetite'

Data Courtesy: Thomson Financial, Steel Guru and MarketWatch
Full Disclosure: I own shares of MT.

China's #1 Industrial Metal Consumption

According to a 6/20/08 CNBC interview with the CEO of Rio Tinto (RTP), Tom Albanese:

* CHINA is the World's Largest CONSUMER of Steel, Copper and Aluminum.

* Over the past 5 years, China has been responsible for 95% of the incremental growth in Copper consumption...Two years ago China was consuming 1/4 of the world's copper, now China is consuming 1/3 of the world's copper.

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* United States-based Freeport Mcmoran Copper & Gold (FCX) is the world's largest publicly traded COPPER company...England-based Rio Tinto (RTP) is the world's largest publicly traded ALUMINUM company...Luxembourg-based ArcelorMittal (MT) is the world's largest publicly traded STEEL company.

Data Courtesy: CNBC

Full Disclosure: I own shares of FCX and MT.

ArcelorMittal's Voracious STEEL Appetite

ArcelorMittal (MT), the WORLD's LARGEST steel company, outlined the following Long Term Production Goals during an investor conference on Tuesday, 6/17/08:


* STEEL PRODUCTION --> ArcelorMittal expects its steel shipments to total 153 million tons in 2012 vs. 116 million in 2007 (30% production growth in 5 years...this seems enormous considering the current assets + size of the company - $150 Billion marketcap)

* IRON ORE PRODUCTION --> MT expects its iron ore production to reach 110 million tons by 2012 (iron ore is a raw material required for steel production)

http://www.reuters.com/article/rbssIndustryMaterialsUtilitiesNews/idUSL1754904620080617

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NOTE some of the recent GLOBAL growth actions/steps taken by ArcelorMittal to keep up with its aggressive steel production goals + Ultimately RULE the WW STEEL markets ! (ps: they are a very intelligent + BUSY company) :


* 25% Stake in Turkey's Erdemir --> On 6/16/08, MT announced they spent $869 million to raise their ownership stake in Turkey's Erdemir (Turkey's largest steel producer) to 24.99%...Per Bloomberg, "Erdemir, which has plants on Turkey's Black Sea and Mediterranean coasts and another in Romania, produced 5.4 million metric tons of steel last year and plans to invest $4.2 billion by 2012 to increase capacity. Ordu Yardimlasma Kurumu, or Oyak, an army pension fund, controls Erdemir after buying a 49 percent stake in the steelmaker from the government for $3 billion in 2005. Oyak Chief Executive Officer Coskun Ulusoy said June 14 that the fund subsequently increased its stake in Erdemir to more than 50 percent, without giving an exact figure...Turkey's biggest steelmaker earlier this month posted a 57 percent gain in first-quarter profit."


* Acquisition of U.S. Bayou Steel --> On 6/16/08, MT announced their acquisition of U.S. steel producer, Bayou Steel, for $475 million...Per Bloomberg, "Bayou operates from Louisiana and Tennessee. It produced about 510,000 tons of steel in 2007 and had sales of about $331 million. The company was acquired in June 2006 by Black Diamond Capital Management LLC for $180 million."


* Acquisition of Canada's Bakermet --> On 6/09/08, MT announced their acquisition of Canadian scrap metals recycler, Bakermet. Terms of the deal have not been disclosed...Per MT's press release, "Bakermet, which specializes in all types of ferrous and non-ferrous metal, processed approximately 130,000 short tons of ferrous and 40 million pounds of non-ferrous metals in 2007. The plant, located near Ottawa, will secure upstream self sufficiency in shredded metal for ArcelorMittal's Contrecoeur mill (ArcelorMittal Montreal)."


* 15% Stake in Australia's Macarthur Coal --> On 5/21/08, MT announced they owned a 14.9% stake in Australia's Macarthur Coal worth approx $605 million...Per Marketwatch, "The stake purchase spurred speculation ArcelorMittal may be making a takeover bid for the miner as part of strategy to secure raw-material supplies. Coking-coal prices have tripled in the past five months...Macarthur produces about 35% of the global pulverized coal used to make steel. Control of Macarthur would make ArcelorMittal self sufficient for about 10% to 15% of its coking coal needs, according to reports."...Clearly MT is looking to secure the raw materials it needs (coking coal) to produce steel and support its current long term production plan of record.


* 50% Stake in Gonvarri Brasil --> On 4/03/08, MT announced their 50% stake and joint venture with Gonvarri Brasil. Per MT's press release, "Gonvarri Brasil is one of the major players for servicing automotive, industry and distribution customers (in Brazil). ArcelorMittal and Gonvarri group have had a close relationship for many years - ArcelorMittal holding a significant stake in Gonvarri Holding and being a major supplier...With this acquisition, ArcelorMittal intends to build a strong presence in the Brazilian flat steel downstream segment, in line with the leadership of its Tubarão (Vitoria) and Vega do Sul plants. Synergies will also be realized with ArcelorMittal Belgo's existing distribution network in Brazil, active both in flat and long products...Today the company (Gonvarri Brasil) is one of the leaders of the flat steel processing in Brazil and its activities include pickling, slitting, blanking, cutting to length, with a total processing capacity of around 1.3 million tons of steel. The Company has 320 employees and owns more than 80,000 square meters of facilities."

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601085&sid=a32CMRQlNSMw&refer=europe

Data Courtesy: Reuters + Bloomberg + MT
Full Disclosure: I own shares of MT.

REF - World's Largest Economies

WORLD'S LARGEST ECONOMIES according to 2006 data published by the International Monetary Fund (IMF):

*Largest by Nominal GDP:
1. United States -- $13.2 Trillion
2. Japan -- $4.4T
3. Germany -- $2.9T
4. China -- $2.6T
5. United Kingdom -- $2.4T
6. France -- $2.3T
7. Italy -- $1.9T
8. Canada -- $1.3T
9. Spain -- $1.2T
10. Brazil -- $1.1T
11. Russia -- $ 1.0T
12. South Korea -- $0.89T
13. India -- $0.87T
14. Mexico -- $0.84T
15. Australia -- $0.76T
16. Netherlands -- $0.67T
17. Turkey -- $0.4T
18. Belgium -- $0.39T
19. Switzerland -- $0.39T
20. Sweden -- $0.38T
21. Taiwan -- $0.36T
22. Indonesia -- $0.36T
23. Saudi Arabia -- $0.35T
24. Poland -- $0.34T
25. Norway -- $0.33T
Other Notables:
30. Iran -- $0.22T
37. Venezuela -- $0.18T
65. Luxembourg -- $41 Billion

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*Largest by GDP per Capita ("the value of all final goods and services produced within a nation in a given year, divided by the average population for the same year"):
1. Luxembourg -- $102K per person
2. Norway -- $79K
3. Qatar -- $71K
4. Iceland -- $63K
5. Ireland -- $59K
6. Denmark -- $57K
7. Switzerland -- $57K
8. Sweden -- $47K
9. United States -- $46K
10. Netherlands -- $45K
11. United Kingdom -- $45K
12. Finland -- $45K
13. Austria -- $44K
14. Canada -- $43K
15. Australia -- $43K
16. United Arab Emirates -- $42K
17. Belgium -- $42K
18. France -- $41K
19. Germany -- $40K
20. Italy -- $35K
21. Singapore -- $34K
22. Japan -- $34K
23. Brunei -- $33K
24. Kuwait -- $32K
25. Greece -- $32K
Other Notables:
36. Taiwan -- $16K
39. Saudi Arabia -- $15K
54. Russia -- $9K
61. Brazil -- $7K
83. Iran -- $4K
104. China -- $2K
132. India -- $1K

Data Courtesy: Wikipedia.com + the IMF, snagged on 4/05/08.