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Monday, February 2, 2026
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AK Steel Announces Its Acquisition of Severstal Dearborn

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AK steel revealed its agreement to acquire Severstal, North America’s integrated steel making assets in Dearborn, Michigan today. The acquisition will be for $700 million in cash. It also includes a coke making facility and interests in three joint ventures that process flat rolled steel products. AK Steel should benefit immensely from this acquisition considering the upgraded steel making equipment and facilities. Also, the Dearborn plant produces flat rolled steels with high quality for the construction, appliance and automotive market. Plus, the Dearborn facility is located close to many of AK Steel’s customers so perhaps cost synergies are to be expected.

severstal_dearbornThe acquisition will also ensure that employees at Dearborn and AK Steel are combined which will increase the overall strength of the company. The highly modernized equipment at Dearborn will aid AK Steel in securing much greater productivity, efficiency and operational flexibility. Dearborn’s blast furnace, rebuilt in 2007 is one of the best blast furnaces in the world for its size!

Plus the company anticipates cost synergies up to $50 million with around $25 million in the first year of the acquisition. Also, upon completion of the acquisition AK Steel’s annual shipments are expected to have a substantial increase; around 7.5 million tons. The company also advises readers to be wary, saying that such forward looking statements which include words like “estimates” and “expects” could be potentially misleading as the result could actually be significantly different from those currently expected by the management. However the acquisition turns out to be, from the face of it things look good for AK Steel.

AK Steel Announces Its Acquisition of Severstal Dearborn

By Leave a Comment

AK steel revealed its agreement to acquire Severstal, North America’s integrated steel making assets in Dearborn, Michigan today. The acquisition will be for $700 million in cash. It also includes a coke making facility and interests in three joint ventures that process flat rolled steel products. AK Steel should benefit immensely from this acquisition considering the upgraded steel making equipment and facilities. Also, the Dearborn plant produces flat rolled steels with high quality for the construction, appliance and automotive market. Plus, the Dearborn facility is located close to many of AK Steel’s customers so perhaps cost synergies are to be expected.
The acquisition will also ensure that employees at Dearborn and AK Steel are combined which will increase the overall strength of the company. The highly modernized equipment at Dearborn will aid AK Steel in securing much greater productivity, efficiency and operational flexibility. Dearborn’s blast furnace, rebuilt in 2007 is one of the best blast furnaces in the world for its size!

Plus the company anticipates cost synergies up to $50 million with around $25 million in the first year of the acquisition. Also, upon completion of the acquisition AK Steel’s annual shipments are expected to have a substantial increase; around 7.5 million tons. The company also advises readers to be wary, saying that such forward looking statements which include words like “estimates” and “expects” could be potentially misleading as the result could actually be significantly different from those currently expected by the management. However the acquisition turns out to be, from the face of it things look good for AK Steel.

Market Basket workers protest for the restoration of Demoulas:

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Rumors were going on that there was some sort of dispute going in the Market Basket chain, top family super market. The chain has forced its CEO, Arthur T. Demoulas, to leave the company. He was quite a popular personality among his employees therefore when the news was set out all the workers of the company gathered outside the head office on Friday to show loyalty to their former CEO. Some of the employees bring their families as well in order to demonstrate how many people care for Arthur T. Demoulas.

MarketBasketGeneric

Since they did this on a working day hence it was a danger that they can be dismissed from their jobs but still they were holding some play cards and said some passionate speeches to praise Demoulas. In those entire speeches one thing was common; they gave Demoulas all the credit of the current friendly and family like relation among the staff of Market Basket. All of them were shouting out for one thing, restoration of the former CEO, Arthur T.Demoulas. The directors of the company were a bit furious as well because instead of heads, the employees are making an effort to dictate who company should hire? Nevertheless, the current CEO addressed this issue, sent a letter to the workers, to calm them down. He stated that the changes were made due to the unimpressive situation which company was going through. He warned the workers that their jobs will be on risk if they keep participating in the rally.

Market Basket workers protest for the restoration of Demoulas:

By Leave a Comment

Rumors were going on that there was some sort of dispute going in the Market Basket chain, top family super market. The chain has forced its CEO, Arthur T. Demoulas, to leave the company. He was quite a popular personality among his employees therefore when the news was set out all the workers of the company gathered outside the head office on Friday to show loyalty to their former CEO. Some of the employees bring their families as well in order to demonstrate how many people care for Arthur T. Demoulas.

Since they did this on a working day hence it was a danger that they can be dismissed from their jobs but still they were holding some play cards and said some passionate speeches to praise Demoulas. In those entire speeches one thing was common; they gave Demoulas all the credit of the current friendly and family like relation among the staff of Market Basket. All of them were shouting out for one thing, restoration of the former CEO, Arthur T.Demoulas. The directors of the company were a bit furious as well because instead of heads, the employees are making an effort to dictate who company should hire? Nevertheless, the current CEO addressed this issue, sent a letter to the workers, to calm them down. He stated that the changes were made due to the unimpressive situation which company was going through. He warned the workers that their jobs will be on risk if they keep participating in the rally.

Danone Advances After Medical-Nutrition Unit Talk Reports

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Danone Saudia Arabia- a multinational French dairy consumer product- is planning to sell its medical nutrition unit to a Hospira Inc. Hospira is a U.S pharmaceutical and medication delivery company.

damo45According to reports, this deal will give a rise of $5 million to the unit. It will enable Hospira to transfer its tax base to France after that the company will be listed along with the other tax inversion companies. Presently, several companies are shifting their head offices to another country for the sake of getting rid with the higher U.S tax policies.

Danone has made an effort to sell its medical nutrition unit since last four months. In the past, the company tried to make an agreement with Nestle SA (NESN) and Fresenius SE but in vain. That deal would have given , 3 billion euro that will be $4 million approximately to the company.

Patrik Lang, an analyst at Julius Baer Group Ltd. said that the cause behind this deal is that the company wants funds to increase its growth. Now, the question arises is that how Danone will utilize this money and what strategies the company is will follow. In Paris, where Danone is located, the shares went 1.6 percent higher at 55.95 euros. It provides the owner a market value of 36 billion euros . On the other hand, Hospira refrained from giving any on this particular issue

JP Morgan questioned about potential conflict of interests

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According to a report in the Wall Street Journal executives from JP Morgan Chase and Co. Were questioned by regulators if private bank advisers guide client’s to buy the firm’s own financial products.

The New York based bank has increased disclosure towards clients as a consequence of questioning related to potential conflict of interests.

The report suggests that the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, which is one of JP Morgan’s regulators, has been having talks with the bank regarding potential conflict of interests in recent months indicating that the matter may still be open.

JP-Morgan

Darin Oduyoye, a spokesman for JP Morgan’s asset management unit assured Reuters on Sunday that “being transparent” was part of their business and “It’s what drives our client communications.”
The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency could not be reached for comment.

If brokers coerce clients to buy certain in house products and not give impartial financial advise
the bank could gain at the expense of the client.

Post-Sandy Second Summer – Jersey Shore Hopes High

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It’s been a year and a half to Super storm Sandy and the affected areas are still rebuilding. On the Jersey Shore, which is also reconstructing, the Memorial Day weekend thrills the peak tourism season.

Business owners rushed to reopen in last summers and they succeeded. But homeowners wriggled to repair and rent their properties.

In July, Long Beach Township Mayor Joe Mancini said, “He thought the weekly rental market in his area of the shore was down about 30 percent. Many tourists were confused about the level of damage at each area along the shore. You know, every time they showed that roller coaster in the water off of Seaside, they thought that was the entire Jersey coast, but it’s not.”

News was not that bad, the majority of countries affected by the Sandy, saw modest gains in the amount tourists spent last year and the main credit goes to the recovery effects, said by the professor of hospitality and tourism management at Richard Stockton College in Atlantic County, Mr. Brian Tyrrell.

Tyrrell said, “We actually saw some increase last year, particularly early in the year. He further continued, “We’re fully expecting that it’s going to be a real banner year this year for the Jersey Shore, I think that there’s a lot of communities are really ready and well prepared to see visitors coming back.”

Realtor Matt Schlosser local entrepreneur says, “Things are looking up after Sandy cut his business in half last summer, mainly because so many people hadn’t finished fixing their houses yet. I don’t think we’ll be on track for 2012 numbers. The demand is there, but if we have 20 percent less homes, we can’t do those types of numbers”.

The real estate agent with Prudential Zack Shore Properties, Ms. Elaine Atlee says, “Rentals on Long Beach Island last summer started slow, but eventually picked up.” So she is very much expectant about this season.

Atlee says, “Overall, driving around, it really doesn’t look like there was a storm anymore. Everything looks good, in order.” She continued, “There’s a handful that will be ready for next summer, so the inventory will increase again next year.”

The houses are now newer, bigger and more expensive, which helps the house owners to make up some of the lost revenue and every week, more homes are available to rent as people finish repair work.

Some people are renting out their homes for the first time, because of the storm including Atlee. When construction on her new house is done, renters will move in before she does. She’s already fully booked for August.

FOREX-Dollar Firms, Euro Splits Under Rates Pressure

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The dollar came close to six week peak against a basket of currencies in Asian trade on Wednesday. While the euro goes down to touch a fresh 2014 low on the diverging interest rate outlook for the U.S. and euro zone

The dollar index was steady on 80.733, this rate is not that much different from Tuesday’s which closed on 80.837. It has met the expectations that U.S rates are up these days.

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This data proved that U.S price rises to 0.3 percent in June. Whereas, the prices of main things like food and energy prices were merely increased to 0.1 percent.

The weakest inflation was of reading and market but it is expected that it will rose high in 2015 since U.S Federal Reserve’s is on track to reduce its bond purchase program.

According to, Ayako Sera, Senior market economist at Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank in Tokyo, the U.S market will go high next year whereas the European market will be reduced.

Euro got weaker in the previous session with a noticeable fall in Swiss Franc.

https://argyllfreepress.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Paleontology-300×150.jpg

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Australian central band chief said on Tuesday, that the jury is out on whether exceptional monetary policies around the globe have contributed in stimulating activity in the real economy other than just encouraging risk taking behavior in financial markets.art-glennstevens-620×349

Governor Glenn Steven of the Research Bank of Australia emphasizes that quantitative easing has obviously contributed in lowering borrowing costs around the globe but its just not clear if this lead to a higher business investment. He continued by suggesting that some would take this to imply that the unconventional monetary policy has not been all that effective others would say that this was indicative of the fact that policy did not try hard enough. He said that it was difficult to draw a clear conclusion from the picture.

He pointed out that the slow recoveries in many major countries could just be a consequence to the loss in business confidence and that could not be changed by interest rates.

He explained that if people started believing that return – regardless of the past returns – would be low in the future, this would be a huge deterrent in investment. However he also elaborated that this pessimism couldn’t possibly last forever, in fact, steps should be taken to curtail its damage and convince investors otherwise. He regarded the growth agenda being pushed by the group of 20 nations (G20) to be helpful in restoring confidence. This involves supply side reforms, increased infrastructure investment, ensuring a safe financial sector and progress on free trade agreements.

OBESITY Update – The OECD Report

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Obesity is one of the diseases that does not consider as a member of disease family by most of the population but according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development – OECD, the rate of obesity continues to hike across the world’s most developed countries and SES hit harder by the recent economic crisis, such as women and the poor.

According to the OECD’s report obesity rates are impartially stable in countries such as the Unites States, Canada, Korea and Italy. But the situation is alarming for the countries like Australia, France, Mexico, and Switzerland as the rates are raising on average by 3 percent a in countries such as, they have been, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development said in report.

The report is based on a review of data from 10 OECD countries and it will present on Wednesday at the European Congress on Obesity in Bulgaria, according to resource.

According to this data analysis the global recession that struck in 2008 forced many families in harder-hit nations to curtail spending on food, especially healthy options such as fruits and vegetables, in favor of cheaper, less healthy options. OECD found, in nations that managed better in the economic slowdown, certain groups of people, particularly women and those who are less educated and have lower incomes, were also more likely to be obese.

OECD – “The economic crisis is likely to have contributed to further growth in obesity; the obesity epidemic has not stopped spreading”

Obesity trends in selected OECD countries

The report will be present on Wednesday and most of the OECD’s 34 members are wealthy countries like United States and European nations, and some emerging economies such as Mexico and Turkey. The group does not include India, China or other bigger developing countries.

According to the OECD’s report, rising obesity rates can also add economic burden as governments grapple with the costs of chronic conditions linked to obesity such as diabetes, heart disease and even cancer. Current efforts aimed at preventing further weight gain, including using financial incentives to boost wellness or increasing basic health exams, are improving.

Few key points of the report are:

?The majority of the population, and one in five children, are overweight or obese in the OECD area. A nearly tenfold variation is observed across OECD countries, but existing data may not fully reflect the extent of the epidemic.

?Several countries have developed multi-stakeholder frameworks, involving business and civil society actors in the development of public health policies. Evaluations of the effectiveness of these initiatives are only beginning to emerge.

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