Freeport-McMoRan -- one of the cheapest companies in North America (Seite 97)

[Turbo23]

Antwort auf Beitrag Nr.: 36.511.557 von Videomart am 04.02.09 16:29:41

Top two Freeport-McMoRan execs skip bonuses
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/090205/freeport_mcmoran_bonuses.html

[Videomart]

Financial Times Deutschland

Folgen der Rezession: Kupfertitan sieht lange Rohstoffbaisse
von James Mackintosh und Javier Blas (London)
Mittwoch 4. Februar 2009, 10:57 Uhr


Dem Rohstoffmarkt könnten einem der wichtigsten Marktteilnehmer zufolge "sieben dünne Jahre" bevorstehen. Laut Michael Farmer, Gründer des Hegde-Fonds Red Kite, werden die Preise über eine lange Zeit auf tiefen Niveaus verharren. "Wenn wir davon ausgehen, dass die Rezession eine Weile andauern wird, werden die Rohstoffpreise fünf, sechs, vielleicht sogar sieben Jahre niedrig bleiben", sagte Farmer der Financial Times.

Die Aussagen Farmers finden in der Rohstoffwelt große Beachtung. Red Kite ist einer der größten Spieler auf dem Kupfermarkt. Farmer und Mitgründer David Lilley haben jeweils rund 30 Jahre Erfahrung im Handel von Industriemetallen. ANZEIGE

Die beiden stenggläubigen Christen werden wegen ihres großen Einflusses auch "God Squad" ("Gottesschwadron") genannt. Farmer arbeitete jahrelang für die deutsche Metallgesellschaft, einst der größte Kupferhändler der Welt.


Rohstoffbestände auf hohen Niveaus

Der gesamte Rohstoffmarkt geriet im Zuge der Kreditkrise unter Druck: Rohöl verbilligte sich von einem Rekordhoch von mehr als 147 $ im Juli auf inzwischen rund 40 $. Auch Industriemetalle wie Kupfer und Aluminium notierten auf niedrigen Niveaus - nicht zuletzt, weil die Lagerbestände anschwollen. In den Lagerhäusern der Londoner Metallbörse LME stapeln sich inzwischen rund eine halbe Million Tonnen Kupfer, das ist soviel wie seit Ende 2003 nicht mehr. Bei Aluminium sind es sogar 2,84 Millionen Tonnen - ein Rekord. Der Reuters/Jefferies-CRB-Rohstoffindex verlor seit Juli 54,2 Prozent seines Werts.

Farmers Markteinschätzung hat sich grundlegend gewandelt. Noch vor einem Jahr sagte er, dass die Welt wegen der neuen industriellen Revolution Rohstoffe höher wertschätzen müsste. Seine aktuellen Kommentare sind dagegen pessimistisch: "Wir sind vom Boom in die Baisse gerutscht. Das wird eine Zeit lang so bleiben", sagte Farmer, der aber auch mit einer geringen Volatilität bei Metallpreisen rechnet.

2008 erzielte Red Kite eine Rendite von 20 Prozent. Für Farmer und Lilley ist das ein einträgliches Geschäft. Im Geschäftsjahr, das im März 2007 endete, verdienten die Red-Kite-Partner bis zu knapp 35 Mio. Pfund. Das geht aus Meldung an das britische Register Companies House hervor.


http://de.biz.yahoo.com/04022009/345/folgen-rezession-kupfer…

[Videomart]

Antwort auf Beitrag Nr.: 36.454.540 von Turbo23 am 27.01.09 09:05:43

Kupfer geht ab???

Schon etwas merkwürdig, was EMFIS so schreibt...
Kupfer ist noch lange nicht heraus aus dem Abwärtatrend, die Lager sind so voll wie schon seit Jahren nicht mehr:

[Videomart]

Freeport McMoRan cuts molybdenum production
Molybdenum producer's goal is to match capacity with slide in demand
By Tom Stundza -- Purchasing, 1/29/2009 1:00:00 PM

With demand for molybdenum sliding and prices falling, the world’s largest molybdenum supplier, Freeport McMoRan Copper & Gold of Phoenix, now expects its sales to slide 15% to 60 million lbs in 2009 from the 71 million lbs shipped in 2008. The new forecast is 25% lower than the 2009 estimate made last October, attributing the change to reduced-demand market conditions.

As reported earlier by Purchasing.com, investment bank Dahlman Rose & Co. in New York expects molybdenum to average $12/lb this year and $15 in 2010. (Purchasingdata.com’s forecast is similar, $13 in 2009 and $15 in 2010, because of the slowdown in North American steel production). In 2008, the steel-smelting additive cost an average $29/lb after peaking at $30 in 2007. On a monthly basis, however, molybdenum has sold for less than $10/lb for two months now.

This huge 57% decline in prices led producers such as Freeport-McMoRan, Thompson Creek Metals of Toronto and Creston Moly of Vancouver to either reduce output or shelve expansion plans. In the fourth quarter of 2008, Freeport-McMoRan had consolidated molybdenum sales from the Henderson primary mine in Colorado and byproduct mines totaled 12 million lbs, 7 million lbs lower than the fourth quarter of 2007, primarily resulting from lower demand

Now, Freeport has revised annual production plans at Henderson for 2009 at a 25% reduction. In a statement, the company says “additional reductions at Henderson may be considered if market conditions warrant.” Freeport also has made adjustments to its molybdenum production plans at certain byproduct mines, temporarily curtailed the molybdenum circuit at the Cerro Verde copper mine in Peru, which produced 3 million lb of molybdenum in 2008. The firm also has suspended construction activities associated with the restart of the Climax molybdenum mine near Leadville, Colo., previously expected to start up in 2010.

The company said it plans capital expenditures of $1.3 billion for 2009, down dramatically from $2.7 billion for fiscal 2008.

http://www.purchasing.com/article/CA6633406.html

[Turbo23]

Antwort auf Beitrag Nr.: 36.454.540 von Turbo23 am 27.01.09 09:05:43

Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold upgraded to "hold"
http://www.newratings.com/en/main/company_headline.m?id=1866…

Freeport McMoRan sees Congo mine producing this year
http://af.reuters.com/article/investingNews/idAFJOE50Q016200…

[Turbo23]

Antwort auf Beitrag Nr.: 36.453.736 von Videomart am 26.01.09 23:09:48

Australien legt zu, Goldminen voran, Kupfer geht ab
http://www.wallstreet-online.de/nachrichten/nachricht/266839…

[Videomart]

Freeport-McMoRan takes $14 billion writedown, stock rises
Mon Jan 26, 2009 3:29pm EST

By Steve James

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc (FCX.N) posted better-than-expected quarterly results on Monday as sales volumes increased, sending the mining company's shares up more than 9 percent.

But plummeting metal prices pushed Freeport to lower projected copper and molybdenum sales targets for both 2009 and 2010.

Freeport lowered its forecasts for copper sales volumes by 9 percent to 3.9 billion pounds for 2009 and by 17 percent to 3.8 billion pounds for 2010.

The company also cut its outlook for molybdenum production by 25 percent for 2009 and by 40 percent for 2010.

Freeport posted a mammoth net loss of $13.9 billion, or $36.78 per share, compared with a year-earlier profit of $414 million, or $1.05 per share.

But excluding special items, the company reported a profit of 6 cents a share, while Wall Street had expected a loss of $1.13, according to Reuters Estimates.

"We attribute the stronger-than-expected operating results to higher gold volumes and pricing vs. our estimates, higher molybdenum pricing, and slightly better-than-expected copper volumes," said Stifel Nicolaus analyst Paul Forward.

But Victor Flores of HSBC Securities said it was difficult to determine exactly how results compared to Wall Street estimates because of which items were included or not.

"I am happy they were conservative and did writedowns, but Wall Street likes that they cut more copper production," Flores said. "What the company was saying was: 'There are big negatives and we are not going to sit here and take it.'"

The net loss was primarily due to $14 billion in noncash charges, including writedowns of inventory values and goodwill from the acquisition of rival Phelps Dodge, the company said.

Freeport had said it expected to write off a substantial amount of the $6 billion goodwill from the Phelps Dodge purchase as noncash charges.

"Clearly we performed better than some (analysts) expected," Chief Executive Richard Adkerson told Reuters.

Earlier, on a conference call with analysts, he said the writedowns were required by accounting rules because the value of Freeport's assets, such as mineral reserves, had declined with the slump in metal prices.

In December, Freeport suspended its dividend, slashed capital expenditures by more than half and lowered copper output. It has also cut some workforces and delayed some mining operations to cut costs.

"The industry has struggled after five years of strong markets," Adkerson said on Monday, noting that new deposits of metals were becoming increasingly difficult to find.
But he expressed confidence about the long-tem outlook for copper as China and other developing countries need the metal to build up their infrastructures.

In its earnings release, Phoenix-based Freeport said revenue fell by 50 percent to $2.07 billion from $4.18 billion a year earlier as copper prices dropped from around $4 per pound last July to around $1.50 currently.

The company forecast 2009 capital expenditures of $1.3 billion, down from $2.7 billion in 2008. Of that, $600 million to $700 million will go to the Tenke Fungurume copper/cobalt project in Democratic Congo and to underground mine development in Indonesia.

Freeport shares were up 9.1 percent at $24.88 in afternoon New York Stock Exchange trade after rising as high as $26.28 earlier in the session.

(Reporting by Steve James, Euan Rocha and Carole Vaporean, editing by Dave Zimmerman and Lisa Von Ahn)


http://www.reuters.com/article/ousiv/idUSTRE50P5W320090126?r…

[Turbo23]

Antwort auf Beitrag Nr.: 36.367.469 von Videomart am 13.01.09 21:52:29

Kupfer überrascht positiv
http://rohstoffe.wallstreet-online.de/nachricht/2663936.html

[Videomart]

CHILE: End of the Copper Boom
By Daniela Estrada
SANTIAGO, Jan 9
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=45356

[Videomart]

Codelco Expects $1 Billion From Chile in Copper Slump (Update2)

By Heather Walsh

Jan. 6 (Bloomberg) -- Codelco, the world’s largest copper producer by annual output, expects to receive $1 billion from the Chilean government and may sell debt to pay for expansion amid declining demand for the metal.

The cash from the government, and borrowing from banks or bondholders, would help the state-owned producer invest almost $2 billion in 2009, Chief Executive Officer Jose Pablo Arellano said today at a press conference. Codelco is preparing for a recovery in metal prices with the investment, he said.

“These are fundamental plans for future development,” he said in Santiago.

Codelco needs cash to finance spending after copper dropped 54 percent in 2008, slashing revenue. A slowdown in global demand for commodities and a credit freeze has led competitors such as Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. and BHP Billiton Ltd. to delay projects and pare investments.

“Companies that have taken advantage of this period to boost capacity will be the first to benefit when the cycle changes,” Pablo Correa, an analyst at Banco Santander Chile SA, said in a telephone interview today from Santiago.

Maintaining spending at Codelco is part of Chilean President Michelle Bachelet’s $4 billion plan to spur economic growth, tapping funds from copper proceeds built up when prices for the metal reached record highs last year.

Chilean Spending

Chile is among the nations that can afford to increase spending as the global economy flags, Chilean Finance Minister Andres Velasco said today. The country put aside $28 billion from surging copper revenue as the metal’s price more than quadrupled in the six years through 2007.

Prices have dropped as global economic growth slows to 0.9 percent this year from 2.5 percent in 2008, according to the World Bank.

Demand for commodities will stay weak at least through the first half of the year, said David Duarte, an analyst in New York at 4Cast Inc.

Even spending part of its copper windfall may not enable the Chilean economy to meet the government’s estimate for growth of as much as 3 percent this year, Duarte said. Chile’s economy expanded 0.1 percent in November.

“The fiscal stimulus will help,” he said in a telephone interview. “We don’t know how much.”

Unlike some exporters such as oil-producers Venezuela and Ecuador, Chile’s government ties its budget spending to the long-term outlook for commodities to guard against price swings.

Price Swings

Chile last year fixed spending as if copper traded at $1.37 a pound, even as the metal reached a record of $4.2605 a pound in May. Prices have since slumped 63 percent.

Copper futures for March delivery rose 12.4 cents, or 8.5 percent, to $1.583 a pound on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange today.

The market for the metal will remain “volatile,” Arellano said today. Codelco is developing projects to reduce costs as lower prices cut both profit and the company’s contributions to government revenue, he said. Codelco handed over $4.86 billion to the government in the first nine months of 2008.

Since 2007, the government has allowed Codelco to hold onto $1.2 billion of profit to help fund spending in addition to the new funding, according to a company statement distributed today.

Velasco said he expects Congress to approve the $1 billion for Codelco, which will be included in a bill that would add more directors with management experience at the company. The bill would eliminate a board seat now held by the Chilean military, which receives 10 percent of the company’s revenue.

Phoenix-based Freeport’s output surpassed Codelco’s production in the third quarter of last year, according to data on the companies’ Web sites. Codelco is the world’s largest copper miner by 2007 production.


http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601110&sid=aqB7oNkD…