Lunes 31/01/11 Semana del empleo, Revuelta en el M. Oriente

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Producción de acero de China cae a mediados de enero
lunes 31 de nero de 2011 09:27 GYT
Imprimir[-] Texto [+] SHANGHAI (Reuters) - La producción diaria de acero crudo de China cayó un 5,4 por ciento, a 1,695 millones de toneladas, entre el 10 y el 20 de enero, en su primer descenso desde mediados de octubre, revelaron el lunes datos de la Asociación del Acero y el Hierro de China.
La producción diaria promedio de acero en una base de 10 días ha crecido sostenidamente desde mediados de octubre, pese a medidas impulsadas por el Gobierno para reducir la actividad y cumplir con sus metas de eficiencia energética.

Los analistas sugirieron que la menor producción respondió principalmente a revisiones anuales de rutina por parte de varias siderúrgicas.

"Varias siderúrgicas llevaron a cabo revisiones, las que usualmente durante entre siete y 10 días, antes del Año Nuevo Lunar chino, y esto tuvo cierto impacto en la producción", dijo Feng Gangyong, analista de Guangfa Securities.

La producción de acero de China alcanzó un récord de 627 millones de toneladas el año pasado, mientras que los analistas esperan que el mayor fabricante mundial continúe elevando sus suministros en el presente curso.

"Espero que esta caída sea temporal, que la producción de acero se recupere tras el Festival de la Primavera y posiblemente alcance su punto más alto en el segundo trimestre", señaló Feng.

Feng pronostica que la producción de acero de China tocaría las 675 millones de toneladas este año debido a la sólida demanda de los sectores de vivienda e industrial.

(Reporte de Ruby Lian y David Stanway; Editado en español por Juan José Lagorio)

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Sale Marks End of a Coal Era

By KRIS MAHER
The sale of Massey Energy Co. means the end of a 95-year-old company that has been one of the most influential U.S. coal producers, as well as a central and sometimes controversial part of life in coal-rich West Virginia.

E. Morgan Massey, 84 years old, whose grandfather started a coal brokerage in 1916 that later grew into Massey Energy, lobbied against any company sale, sending a Christmas card to the board chairman urging that it remain independent.

Alpha CEO: Premium for Massey Well Worth It
.In the end, however, Mr. Massey, who said he no longer has a financial stake in the company and retained a voice only by virtue of his family's history and ties with board members, was overruled by investor pressure and the potential synergies and growth offered by an Alpha Natural Resources Inc. takeover.

"I'm sad to see that happen," Mr. Massey said of the agreement with Alpha, in an interview Sunday from his Richmond, Va., home. But he said he understood that Massey's board was in a difficult position following the accident last April that killed 29 miners at Upper Big Branch mine, and with the departure of longtime Chief Executive Don Blankenship in December.

Mr. Massey defended Mr. Blankenship, whom he appointed to succeed him as chief executive in 1992, saying he was a strong financial manager, dedicated to West Virginia coal and keeping the company productive, in part by fighting the mine-workers union.

Mr. Massey, who sold his investments in the company in the late 1990s, said he lobbied the board's members, James Crawford, Stanley Suboleski and Baxter Phillips, Massey's current CEO. He said he sent a Christmas card to Massey's current chairman, Bobby Inman, with a note that said he hoped the company would remain independent.

"I lobbied against it, but in hindsight they probably made the only decision that a board could make," Mr. Massey said. "It reflects on the fact that Massey Energy was caught with a management problem when Don Blankenship left. After the mine disaster, the board was unwilling to continue the management and the company under the Massey banner."

Mr. Massey said that in the wake of the accident he continued to support Mr. Blankenship and admired him for stepping down, as pressure mounted from regulators investigating the accident and the company's board explored a sale. "To surrender to the political pressure... was not something he was willing to do, and I admire him for that," Mr. Massey said.

The accident prompted Mr. Massey to commission a study by researchers in Virginia Tech's mining and minerals engineering department to come up with a way to better monitor conditions inside underground mines. He said he believes new equipment should be developed to measure multiple factors at once, such as explosive gases like methane, humidity and seismic activity.

"The technology has gotten behind the regulations," he said. "The coal industry is so busy trying to comply with the regulations that they don't step back and say, 'What can we do to make this thing foolproof?"'

In the case of the Upper Big Branch accident, he said, he thinks the causes "are still pretty much unknown."

Mr. Massey's grandfather, A.T. Massey, founded A. T. Massey Coal Co. in 1920, selling coal from a West Virginia mine operated by his wife's family. Mr. Massey began working for the company in 1945, while still in college, and watched it grow through acquisitions of other West Virginia mines in the 1960s before being named president in 1972. Over the next two decades, the company changed hands, but Mr. Massey remained at the helm until 1992, when he named Mr. Blankenship as CEO. He said Mr. Blankenship understood the dynamics and the arithmetic of coal mining better than anyone in the company, which was then owned by Los Angeles-based Fluor.

A defining episode occurred in the mid-1980s, Mr. Massey said, when the company was battling the United Mine Workers of America, after Massey refused to agree to companywide contract terms.

After a contentious standoff between both sides that led to hundreds of injuries and a nonunion worker being shot and killed by a sniper, the union eventually called off the strike. The union was severely weakened by the loss, and both sides retain their animosity to this day

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