New York Times' Romero and Mouawd: Saudis in Strategy to Export More Oil to India and China

Saudis in Strategy to Export More Oil to India and China
By SIMON ROMERO and JAD MOUAWAD
New York Times

HOUSTON, Feb. 17 - Saudi Aramco, the world's largest producer of crude oil, is seeking to strengthen relations with energy companies in India and China as part of a strategy to increase Saudi oil exports there. Together, the two countries are expected to account for much of the increase in global oil demand over the next decade.

At the same time, Abdallah S. Jumah, the president and chief executive at Aramco, the energy company controlled by the Saudi kingdom, said on Wednesday that the company was hoping to maintain its position as a leading supplier of petroleum to the United States, the largest consumer of Saudi oil.

Last year, for the first time since 1997, Saudi Arabia was eclipsed as the top supplier of crude oil to the United States, falling behind Canada.

That shift occurred as Saudi Aramco made several efforts to increase its reach in Asia's two largest countries. In India, Aramco was disappointed last year when an effort to acquire a stake in Hindustan Petroleum was thwarted after the Parliament suspended plans to allow foreign investments in the government-run oil marketing company.

"Since then, we have been in contact with our Indian friends to find other opportunities," Mr. Jumah said in an interview at Aramco's office in Houston. "So far we have not found the opportunity that would entice us or entice them but we continue to look because this is a very important market."

Aramco, which is based in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, exports about 450,000 barrels of crude oil a day to India; it sends 500,000 barrels daily to China. Mr. Jumah said Aramco was pressing ahead with an expansion of a refinery venture in Fujian Province in China, where with Exxon Mobil and Sinopec, a Chinese energy company, it processes about 80,000 barrels a day.

The expansion would elevate the complex's capacity to about 240,000 barrels a day, giving Aramco an opportunity to increase oil exports to China. Mr. Jumah said Aramco would like to sell more oil to China, but the company was limited in its ability to do so by the "diet of their refining capacity." Aramco, he said, was considering other opportunities in China in cooperation with Sinopec.

Aramco's forays in India and China, together with the awarding of Saudi gas exploration contracts last year to Chinese and Russian companies, has generated concern that Saudi Arabia's traditionally strong relations with the United States, long the country's largest trading partner, might be fraying. Mr. Jumah was careful to point out that he expected oil exports to the United States to remain strong.

Saudi Arabia supplied the United States with 1.494 million barrels of oil a day in 2004, about 232,000 barrels a day less than the previous year. Still, Mr. Jumah said, "The U.S. needs us, and we need the U.S."

****
Prudent Investor quotes Nobel laureate economist Hyman Minski...
"Stability breeds Instability"

Earth Policy Institute's Lester Brown: CHINA REPLACING THE UNITED STATES AS WORLD'S LEADING CONSUMER

CHINA REPLACING THE UNITED STATES AS WORLD'S LEADING CONSUMER

Lester R. Brown

Although the United States has long consumed the lion’s share of the world’s resources, this situation is changing fast as the Chinese economy surges ahead, overtaking the United States in the consumption of one resource after another.

Among the five basic food, energy, and industrial commodities—grain and meat, oil and coal, and steel—consumption in China has already eclipsed that of the United States in all but oil. China has opened a wide lead with grain: 382 million tons to 278 million tons for the United States last year. Among the big three grains, the world’s most populous country leads in the consumption of both wheat and rice, and trails the United States only in corn use.

Although eating hamburgers is a defining element of the U.S. lifestyle, China’s 2004 intake of 64 million tons of meat has climbed far above the 38 million tons consumed in the United States. While U.S. meat intake is rather evenly distributed between beef, pork, and poultry, in China pork totally dominates. Indeed, half the world’s pigs are found in China.

With steel, a key indicator of industrial development, use in China has soared and is now more than twice that of the United States: 258 million tons to 104 million tons in 2003. As China’s population urbanizes and as the country has moved into the construction phase of development, building hundreds of thousands of factories and high-rise apartment and office buildings, steel consumption has climbed to levels not seen in any other country. (See data.)

With oil, the United States is still solidly in the lead with consumption triple that of China’s—20.4 million barrels per day to 6.5 million barrels in 2004. But while oil use in the United States expanded by only 15 percent from 1994 to 2004, use in the new industrial giant more than doubled. Having recently eclipsed Japan as an oil consumer, China is now second only to the United States.

Looking at energy use in China means also considering coal, which supplies nearly two thirds of energy demand. Here China’s burning of 800 million tons easily exceeds the 574 million tons burned in the United States. With its coal use far exceeding that of the United States and with its oil and natural gas use climbing fast, it is only a matter of time until China will also be the world’s top emitter of carbon. Soon the world may have two major climate disrupters.

In addition to steel, China also leads in the use of other metals, such as aluminum and copper. Not only has China overtaken the United States in use of these materials, but it is widening the gap, leaving the United States in a distant second place.

In another key area, fertilizer—essentially nitrates and potash—China’s use is double that of the United States, 41.2 million tons to 19.2 million tons in 2004. In the use of the nutrients that feed our crops, China is now far and away the world leader.

In China’s consumer economy, sales of almost everything from electronic goods to automobiles are soaring. Nowhere is the explosive growth more visible than in the electronics sector. In 1996 China had 7 million cell phones and the United States had 44 million. By 2003 China had rocketed to 269 million versus 159 million in the United States. In effect, China is leapfrogging the traditional land-line telephone stage of communications development, going directly to mobile phones.

The use of personal computers is now also taking off in China. After a late start, the number of personal computers jumped to 36 million in 2003 compared with 190 million in the United States. But with the number of computers in use doubling every 28 months, it will only be a matter of time before China, a country of 1.3 billion people, overtakes the United States, which has a population of 297 million.

With household appliances, such as television sets and refrigerators, China has long since moved ahead of the United States. By 2000, for example, TV sets in China outnumbered those in the United States by 374 million to 243 million. With refrigerators, perhaps the most costly household appliance, production in China overtook that of the United States in 2000.

Among the leading consumer products, China trails the United States only in automobiles. By 2003, it had 24 million motor vehicles, scarcely one tenth the 226 million on U.S. roads. But with car sales doubling over the last two years, China’s fleet is growing fast.

And the race is far from over. With a per capita annual income in 2004 of $5,300, one seventh the $38,000 in the United States, China has a long way to go to reach U.S. per capita consumption levels. For example, despite China’s wide lead in total meat intake, the meat consumed per person is only 49 kilograms (108 pounds) a year compared with 127 kilograms (279 pounds) in the United States. As Chinese incomes rise at a world record pace, use of foodstuffs, energy, raw materials, and sales of consumer goods are continuing to climb.

China is now importing vast quantities of grain, soybeans, iron ore, aluminum, copper, platinum, phosphates, potash, oil and natural gas, forest products for lumber and paper, and the cotton needed for its world-dominating textile industry. These massive imports have put China at the center of the world raw materials economy. Its voracious appetite for materials is driving up not only commodity prices but ocean shipping rates as well.

The new industrial giant’s need for access to raw materials and energy is shaping its foreign policy and security planning. Strategic relationships with resource-rich countries such as Brazil, Kazakhstan, Russia, Indonesia, and Australia are built around long-term supply contracts for products such as oil, natural gas, iron ore, bauxite, and timber. These strategic ties it is forming are welcomed in countries like Brazil as a counterweight to U.S. influence.

China’s eclipse of the United States as a consumer nation should be seen as another milestone along the path of its evolution as a world economic leader. Its record-high domestic savings and its huge trade surplus with the United States are but two of the more visible manifestations of its economic strength. It is now China, along with Japan, that is buying the U.S. treasury securities that enable the United States to run the largest fiscal deficit in history.

The United States, the world’s leading debtor nation, is now heavily dependent on Chinese capital to underwrite its fast-growing debt. If China ever decides to divert this capital surplus elsewhere, either to internal investment or to the development of oil, gas, and mineral resources elsewhere in the world, the U.S. economy will be in trouble.

China is no longer just a developing country. It is an emerging economic superpower, one that is writing economic history. If the last century was the American century, this one looks to be the Chinese century.

Copyright © 2005 Earth Policy Institute

***
Prudent Investor Says,

Deny until you can, but as the article shows this trend is shaping to be the new world order.

Financial Times: CIA issues warning on China’s military efforts

CIA issues warning on China’s military efforts
By Edward Alden in Washington
Published: February 16 2005 19:32
Financial Times

The director of the US Central Intelligence Agency has warned that China's military modernisation is tilting the balance of power in the Taiwan Strait and increasing the threat to US forces in the region.

Delivering the agency's annual assessment of worldwide threats on Wednesday, Porter Goss, a former Republican congressman who was named in September to head the CIA, dropped any mention of the co-operative elements of the US-China relationship that characterised recent CIA statements. Instead, he said China was making determined military and diplomatic efforts to “counter what it sees as US efforts to contain or encircle China”.

Mr Goss's statements on China were a small part of testimony that highlighted the threat Islamic terrorism poses to the US and emphasised concerns over Iran and North Korea. He has also said that he wants to refocus the agency on its traditional mission of assessing threats and avoid statements that could be interpreted as setting US policy.

But the statement on China indicated the CIA is paying growing attention to what it considers potential military threats amid China's growing economic ties with its neighbours and the US. Mr Goss referred to US concerns over the increase in Chinese ballistic missiles deployed across the Taiwan Strait and the improvements in China's nuclear and conventional capabilities.

The change in tone was notable given US concerns over Europe's plan to end its embargo on arms sales to China. Experts on China said that, while warnings about China's military capabilities were not new, the CIA had in the past underscored the co-operation between the US and China.

In testimony last year, George Tenet, former CIA head, praised China for co-operation in the war on terrorism and for its participation in the nuclear talks with North Korea. In 2003, Mr Tenet described US-Taiwan relations as relatively placid and said China was trying to assert its influence through “economic growth and Chinese integration into the global economy”. James Lilley, a former US ambassador to China, said that, while it was appropriate for the CIA to focus on longer-term threats, the growing economic ties between China and Taiwan were making conflict less likely.

James Steinberg, deputy national security adviser in the Clinton administration, said: “It is a little surprising that it didn't say anything about the enormous emphasis China places on a stable international environment and constructive relations with the US.”

***
Prudent Investor says,

Inveterate inwardly looking local cynics continue to ignore the shaping geopolitical developments that may appear to determine both economic and political fortunes of the region and the world. This article is simply one of the the few pieces of the complex jigsaw puzzle that may serve as a clue on how your investment decisions should be made.

World Bank Press: Half World's People To Live In Cities By 2007 According to the UN

Half World's People To Live In Cities By 2007: UN

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Wednesday presented a report by the UN Commission on Population to the UN Economic and Social Council, which stated that half the world's population will live in cities in two years, a huge jump from the 30 percent residing in urban areas in 1950, Reuters reports.

The commission’s report states that some 3.2 billion of the world's 6.5 billion people live in cities today, and the number will climb to 5 billion - an estimated 61 percent of the global population - by 2030. The number of very large urban areas was also rising, the commission said. Twenty cities now have 10 million or more inhabitants, compared with just four - Tokyo, New York-Newark, Shanghai and Mexico City - in 1975 and just two - New York-Newark and Tokyo - in 1950.

The five biggest cities today in population are Tokyo, with 35.3 million people, Mexico City (19.2 million), New York-Newark (18.5 million), Bombay (18.3 million) and Sao Paulo (18.3 million). The next 15 largest are Delhi, Calcutta, Buenos Aires, Jakarta, Shanghai, Dhaka, Los Angeles, Karachi, Rio de Janeiro, Osaka-Kobe, Cairo, Lagos, Beijing, metropolitan Manila and Moscow. By 2015, the five largest cities will be Tokyo, with 36.2 million residents, Bombay with 22.6 million, Delhi with 20.9 million, Mexico City with 20.6 million and Sao Paulo with 20 million, it said.

Despite the growing number of vast urban agglomerations, about half of all city dwellers live in far smaller urban areas of fewer than 500,000 inhabitants. Urban residence patterns vary depending on an area's development status, the commission found. About three-quarters of people in more developed regions lived in cities, while just 43 percent lived in them in less developed areas.

Dow Jones adds the United States is the most highly urbanized area of the world with 87 percent of its population living in cities. Latin America and the Caribbean followed, with 78 percent of the population living in urban areas, the report said. Forty percent of the people of Africa and Asia live in cities. The report also predicted that in less developed regions, the number of urban dwellers will equal the number of rural dwellers by 2017.

The Associated Press further notes the report said that the number of elderly people is rising rapidly, prompting a need for economic and social changes. The biggest problem for developing countries was high mortality rates, while wealthy countries faced falling birth rates and the decline in the working-age population.

Annan said the population of all countries will continue to age substantially, but the increase will be faster in developing countries and social security systems that depend on workers to pay for those who are retired will be affected. "Such rapid growth will require far-reaching economic and social adjustments in most countries," he said.

The report highlighted there were 600 million people over the age of 60 in 2000, three times the number in 1950, and that figure was expected to triple again over the next 50 years to around 2 billion elderly. The average number of children a woman gives birth to, meanwhile, declined from five around thirty years ago to three by the beginning of this century, the report said. Mortality declined sharply during the 20th century, except in Africa, which has been hard hit by the AIDS epidemic. Overall, the world's population reached 6.5 billion in 2005 and could stabilize at 9 billion just after 2050, Annan said.

Yahoo News: Crew To Acquire Majority Stake In Philippine Gold Co

Crew To Acquire Majority Stake In Philippine Gold Co

LONDON (Dow Jones)--Crew Gold Corp. (CRU.T) has agreed to acquire 72.5% of Philippine-based Apex Mining Co. (APX.PH) for $7 million

In a news release, Crew said the acquisition is expected to be concluded within a maximum of four months, subject to completion of satisfactory due diligence by Crew.

Apex's principal asset is the Masara Gold Mine in the south of Mindanao Island, which ceased production in March 2000.

Crew said it expects to bring the original mine and the treatment plant back into operation relatively quickly. It will also undertake a major exploration program in the surrounding area with a view to defining a significantly increased resource.

The Apex property also contains a copper-gold porphyry mineralization with promising potential.

Crew is a mining company.

Company Web Site: http://www.crewgold.com

Feb15 2005 Phisix Finally Corrects

Phisix Finally Corrects

The Phisix behaved in exactly the reverse manner from yesterday. While the bombing surprised and spooked the market by opening lower to end up marginally up, today we saw the market open strong, getting stronger (+39 points) until the mid-session only to falter at the last portion of the trading hour. Naturally Moody’s downgrade was the apparent trigger or say ‘rationalized’ or used as an excuse, although the downgrades were not exactly a ‘surprise’ since it has been floated in the market for quite sometime.

We must remember that the financial markets function as discounting mechanisms hence prices in future expectations and not the present. Thus when a market reacts to a say a political event such as an unexpected bombing or a coup it may gyrate violently and may be the causal factor behind its moves. The element of surprise is the key operative phrase for the market to react.

In January 19, S & P downgraded the Philippines credit rating yet the following day market surged by 41.44 points! Quite a dichotomy, isn’t it? The only surprise that could be attributed to today’s Moody’s downgrade was the severity (2 notches).

As I have been saying, the market has been overextended in terms of its winning streak hence the need for a correction or profit-taking.

Let us examine if the Moody’s downgrade has altered the investing landscape. One the Peso still is at the P 54.895 (Bloomberg) down .3473%, as of this writing, although it looks as if it were shadowing the Japans yen which is also down .668% to 105.11 (Japan’s last quarter shows that it has regressed to a recession!) Thai baht is likewise lower by .26%.

Now foreign money still poured on the market (P440.087 million) although they constituted only 37% of the entire trade which means that foreign capital remains bullish while the locals appears to have taken up the profit taking mode. Plus they have been buying the broader market 46 inflows (a record!) against 17 outflows. This signs of bullishness by foreign money is not supportive of the reactions of a recently downgraded sovereign credit rating.

If the intensity of their support to our market remains as steadfast as today, the probability is that our Phisix may have a shallow correction which implies a buying entry at the 38.2% retracement levels.

Finally, it looks as if the Banking and Finance braved today’s decline, this also suggests that maybe the banks will be the beneficiary of rotational buying and despite the correcting property sector there may be issues that may defy the tide.

Well, that’s the way it looks from here

Benson

Japan Times: Japan may accept more workers from Thailand

Japan may accept more workers from Thailand

The government is considering allowing in more Thai workers by relaxing employment conditions for cooks, masseurs and caregivers under a proposed free-trade agreement, sources said Saturday.

With the proposal, the government hopes to proceed with FTA talks with Thailand at the end of the month, with the aim of reaching an overall basic accord by spring, the sources said.

The move may help secure greater access to the Japanese labor market for foreigners as Japan gears up for FTA talks with other nations, they said.

A basic agreement on a free-trade pact with the Philippines reached in November will allow Filipino nurses and caregivers to live and work in Japan.

Japan currently accepts Thai cooks with at least 10 years of experience. The Justice Ministry is considering shortening this period by bringing it in line with Thai standards to a minimum of around five years, the sources said.

Regarding Thai masseurs, who are currently barred from working in Japan, the ministry is thinking about accepting them on a limited basis by only allowing them to work for relaxation, not treatment, purposes, they said.

The masseurs might be accepted solely for work at Thai-style resort facilities here, they said.

The Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry, which oversees qualifications for masseuses, has barred Thai masseurs from providing treatment-oriented massage, which has stalled the FTA talks.

For caregivers, it is considering introducing a system similar to that for Filipino caregivers, the sources said.

Under the agreement with the Philippines, Japan will let a limited number of Filipino caregivers -- who meet certain qualifications designated by Manila -- to work in Japan for up to four years. They can stay longer if they pass Japanese qualification exams.

The government is now in the process of finalizing its proposal tor the FTA talks with Thailand on the movement of labor, which will center on deregulation of these three types of jobs, for formal submission to Bangkok, according to the sources.

The Japan Times: Feb. 13, 2005
(C) All rights reserved

MosNews: Russian Central Bank Switches to Euro-Dollar Basket in Targeting Ruble

Russian Central Bank Switches to Euro-Dollar Basket in Targeting Ruble
Created: 04.02.2005 13:35 MSK (GMT +3), Updated: 14:03 MSK
MosNews

Russia’s central bank said on Friday it had begun targeting the ruble’s nominal exchange rate against the euro as well as the dollar, the Reuters news agency reports. The shift is meant to bring currency policy more in line with trade flows.

The Bank of Russia said in a statement it had begun targeting a dual currency basket — made up of 90 U.S. cents and 10 euro cents — as of Feb. 1 and would gradually raise the weighting of euros.

“Increases of the weighting of the euro in the twin currency basket, to a level appropriate for the task of exchange rate policy, will take place step-by-step as market players adapt,” the statement said.

The announcement completes an informal shift undertaken by the central bank last year, when it was forced by market appreciation pressures to abandon a de facto nominal peg of the ruble to the dollar and allow it to rise.

The greenback’s weakness on global currency markets, as well as Russia’s oil-driven current account surplus, have led central bankers to say they were looking more at the euro as a guide to day-to-day exchange rate targeting.

The central bank said it would continue its “managed” float of the ruble —- policy jargon for market intervention —- to smooth out excessive volatility and maintain the stability of the ruble.

Dealers said the statement triggered dollar selling on the local currency market. One said the policy shift would help stop the ruble being buffeted by sharp euro-dollar moves, although other dealers remained at a loss over the practical impact.

“We still don’t really understand what it means,” said one.

The new twin basket applies to the nominal exchange rate of the ruble.

Russia’s central bank also targets the real effective exchange rate of the ruble, adjusted for inflation against a trade-weighted basket of currencies, as a benchmark to measure economic competitiveness.

It was also not immediately clear whether the new twin nominal basket would lead Russia to raise the weighting of euros in its gold and foreign exchange reserves, which hit an all-time high of $128.3 billion as of Jan. 28.

Russia’s reserves are the sixth largest in the world —- and the largest outside Asia —- and any news on whether the share of euros may rise is enough to move the euro-dollar exchange rate, dealers say.

TimesOnline:How to beat the markets: invest in dull firms

How to beat the markets: invest in dull firms
By Patrick Hosking, Investment Editor
TimesOnline

ECONOMISTS at the London Business School have come up with a “system” for beating the overall stock market that has worked for more than a century: pick boring stocks.

Dull companies with seemingly slow growth prospects have spectacularly outperformed racier-looking companies over the past 105 years.

A sum of £100 invested in 1900 in low-growth and therefore high-yielding shares would have grown to £6.9 million today, assuming no tax or dealing costs and all dividends reinvested. The same amount invested in high-growth, low-yielding companies would have grown to only £296,000 over the same period.

Even after adjusting for inflation, the boring stocks strategy would still have produced a 1,130-fold real return for the great-great-grandchildren of the original investor.

Paul Marsh, Professor of Finance, said that the trend had persisted on and off for the entire period and applied in other countries, too. “It’s compelling and intriguing and I wish I had a better explanation for it.”

American academics Fama and French first identified the trend in the 1980s and argued that it was explained by the risk premium demanded of high yielders. Professor Marsh prefers the explanation that irrational exuberance has persistently persuaded investors to ignore the lessons of history and buy into high-growth stories.

“Growth is a very easy strategy for fund managers to explain to clients. But buy a dog that continues to be a dog and you risk just looking stupid.”

In conjuction with ABN Amro, the LBS economists also published fresh research that found absolutely no evidence that fast-growing countries produced higher stock market returns than low-growth ones. Investors piling into China, India, Russia and Brazil might take note.

Mineweb: Philippines' mining campaign hasn't won hearts

Philippines' mining campaign hasn't won hearts
By: Dorothy Kosich
Posted: '07-FEB-05 05:19' GMT © Mineweb 1997-2004

RENO--(Mineweb.com) As the administration of President Arroyo embraces foreign mining investment as a solution to the socio-economic woes which plague the Philippines, the welcome mat isn't out in a number of areas.

As foreign mining companies from several nations line up to bid, the specter of the Marcopper tailings spill disaster still gives the Filipinos pause in a nation known for its lethal combination of corruption and terrorism.

Renewed investor interest in the mining sector has been recently sparked by the decision of the Supreme Court of the Philippines to reverse its landmark ruling against the 1995 Mining Law and, now to allow majority foreign ownership of domestic mining enterprises. The High Court last month closed the door to any further challenges to the law.

President Arroyo has made revival of the mining industry one of the cornerstones in her plan to achieve sustainable economic growth in the country. During a recent International Mining Conference hosted by the Chamber of Mines in Malacanang Palace, Arroyo said, "in a nutshell, our mining policy is minimum environmental and social effect, maximum contribution to the war on poverty." She asserts that the Philippines has the potential to be the fifth-largest mineral producer in the world with the third-largest gold reserves, and the four-largest copper reserves. During the conference, five companies based in Australia, Canada, China and the U.S. confirmed they had invested more than $3 billion in the Philippines.

Arroyo has appointed a special government envoy, Delia Albert, Presidential Advisory for Mineral Development, to cut processing time of mining application permits from one year to five months, and of mineral agreements from one to two years to seven months. In her speech, Arroyo also pledged to "fight for legislation compelling mining companies to pay directly to the local government units in the mining areas their share in the 2% tax on minerals. We are also prepared to propose legislation for the payment of the proper royalties to the indigenous peoples. Indigenous peoples need not fear that your lands are being taken away."

But, indigenous peoples are definitely fearful of foreign mining investment as the flames of protest are fanned by the Catholic Church, communist rebel groups, and villagers who were displaced during earlier mining projects.

The good news for foreign mining investment is that old projects are coming back to life. Atlas Consolidated Mining and Development has announced it will resume production at the copper project in Toledo City, Cebu. Atlas officials are negotiating with six foreign mining companies, three are Chinese, two Korean, and one Japanese firm. Atlas estimated that it needs $171 million to restart the Cebu copper project, which was closed in 1994 due to low copper prices.

The Toledo mine is estimated to have mineral resource of 873 million tons with a grade of 0.41 percent copper.

Businessman Felipe Yap, who controls Lepanto Consolidated Mining and Manila Mining, said talks are ongoing with a number of companies based in Australia, Canada, China, Great Britain and the United States concerning potential investments. Among these companies are Phelps Dodge, according to Yap, who also indicated that Ivanhoe Mines is interested in acquiring a stake in Lepanto.

Meanwhile, the former Presidential Assistant for Mindanao Paul G. Dominguez has just assumed the presidency of Sagittarius Mines, which owns a copper and gold project in Tampakan, South Citabato.

Nonetheless, not all is blissful in the new mining promised land of the Philippines.

THE RADICAL AND FED-UP OPPOSITION

Department of Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Mike Defensor had a strong pro-mining record as a senator. Nevertheless, he is about to issue a demand letter insisting that Marcopper Philippines release its $12 million rehabilitation fund to repair mine structures before another environmental disaster takes place.

In 1996, mine tailings from the Marcopper facility in the Boac, Marinduque province, caused an environmental nightmare as tailings found their way into a local river and several of its tributaries. Marcopper's then-minority partner put up a substantial portion of the $12-million rehabilitation fund, which somehow wound up transferred to the holding of the current majority shareholder of Marcopper businessman Teodoro Bernardino. Nine years after the disaster, Marcopper has yet to undertaken an extensive clean-up of the area.

Meanwhile a U.S. Geological Survey task force has warned that four mine tailings dams at Marcopper all appear to have structural flaws. It is feared that a strong typhoon or heavy rains could actually cause these dams to collapse, releasing more mine wastes into communities which already sustained damage from the 1996 spill.

A split has developed among members of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines as at least one prominent bishop warned that allowing foreign mining investment will create "a new menu for discontent. This will create unrest among the indigenous peoples."

Davao Archbishop Fernando Capalla, president of the conference, said he favors mining exploration provided that the country's natural resources aren't abused or misused. However, even Capalla urged the government to "reconsider the ecological and social costs accompanying the economic bonanza from mining."

Some of his bishops strongly oppose implementation of the Mining Act. Dipolog Bishop Jose Manguiran has insisted that opening up the natural resources of the country to foreign miners will not alleviate poverty. Capalla and other bishops are demanding that the mining sector demonstrate their goodwill by cleaning up mine tailings and rehabilitating open pits.

These bishops have demanded that mining companies supply them with concrete figures detailing the amounts that the government expects to get from each mining operations and how much of this will be repatriated to the home country of each foreign mining company. The clergy have also asked that mining companies to legally mandated to declare which of their operations will relocated populations and to submit comprehensive and viable plans for relocation.

Some groups won't even consider foreign mining investment and have warned of violence on mining companies which enter the ancestral lands of indigenous peoples. The Cordillera Peoples Alliance threatened protests, mass demonstrations, and resistance. "The country will become a battleground against the plunder of the people's resources," threatened Joan Carling, chair of the alliance.

Communist rebels operating in the Cordillera said they will attack if the government sends soldier to impacted villages. A spokesman for the Cordillera People's Democratic Front said they are closely monitoring Mankayan town in Benguet province and areas in the provinces of Abra, Mt. Province and Kalinga.

Meanwhile, nearly 130 Ifugao families in the Barangay Didipio have urged President Arroyo to spare their community from mining activity by Climax-Arimco, an Australian company, which plans to mine gold and silver in Didipio. The chair of the community recently told the Manila Times that a rich agriculture industry has been developed in the area. However, the Ifugao families are facing displacement for the second time when they were forced from their original homes in the Cordilleras in the 1960s.

"It's so revolting that after we painstakingly labored for decades to develop Didipio as our homeland, we're again being displaced by this mining project," the elder declared.

Bloomberg: Greenspan Says Current Account Gap May Begin to Fall

Greenspan Says Current Account Gap May Begin to Fall (Update7)

Feb. 4 (Bloomberg) -- Record U.S. trade and budget gaps may soon shrink, Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said in London, addressing a major complaint of finance ministers and central bankers from industrialized nations who are meeting there this weekend.

The ministers from the Group of Seven nations have warned that the swelling twin U.S. deficits are a threat to global economic stability. Adjustment has been slow, even with a two-year decline in the dollar, because companies exporting to the U.S. have been willing to put up with smaller profits, Greenspan said. That's now changing.

``We may be approaching a point, if we are not already there, at which exporters to the United States, should the dollar decline further, would no longer choose to absorb a further reduction in profit margins,'' Greenspan told the Advancing Enterprise 2005 conference. At the same time, ``U.S. exporters' profit margins appear to be increasing, which bodes well for future U.S. exports and the adjustment process.''

The dollar rose as Greenspan's comments suggested its 16 percent drop since February 2002 against a basket of currencies from its 30 largest trading partners is beginning to have an effect on the U.S. current account, the widest measure of trade in goods, services, and financial transfers.

Market pressures ``appear poised to stabilize and over the longer run possibly to decrease the U.S. current account deficit and its attendant financing requirements,'' Greenspan said. The current account deficit widened by $17.5 billion, to a record $164.7 billion in the third quarter of last year, from $147.16 billion in the first quarter.

Market Reaction

The dollar rose after Greenspan's speech, gaining to $1.2869 per euro at 1:40 p.m. in New York, from as low as $1.3045 earlier.

The speech was important because it ``runs against conventional wisdom regarding the Fed's thinking on several grounds'' about the fiscal and current account deficits, said Stephen Stanley, chief economist at RBS Greenwich Capital in Greenwich, Connecticut. ``He laid out today the case that the foundation for relief on these fronts is already in place. Thus, we should downgrade our fears, or at least our perception of the Fed's fears, about these two issues.''

Greenspan said that from ``early 2002 to early 2004, the dollar's exchange rate against the euro and sterling, on average, declined about 30 percent, yet dollar prices of imported manufactured goods from the European Union rose only 9 percent, slightly more than dollar prices of U.S. manufactured goods during the same two years,'' Greenspan, 78, said.

Exports

That willingness of exporters to the U.S. to accept lower margins to preserve market share, along with strong American consumer spending financed in part by mortgage debt and faster growth in the U.S. than its trading partners ``offset'' the effects of the dollar's decline.

The squeeze on profit margins ``absorbed'' about three- quarters of the dollar's decline relative to the euro and the British pound, he said.

At the same time, Americans financed greater spending on imports in part by refinancing mortgages or selling homes to spend the equity. ``Interestingly, the change in U.S. home mortgage debt over the past half-century correlates significantly with our current account deficit,'' he said. Consumers in the countries of U.S. trading partners don't have readily available access to mortgage financing ``to finance consumption expenditures,'' he added.

Budget Deficit

Those forces leading the U.S. current account deficit to expand are changing, he suggested. While foreign companies may have hedged their exposure to the falling dollar, many of those contracts likely will expire, he said. And now, although slowly, ``the lower dollar has undoubtedly boosted the competitiveness of U.S. exports and the profitability of U.S. exporters,'' Greenspan said.

In addition, ``some forces in the domestic U.S. economy seem about to head in the same direction,'' he said, as demands to cut the U.S. federal budget deficit mount. That would lower pressure to borrow from abroad, he said. ``The voice of fiscal restraint, barely audible a year ago, has at least partially regained volume.''

Last year, Greenspan also called on reduction in federal spending as a way of slowing demand and growth in the trade deficit. He hasn't called for increases in taxes, which would also lower demand.

Asian Central Banks

Asian governments have been buying dollars ``in support of their currencies,'' Greenspan said. ``Such intervention may be supporting the dollar and U.S. Treasury bond prices somewhat, but the effect is difficult to pin down.''

At the same conference today, Bank of England Governor Mervyn King suggested the mounting U.S. current account deficit and hoarding of dollar assets by Asian central banks might threaten the stability of the world economy.

King urged members of the Group of Seven industrial nations to agree ``on the nature of the risk'' and collaborate with China and India to rebalance currency reserves. He called on the International Monetary Fund to propose a series of changes. Greenspan is in London for a meeting of G-7 finance ministers and central bankers.

``There is likely to be a limit to the amount of debt that one country can issue as a result of persistent deficits before investors start to worry about its ability or willingness to repay,'' King said in his speech. Asia's accumulation of dollar reserves ``contributes to the potential instability of the international monetary system.''

Rubin's Concerns

China, Taiwan, and Korea had the largest stocks of international reserves in the world at the end of 2004. China's foreign reserves rose 51.3 percent to $609 billion, while Japan's reserves rose 26.3 percent for the year to $824 billion. All four countries ranked among the top eight nations in trade of goods with the U.S., according to the most recent government data through November.

Former U.S. Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin also told the conference America's record trade and federal budget deficits might lead to further declines in the dollar.

``The U.S. imbalances can have bond market effects and raise complex questions about our currency,'' Rubin, now chairman of Citigroup Inc.'s executive board, said. ``There is a fairly good chance the dollar could decline.''

Rubin called on President George W. Bush to rein in the budget deficit, which the White House anticipates will reach $427 billion this year. Bush pledges to halve the gap by 2009. ``It ``will not be fixed by tinkering around the edges,'' Rubin said. ``The U.S. is at a critical juncture.''

Some of the world's wealthiest investors expect the dollar to continue to fall, which would help narrow the current account deficit. George Soros, chairman of New York-based Soros Fund Management LLC, and Warren Buffett, chairman of Berkshire Hathaway Inc., have said they expect additional declines. And Bill Gates, the world's richest man and chairman of Microsoft Corp., said at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland Jan. 28 that he's short the dollar, expecting it to fall.

Bloomberg's Matthew Lynn: Are Commodity Prices Headed for Switch to Euros?

Are Commodity Prices Headed for Switch to Euros?
by Matthew Lynn

Feb. 3 (Bloomberg) -- Oil, metals and even aircraft may one day be priced in euros, not dollars. Dream on?

As the dollar stays weak on foreign-exchange markets, with little sign of a sustained recovery, there is speculation that at some point commodity prices will drop the U.S. currency. If that happens, it would herald a wider realignment of the global financial system -- and would indicate that the dollar's reign as the world's reserve currency was coming to a close.

It is too early to conclude the dollar is finished. Yet the challenge is real and growing. The world may well be set for a period during which the dollar and the euro compete for reserve status -- hardly a promising situation for global stability.

The dollar is being shunned for obvious reasons. The trade deficit grew to a record $609 billion last year, and George W. Bush's administration expects the budget shortfall to reach a record $427 billion in the year ending in September. The New York Board of Trade's Dollar Index, which measures the dollar against a basket of six currencies, has dropped 18 percent since the end of 2001.

There are three key responses to the changing status of the dollar in the global financial system. Central banks may shift their reserves out of dollars. The Asian currencies could end their pegs to the U.S. currency. And lastly, we could witness a breakdown in the pricing of commodities in dollars.

Central banks are already slowly raising the proportion of their reserves in euros, and reducing their dependency on dollars. That is likely to continue. Yet it will be a slow process -- not least because no central bank will want to dump dollars into an already fragile market.

Asian Pegs

Asian nations may or may not end their dollar pegs. Politics as much as economics will play the main role in those decisions.

That leaves commodity prices. If the dollar's unique status is indeed coming to an end, that is where we will see it first.

``It is crucial to the dollar's dominant role as a reserve currency that dollar pricing of oil should continue,'' noted Stephen Lewis, economist at Monument Securities Ltd. in London, in a recent analysis of the currency.

Is there a realistic chance of oil or any other major commodity switching its pricing into euros?

Last month, Hamad al-Sayari, the governor of the Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency, caused a ripple in the market with comments that he thought the role of euros in central-bank reserves would increase in the future, according to the Jeddah, Saudi Arabia-based English-language daily Arab News. More pertinently, he said it didn't matter much whether oil was priced in dollars or euros.

A Bookkeeping Matter

It might not matter to him, yet it does to everyone else.

Take a look at the issue from the perspective of an oil producer -- or a producer of any other major commodity.

At one level, which currency you price your products in is largely a matter of bookkeeping. The Saudis can price their oil in dollars, or the South Africans their gold, or the French all those new Airbus SAS aircraft, without it making much difference to their actual income. As soon as the dollars come in, they can sell them for whatever currency they want. If you are uncertain about the future price that your product is likely to command, then you can buy and sell currencies in the futures market.

Just because you price a product in a currency, you aren't compelled to hold that currency.

In the medium term it does matter. The producers of any product are looking for high and stable prices. If your product is priced in a permanently weak currency, then you have to keep raising the prices. That is far from satisfactory. At some point, the temptation to switch to a stronger currency will become irresistible.

Who Will Break Ranks?

Next, commodity pricing matters to the currency markets. The fact that commodities are priced in dollars is one of the key sources of that currency's strength. Everyone buying big-ticket items such as oil, metals or aircraft must buy dollars for their purchases. That is a major source of demand for the currency.

Who will be the first to break ranks? Right now, that is no more than speculation. Russian oil must be one candidate -- most of it is sold in Europe anyway. Airbus aircraft must be another candidate -- the bulk of its costs are in euros, and it has the luxury of now being the dominant producer in its industry.

Nobody should hold their breath. ``Maybe one day,'' says Airbus spokeswoman Barbara Kracht in an e-mailed response to questions. ``The point is that it is the customers who decide, and for the time being they are asking for quotations in dollars.''

Decline or Rout?

True enough. You need to hold a very strong market position to impose a new currency on your industry.

Much depends on the future path of the dollar. It has been weak for about three years now. So far, producers have responded with higher prices. Two more years of dollar weakness, and they may well decide to take more radical action.

It will only take one commodity producer to break ranks, and the move will be widely imitated. At that point, the dollar's decline could well turn into a rout. Commodity pricing is now the weakest line of defense for the dollar.

Fool.com: How to Analyze an Industry by Selena Maranjian

How to Analyze an Industry
By Selena Maranjian (TMF Selena)
February 3, 2005

You're smart to think about and evaluate an industry before thinking about and evaluating a company in it. In his book Competitive Strategy, Harvard Business School professor Michael Porter lays out five competitive forces that affect an industry.

Threat of entry. This can be assessed by evaluating how much capital it takes to enter the industry -- the economies of scale, switching costs, and brand value. It's easier to enter the lawn-service industry than the semiconductor equipment industry -- one requires some relatively inexpensive equipment, while the other requires factories and much specialized knowledge. Switching costs protect some Internet companies, for example. People will think twice about switching from Time Warner's (NYSE: TWX) America Online to another e-mail provider because they'll have to alert too many people of their new address.

Bargaining power of suppliers. If you're running an airline, there are only a few airplane suppliers, such as America's Boeing (NYSE: BA) and Europe's Airbus. It's more difficult in that situation to play one against the other, trying to strike a bargain. If there were many suppliers, they'd likely be competing more for your business, which might result in lower costs for you.

Bargaining power of buyers. This is affected by brand power, switching costs, the relative volume of purchases, standardization of the product, and elasticity of demand (where demand increases as prices fall, and vice versa). In book retailing, buyers have many choices and can easily compare prices online. This gives them bargaining power.

Availability of substitutes. If you're in the restaurant industry, your business will be affected by how easily people can buy takeout meals at supermarkets, how many people prepare meals at home, and the availability of other alternatives.

Competitive rivalry. The more competitive an industry is, the more likely you are to have price wars and reduced profitability. The airline industry is a good example here. Over the years, it has not offered the best returns to investors.

Take these things into consideration and you may be able to zero in on the most attractive company in the industry. Alternatively, you might learn that the entire industry just isn't as attractive as you thought.