Fortescue Shipment Up 36%, Sydney Down

Chandrasekhar Atreya
15 Jul, 2010
New York City

Stocks in Australia traded lower echoing market sentiments across Asia. Fortescue

[R]6:00 PM Sydney, Australia – Stocks in Australia traded lower echoing market sentiments across Asia. Fortescue’s fourth quarter shipments rise 36%. Canada’s Pension Plan offers to buy Sydney-based toll operator Intoll Group. Ichthys, the natural gas project in northern Australia, will contribute A$3.5 billion to the nation’s GDP, says Inpex of Japan.[/R]

Stocks in Australia echoed market sentiments in Asia and traded lower, after China announced its GDP expansion slowed in the second quarter of this fiscal.

The ASX 200 Index in Australia lost 0.44% or 19.80 to close at 4,442.60 in Sydney today.

Reaffirming that any cap to new spending growth to balance the budget would be 2%, Treasurer Wayne Swann said these limits will also apply to any climate changing legislation.

“The new measures will fit into our fiscal rules. These fiscal rules are strict and will apply to any new measures,” he told Australian Broadcasting Corp radio in Canberra today. Anew climate policy for the driest inhabited continent in the world would be one of the three areas the new premier sought to address after taking over.

Fortescue Metals Group Ltd said fourth quarter shipments of iron ore rose 36% after production was increased to benefit from higher demand from steel mills and higher prices.

Shipments were 11.04 million tons in the quarter ended June 30, from 8.14 million tons a year ago, Perth-based Fortescue said today in a statement. The company also has plans to increase production from its Chichester operations to 55 million tons by 2011 and start work on the Solomon project in the first quarter next year.

Canada Pension Plan Investment Board offered to buy Intoll Group of Australia, backed by Macquarie Group Ltd, in a second attempt to buy a toll-road operator in eight months.

Canada’s second-biggest public pension money manager offered A$3.47 billion or A$1.535 for each Intoll share, at 38% premium or 42 cents more than the closing price yesterday, Sydney-based Intoll said in a statement today. Intoll gave the bidder three weeks to carry out the due diligence.

Sigma Pharmaceuticals Ltd, the takeover target of Durban-based Aspen Pharmacare Holdings Ltd, today cut its full-year profit forecast by as much as 46%, citing intense competition in its generic drug business.

Net income will probably be between A$43 million to A$47 million in the year ending Jan 31, 2011, Melbourne-based Sigma said today. The company had said June 21 it may miss its earnings forecast.

APA Group, Australia’s major natural gas supplier, raised A$300 million from BBB rated 10-year bonds to refinance maturing debts.

The company sold these bonds through its APT Pipelines Ltd unit, pricing them to yield 240 basis points more than the mid-swap rate, according to regulatory filing today by the company.

Inpex Corp expects its Ichthys natural gas project developed in northern Australia to contribute A$3.5 billion per year to the nation’s GDP. Ichthys is designed to produce 8.4 million tons of LNG a year, Inpex said.