044《经济学家》读译参考之四十四举足轻重的金属-北美矿业公司天价并购案.docVIP

TEXT 44 Heavyweight metal 举足轻重的金属（陈继龙 编译） Jun 29th 2006 From The Economist print edition FIRST it was metals, now it is the companies that mine them. In May prices for copper, nickel and other metals rose to record levels, although they have since fallen a bit. Now three mining firms are proposing the most expensive merger in the industrys history. （1）The $40 billion deal, in which an American company, Phelps Dodge, plans to take over two Canadian ones, Inco and Falconbridge, would create the worlds biggest producer of nickel, the number two in copper, and the fifth-ranked mining firm overall. The records may not stop there: two other mining firms, Xstrata and Teck Cominco, had previously bid for Falconbridge and Inco r________①, and could make further offers. 一开始价格不断攀升的是金属，而今是矿业公司。5月，铜、镍和其它金属价格升至创纪录新高，尽管此前曾有小幅度下跌。而现在，三家矿业公司正在谋划该产业有史以来最昂贵的一次合并。此宗涉及美国菲尔普斯－道奇公司并购加拿大Inco镍业公司和鹰桥公司的交易总额达400亿美元，合并后的公司将成为全球最大的镍生产商和第二大铜生产商，公司整体规模也将位居世界第五。纪录也许还会进一步被刷新——此前，另外两家矿业公司瑞士Xstrata和Teck Cominco公司也曾各自对鹰桥和Inco提出过收购要约，并且有可能进一步抬高价码。 Soaring commodities prices have left mining firms flush with cash and k_______② to expand. One way would be to search for more metal in the ground, instead of on the stockmarket. But organic growth is expensive at the moment; as firms rush to increase their output to take advantage of high prices, every conceivable input, from engineers to mining trucks huge tyres, is in desperately short supply. Developing new mines is also slow. （2）Mining executives worry that projects that get the go-ahead[1] when prices are high will not look so attractive when the next slump comes. 日用品价格的飞涨让矿业公司现金充足，同时也急欲把业务做大。做大业务的办法之一就是开采更多的金属，而不是在股市坐收渔利。不过眼下有机增长代价昂贵；当各公司都急于增加产量以借高价之机狠赚一笔的时候，从工程师到采矿车的巨大轮胎，凡是能想到的各项投入都严重供不应求，而且新矿的开发也太慢。采矿管理人士担心，到下一轮经济萧条时期来临时，金属高价期间获准开采的工程将风光不再。 That could be true of the proposed merger too, of course. Phelps Dodge offered a premium of 23% over the price of Incos shares and 12% over Falconbridges. Those shares, in turn, have been rising for several years