Word: ores
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...investors in the country. After all, Beijing had effectively dropped the case's most ominous element: the charge that Rio's Stern Hu and his three colleagues had allegedly stolen "state secrets," in part by bribing executives of Chinese steel companies, who are Rio's largest buyers of iron ore. Under a state-secrets charge, the four men faced the prospect of a secret trial and the possibility of lifetime sentences. Now that the government will only charge them with using "improper means" to gain access to commercial secrets - commercial bribery - the executives will have access to legal counsel...
...levels in Beijing" that Rio walked away in June from a $19.5 billion tie-up it had struck late last year with Chinalco, the Chinese state-owned aluminum company. To make matters worse, from Beijing's perspective, Rio then turned around and agreed to a joint venture in iron ore with global rival BHP Billiton. Together the two control about 75% of the world's iron ore, which China's steelmakers consume ravenously. "That deal is China's worst nightmare," says an investment-banking source with close ties to the global mining industry. (See pictures of China's infrastructure boom...
...China's second tack is to prolong negotiations over the contract price of iron ore with the two main suppliers, hoping to wear them down while frantically moving to line up other potential sources beyond Rio and BHP Billiton for next year and beyond. China is the world's largest steel producer, and despite the global recession, its factories are running close to flat-out thanks to enormous infrastructure construction and brisk sales for new autos and apartments. That means it would appear to have little leverage in pursuit of the price cuts on iron ore that it seeks...
...previous viruses such as the outbreak of SARS in 2002 and 2003, are taking no chances. Chinese crews wearing masks and medical suits now walk through all international airplanes upon arrival, testing passengers' temperatures with pistol-grip thermometers. When one student from St. Mary's School in Medford, Ore., tested positive on a trip to China in mid-July, 65 fellow pupils and seven chaperones were isolated in a Beijing hotel...
...that doesn't mean there aren't grim pockets elsewhere. By the end of March 2011, Deutsche Bank projects, 65% of borrowers in the Chicago metro area, 71% of those in the Baltimore and Portland, Ore., areas, and 77% in greater New York City will be underwater. On paper, that might look a lot better than the 93% Deutsche Bank is expecting for Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and the 92% figure for El Centro, Calif. But to the people living in those houses, unable to move, the relative good fortune will likely be little consolation...