Word: steeled
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...that end, up to 15,000 U.S. and British troops have been deployed in a ring of steel around the town, intending to cut off any lines of retreat from insurgents who may seek to disperse and fight on elsewhere, and then methodically retake it street by street. Although formal political control of the operation is in the hands of the Allawi government - the interim prime minister gave the attack order Monday - the Iraqi forces deployed there are very much in a support role to the Marine spearhead. Indeed, the battle is also considered a major test of the Iraqi...
...expected weakening of the U.S. economy and an ailing dollar, which makes Asian products more expensive for U.S. consumers and curbs export growth. But a new factor putting the brakes on Asia is China. Over the past two years, soaring demand from China for everything from steel to palm oil to semiconductors has been the engine driving Asian economies. Fear of overheating, however, has forced Beijing's policymakers to curtail bank lending and new investment. For next year, Morgan Stanley expects China to grow at a still swift 7%, but that's much slower than the 9.5% forecast...
...INDUSTRY: Steel springs back...
...future's bright for the men of steel, right? Maybe not for long. After all, cyclical industries like steel are, well, cyclical. Sure, the economic boom in China is currently driving up steel demand - and prices. But how sustainable is that boom? Many observers still believe that prices will fall as a result of the World Trade Organization move that forced the U.S. in December 2003 to drop tariffs it had introduced in 2002, though that market effect has yet to emerge. Dropping prices could make it harder for Mittal to service its estimated debt of $3.2 billion...
...scale to ride out the downward part of the cycle," says Daswani. "No-one sits pretty in a downturn. But it's the small and medium-sized companies who get squeezed first." Maybe so, but survival in an industry as tough and turbulent as this one takes nerves of steel...