Nonferrous Majors Gained from Major Acquisition

World nonferrous mineral majors gained through aggressive merger and acquisition. After acquisition of Canadian nickel major, CVRD of Brazil expanded the nonferrous metal unit profit to 19 times and Xstrata of Switzerland tripled the profit in January-June from same period of 2006. Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold doubled the profit after acquisition of Phelps Dodge. BHP Billiton increased the nonferrous metals profit by 28% under surging metal prices. CVRD acquired nickel resources through acquisition of Inco along with copper and precious metals. The firm posted US$ 4.717 billion of earning before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization for nonferrous metals in January-June compared with US$ 249 million in same period of 2006. Xstrata posted US$ 5.048 billion of EBITDA for copper, nickel and zinc business in first 6 months, which was 3.1 times of same period of 2006. The nickel profit was US$ 1.699 billion thanks to acquisition of Falconbridge. The zinc unit, which became world largest business after the acquisition, posted 2.3 times profit at US$ 1.019 billion while the copper unit doubled the profit to US$ 2.33 billion. Teck Cominco, which lost the battle for Inco, posted 17% lower operating profit for January-June from same period of 2006. The firm reduced the profit due to copper sales slump for some mines along with lower coal price.