Corus offers to acquire precoated service center by year end

Corus offers to acquire precoated service center by year end

According to a press release, Corus has intentions to acquire the entire stakes of an independent precoated steel service center based in the United Kingdom called Precoat, which sources most of its material from Corus. The offer is worth £7.25 million and includes the two subsidiaries Precoat possesses after the recent disposal of the Canadian subsidiary Color Steels Inc. , that are namely Color Steels in South Wales and Europressings in Cardiff. Completion is expected by end of December 2002. Color Steels is an important steel service center in the UK with a turnover of £44.1 million in the financial year to 30 April and a pretax profit of £1.1 million. Corus plans to create a new business called Corus Colorsteels by combining Color Steels with its Corus Metal Services Europe (CMSE) unit's service center in the pre-coated business. Europressings will again operate under CMSE within its automotive service center activities. Furthermore, reports from the industry implicate that Corus Colors is considering a price increase of €30/ton in mainland Europe and £20/mt in the UK for organic coated products in Q1. With such increase, it is believed that the gap between steel prices that have gone far ahead and coated steel prices will be reduced. Demand in Europe for organic coated products appears to be still strong.