Mexico stocks begin rebound now

"Mexico's IPC equity index rose 0.7% to 27,927 as investors hunted for bargains ...shares of Grupo Mexico added [3.5%] to their 14% surge from the previous session after a judge's ruling puts the company closer to regaining control of Asarco LLC, an Arizona mining company that it had lost control of in 2005 in the wake of Asarco's bankruptcy filing.

Market heavyweight Petrobras' (PBR) shares climbed 2.4% after BP (BP) said it made a "giant" discovery of oil in the Gulf of Mexico. Petrobras said in a statement that its Petrobras America subsidiary holds a 20% stake in the project. ConocoPhillips (COP) holds an 18% stake and BP has a 62% stake."
http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/djhighlights/200909021557DOWJONESDJONLINE000579.htm

Hon Hai (Foxconn) shows record profits (So does Grupo Mexico)

" 'The Mexico [Tijuana/Baja] site is Sony’s main TV production base, and selling that suggests the company may be selling other smaller sites.'
— Kota Ezawa, Citigroup analyst" [Citigroup is an ASARCO principle bondholder, and Foxconn has become the anchor-maquiladora for the new international city being built within the toxic-shadow of the El Paso ASARCO smelter]

"Hon Hai, the world’s largest contract maker of electronics, gained 6.8 percent to close at NT$118.5 on the Taipei Stock Exchange, the highest level since Aug. 29 last year. The company on Monday posted its first profit increase in five quarters, beating analysts’ estimates. Second-quarter net income rose 27 percent to NT$15.1 billion (US$460 million) from a year earlier."

[both Grupo Mexico and Hon Hai are showing recent record profits.  Meanwhile, the community of El Paso Texas gets @52 million to "remediate" 110 years of Asarco's legal and illegal incineration activities -- many of the remaining contamination has NOT BEEN DISCLOSED.  The EPA has documentation saying that contamination is in our Rio Grande, the Hueco bolson, our soils and redistributed through our airshed.]

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/biz/archives/2009/09/02/2003452602

FNS News: Sony Outsources Border Factory [to Foxconn in Tijuana] ASARCO Bondholder Citigroup Inc. analyst comments

"Tijuana News September 2, 2009 Sony Outsources Border Plant

Battered by multi-billion dollar losses, Sony Corp. ...announced this week it will sell a 90 percent interest in a [Tijuana/Baja] factory that manufactures LCD television screens to Hon Hai Precision Industry Co.of Taiwan ...[it] will be managed by Hon Hai’s Foxconn division.

Foxconn, however, is among many electronics manufacturers that routinely outsource jobs to temporary employment agencies which don’t pay the full range of benefits....In addition to Tijuana, Foxconn is currently expanding production activities in Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua....

Sources: Frontera, September 1, 2009. Los Angeles Times/Associated Press, September 1, 2009. Juarez-El Paso Now, August 2009. Cereal report, October 2007. Frontera NorteSur (FNS): on-line, U.S.-Mexico border news Center for Latin American and Border Studies New Mexico State University Las Cruces,New Mexico"

see also http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/biz/archives/2009/09/02/2003452602
"Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) will buy the stake in a liquid-crystal-display TV unit based in Tijuana, Mexico, and the unit’s manufacturing assets...The sale signals that Sony — which is cutting 16,000 jobs and has shut eight factories to revive its profitability as it heads into its first consecutive annual losses since its listing in 1958 — may eventually stop making TVs, said Kota Ezawa, an analyst at Citigroup Inc in Tokyo."

exactly how much "Caffeine" did Asarco release in the Paso del Norte?

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gRNiTtgwAEeIASdS5QDK8fH0NlQAD9AERFPO0  "Effort in NM to keep medications out of Rio GrandevBy SUSAN MONTOYA BRYAN (AP) Sept 1, 2009  ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — New Mexico's largest water utility announced a plan Tuesday aimed at educating the public and keeping pharmaceuticals out of one of the West's most important water ways, the Rio Grande.  The announcement by the Albuquerque Bernalillo County Water Utility Authority follows a recent discovery in the Rio Grande of caffeine, which scientists often look for as a possible signal for the presence of other contaminants.[ i.e. the "canary in the mine"] An environmental group also reported earlier this summer that it found traces of pharmaceuticals in the Rio Grande Valley's irrigation system."

Grupo Mexico Attorney Firm

"On Monday U.S. bankruptcy judge Richard Schmidt in Corpus Christi approved a sale of Asarco that could help the company emerge from bankruptcy. But it wasn't the reorganization plan backed by Baker Botts.  Instead, Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy restructuring partner Robert Moore and Haynes and Boone bankruptcy partner Charles Beckham, Jr., emerged victorious on behalf of Asarco parent Grupo Mexico, which had lost control of its subsidiary in the Chapter 11 case. Grupo Mexico was competing with India's Sterlite Industries, which had a sale contract with the debtor."
http://amlawdaily.typepad.com/amlawdaily/2009/09/the-bankruptcy-files-asarco-set-for-chapter-11-exit.html

For more, do a search with the blog's search engine.

and:

"Milbank is unquestionably one of the best firms around... standing in the top band nationally with Skadden, Latham, White & Case and Chadbourne. Working out of DC, NY and LA, the firm’s projects team interacts seamlessly with the London, Tokyo Hong Kong and Singapore offices on complex multijurisdictional financings, mainly on the lender side of power, mining, transportation infrastructure and oil and gas work. "
http://www.chambers-associate.com/chambers.aspx?fid=119

The Asarco Bankruptcy is only part of the story...

What is coming down is a planned international city in the 15-mi toxic shadow of the El paso ASARCO smelter -- built by a developer whose top guy is now president of the USA Carlyle Realty Group.  Grupo Mexico is 20% owned by the Carlyle Group.  Grupo Mexico controls the Ferromex/UP railroad in Mexico.

This city is the first of many (the model could be "sold") that could be built in the NAFTA zone from San Diego to Brownsville -- aimed toward  the coveted target-market that lies within the 300 mile "zone" along our U.S.A. eastern seaboard.

Carlye owns CSX railroad along the eastern seaboard.

Grupo Mexico is hoping to bid and win on a 50 year contract to run the Port of Punta Colonet and the freight rail to this international city and its port of entry -- the north/south rail has already been arranged.    UP Railroad has begun to aquire the land north of this site for its modal container platform and oil storage for its east-west Sunset line --- also within the toxic shadow of the EL Paso Asarco stacks.

• And it is all done by ignoring the illegal and secret ASARCO contamination sealed in the 1998 DOJ settlement with Asarco.
• It is all done by sacrificing the young, the elderly and infirm living in this region to the toxic waste.
• It is done by marginalizing those who seek to speak out, and eliminating their economic-base.
• It is done by sacrificing people living across from the smelter in Mexico and by sacrificing Mexican Americans in this border city.
• It is done by putting profit above health - -  and profit above scruples.
• It is done by looking the other way and talking about "risk-assessment" when trying to link 110 years of smelting toxins to the health problems surrounding the stacks-of-asarco
  

www.epgtlo.blogspot.com

Who bet on Grupo Mexico? BIG gains in stock

Grupo Mexico Jumps Most in 15 Years After Asarco Unit Ruling "Bloomberg US Bankruptcy Judge Richard Schmidt yesterday sent his recommendation to a district court judge who will make the final decision on Asarco, more than five ..."

Grupo Mexico stock surges after Asarco ruling Forbes ... "surged on Tuesday after a US judge recommended that the company be allowed to take control of US copper miner Asarco as it emerges from bankruptcy. ..."

"Bankruptcy Court Recommends Parent Plan [Grupo Mexico] in ASARCO LLC Reorganization"

Bankruptcy Court Recommends Parent Plan in ASARCO LLC Reorganization "Reuters The judge`s recommendation proposes that the federal district court approve the parent companies` plan rather than the one filed by the debtor, ASARCO LLC ..." (google alert)

ASARCO Montana EPA Chief dies from climbing accident Thursday August 20, two weeks after the stacks were demolished

EVE BYRON - Independent Record - 08/25/09 | Posted: Tuesday, August 25, 2009 12:00 am

[Montana's State EPA Chief...]"John Wardell arguably changed the landscape across Montana more than any other single person in recent times, and his death last week in a climbing accident is being mourned throughout the Treasure State....Wardell died last Thursday after tumbling down a steep mountainside in the Cabinet Mountains Wilderness Area near Libby....Wardell also presided over most of reclamation work in ... East Helena [Asarco].  Just two weeks ago, he watched as the three Asarco smokestacks in East Helena were blown up...he mused about how he had worked on the East Helena site even before moving to Montana, and how he anticipated signing the final Record of Decision regarding the city's Superfund cleanup work.

A careful balancing Act: Neither side willing to admit what happened in El Paso Texas...

[remember two things when reading this -- that in 1998 both the EPA and the Federal DOJ knew that ASARCO (Grupo Mexico sat on the board but did not own it) that Asarco had illegally burned secret toxic wastes from military and industrial sources for years (and the DOJ/EPA hid this information from the public for EIGHT MORE YEARS as a confidential-document!).  The winter of 1998 the TCEQ abruptly decided not to have a nuclear dump in Sierra Blanca TX after all, and the EPA quietly registered Beta-Radiation levels in El Paso TX that were the highest in the U.S.A. Then Asarco decided in Feb. 99 to shut down temporarily, saying that copper prices were down and both ASARCO and the patent for the Con-Top furnaces were coincidentally sold off....]

The following is an excerpt of M. Bosque's TX Observer article http://www.voiceyourself.com/site/the_big_issues/article.php?article_id=5908&prev_id=

"....On a hot afternoon in June, the 54-year-old Larrea, one of the world's richest men, took the witness stand at the federal courthouse in Brownsville. It was the first time many of the people inside the courtroom - including attorneys on his payroll - had ever seen the reclusive Mexican billionaire. There are few available photos of Larrea and little public information about his private life. He had fought the federal subpoena compelling him to testify for days. He had finally relented and flown into Brownsville on his private jet from Mexico City earlier that morning. Security guards had banned photographers from the front steps of the courthouse. Shortly before his testimony, Larrea was whisked into the courtroom under the escort of several armed U.S. marshals, who remained on site throughout his five hours on the stand.

Seated in the witness chair, Larrea glowered at the 30 lawyers in the courtroom - representing Asarco, and Grupo Mexico - business reporters, miners, and large, moveable bookcases of evidence that had been wheeled into the room. Larrea had come to defend himself in a lawsuit alleging that he had defrauded Asarco's creditors.

The case in which Larrea was testifying is an outgrowth of the bankruptcy. When Asarco filed for Chapter 11, federal Judge Richard Schmidt removed Asarco from Larrea's control. Bankruptcy experts say this was a highly unusual move. Larrea's Grupo Mexico still technically owns the company, but no longer has any say in operations. The judge appointed a three-member independent board to oversee Asarco (the board remolded the company into an entity called Asarco LLC). The board is supposed to ensure that the company isn't deceiving several hundred creditors with unpaid contracts and asbestos claims.

Controlled by the independent board, Asarco LLC then sued its former bosses at Grupo Mexico. The lawsuit alleges that Larrea had defrauded Asarco's creditors by swiping Asarco's most valuable asset - Peru's largest copper company. The Peruvian mines' stock was worth $8.25 billion at the time the lawsuit was filed in 2007, according to court records, though Larrea transferred the mines from Asarco to a Grupo Mexico subsidiary at a grossly undervalued price, $756 million, according to the lawsuit. The suit accuses Larrea of bilking creditors out of billions of dollars. "The plaintiff contends that the sale, therefore, was not made to improve Asarco's financial position, but was solely a means for Grupo to 'cherry-pick' Asarco's most prized asset before it was lost to creditors or by bankruptcy," the suit alleges. Asarco LLC wants the value of the Peruvian company stocks returned to Asarco LLC creditors.

The lawsuit is a legal sideshow to the larger bankruptcy case. But the outcome of the lawsuit could have a huge impact. Some of the money at stake in the lawsuit over the Peruvian mines could help pay for cleanup of Asarco's environmental pollution. (The U.S. government considers the Peruvian mines a crucial asset in paying to clean up Asarco's many toxic sites.)

On this June day in Brownsville, Larrea had come to tell his side of the story. Federal Judge Andrew Hanen had to silence the courtroom before Larrea could begin his testimony. The CEO wore a conservative, well-tailored, dark blue business suit with a red tie. For such a powerful man, Larrea was surprisingly soft-spoken, answering the lawyers and judge in a hushed and barely audible, but fluent, English. Several times, the judge asked him to speak louder so that people in the back of the courtroom could hear.

Larrea repeatedly denied that his motive for purchasing Asarco was to gain control of the valuable Andean copper mines. The CEO said the decision on the mines was solely the opinion of some Asarco and Grupo Mexico officials. (U.S. marshals ensured that no journalists could get within speaking distance of the billionaire.) In a separate statement from his company, he called Asarco LLC's lawsuit "reprehensible."

His history with Asarco began in 1999, when Larrea took over as CEO of Grupo Mexico shortly after his father's death. One of his first purchases was Asarco, for $2.2 billion. [Purchased after the EPA/DOJ sealed the information about what had happened, and after the El Paso site was shut down "temporarily"] At the time, however, the once-powerful Asarco was hemorrhaging cash.

Initially, Larrea testified in Hanen's courtroom, he believed the company's growing environmental liabilities could be solved through negotiations. [What negotiations were made to get someone on the board of Asarco (Grupo Mexico) to buy it after this devastating environmental catastrophe happened -- i.e., incinerating unmanifested illegal toxic wastes from military & industrial sources for years in the heart of a community??!] "In those days, we were confident we could reach an agreement with all parties on the remediations," Larrea said. "But then the company started losing too much money on legal issues."

By 2002 [Right after the EPA came to El Paso TX to "test" in 2001, but EPA still kept the real contamination SECRET], officials in the U.S. Department of Justice worried that Asarco would sell off its most valuable asset - the Peruvian mines - and would be left with nothing to pay for its numerous environmental cleanups. The department sought an injunction to stop the sale. Negotiations between the Justice Department and Grupo Mexico labored on until the end of 2002.[Just how bad was that contamination??] Finally, Grupo agreed to fund a $100 million trust to help pay Asarco's $1 billion in environmental liabilities at the time.  [Remember, there was a change-over from the Clinton Administration to the Bush Administration during this time, and that Carlyle Group now owns 20% of Grupo Mexico]

It was a good deal for Larrea. The Justice Department allowed Larrea to proceed with his sale of the lucrative Peruvian mines in exchange for paying one-tenth of Asarco's environmental cleanup costs...." [which came partially from the ASARCO company burning military wastes illegally along with whatever other unmanifested (i.e. "untracked") wastes were burned during the 1990's].

Have you had your Lead (Pb) Test today?

"Children are poisoned by putting lead objects in their mouths or from touching a dusty or peeling lead object and then putting their fingers in their mouths. Dust containing lead can also be inhaled.  According to the Environmental Protection Agency, a level of 400 milligrams of lead per kilogram of soil is considered safe. However, according to studies by Howard Mielke, Xavier University professor of toxicology, the median level of contamination in New Orleans prior to Katrina was about 1,000 milligrams of lead per kilogram of soil, nearly three times the EPA standard."  http://www.allbusiness.com/north-america/united-states-louisiana/1101357-1.html

ASARCO's own Hydrometrics-report-map shows one place at the site where Lead is 19,000 milligrams of lead per kilogram of soil.  Near the Historic Smelter cemetery the map shows Lead values that are over 12,000 milligrams of lead per kilogram of soil.  

If 1000 milligrams of lead per kilogram of soil is "nearly three times the EPA standard" then what is 12,000 or 19,000??  How about-- 36 and 57 times the EPA standard for residential -- and this dust is picked up in every dust storm and distributed around the City...

And what about Polonium (Radioactive Lead?).   It is *very* commonly found around smelters and we have never been told what its levels are, here.

Baker Botts makes 100 Mil while Mexican American community gets around 52 Mil for clean-up...

[note:  for a (primarily Mexican-American) community of 742,062 people (not counting Sunland Park N.M., or Cd Juarez), that comes to Asarco being willing to pay less than 74$ a head to make sure that each person in El Paso has clean air and water from 110 years of smelting....]

Baker Botts Hits $100 Million Mark in Asarco Bankruptcy by Brian Baxter
.... "The final closing argument on the confirmation hearing was today and we expect a ruling from the judge on Monday."
http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1202433446608#

Baker Botts lists offices in:

Dubai
Austin
Bejing
Dallas
Abu Dhabi
Hong Kong
Houston
London
Moscow
New York
Palo Alto
Riyadh
Washington (D.C.)
http://www.bakerbotts.com/about/

Arcelor Mittal who took over the old Border Steel plant.... now plans to restart two furnaces in USA

"UPDATE 1-Furnace restarts signal US steel industry rebound
Thursday August 20, 2009 03:06:21 PM GMT

USA-STEEL/ (UPDATE 1)
* ArcelorMittal to restart two U.S. furnaces"
http://www.forexyard.com/en/reuters_inner.tpl?action=2009-08-20T210615Z_01_N20536727_RTRIDST_0_USA-STEEL-UPDATE-1

(do a search in this blog for "Arcelor Mittal")

"Mexico Peso slips; Grupo Mexico up on Asarco bets"

The USA wants Mexico's Oil and petroleum/natural-gas exploration/equipment contracts; and, Mexico wants to ship goods to that 300-mile-wide "magic" NAFTA-consumer-zone along the USA eastern seaboard....

Incredible buying power along the USA eastern seaboard.  Trade Companies world-wide aim shipments toward that population...

Meanwhile, El Paso Texas sits in the middle of it - the nexus and the center of it -- and to pull this all off the powers-that-be have to ignore the EPA-Federal DOJ confidential-for-settlement-purposes-only document that tells the tale about how Asarco burned unmanifested (secret) toxic-waste for years to make $$$ --- from both military and industrial sources.

(see NYTimes front-page article)

Coincidentally, Carlye owns 20% of Grupo Mexico (which controls Ferromex/UP railroad), Carlyle controls all of the CSX railroad along the USA eastern seaboard, and a former high-level executive for the guy who created the 1st planned international city that all this rail will go through (next to ASARCO El Paso) now is in charge of the Carlyle USA Realty group.  (use this blog's search engine to look for "Carlyle")

Google News Alert for: asarco

Mexican peso slips; Grupo Mexico up on Asarco bets Reuters MXX rose 0.40 percent, lifted by a gain in shares of Grupo Mexico on bets it could win control of bankrupt copper miner Asarco LLC. ... See all stories on this topic

"MEXICO CITY, Aug 28 (Reuters) - Mexico's peso slipped on Friday, as data on U.S. consumers added to worries of a sluggish recovery in the United States, Mexico's top trading partner...The IPC stock index .MXX rose 0.40 percent, lifted by a gain in shares of Grupo Mexico on bets it could win control of bankrupt copper miner Asarco LLC....Mexico sends more than 80 percent of its exports to the United States and a rebound in U.S. consumer demand is key to spur a recovery for Mexico from its deepest recession since the 1930s...."

"Asarco has paid $241,316,423 to professionals working on the bankruptcy case" (@ One Quarter of a Billion dollars)

and the community fighting for its health?  3 people have been fired/non-renewed for their research and support against Asarco contamination of our drinking water, and others have experienced concurrent apparent retaliations.  Asarco paid the El Paso City Schools less than $25,000 for the contamination of our children's schools in the settlement (see recent El Paso Times Asarco article).

Google News Alert for: asarco

Arizona Daily Star There's huge money for attorneys in Asarco bankruptcy Arizona Daily Star Asarco LLC, the Tucson-based copper producer, hired an elite Houston law firm, Baker Botts, for its bankruptcy case. Baker Botts, in turn has assembled a ... See all stories on this topic

"From August 2005, when Asarco made its bankruptcy filing through July 31 this year, Asarco has paid Baker Botts $102.2 million in legal fees. ...They include Navigant Consulting, which has received $10.7 million for its “advisory services,” and Recon Real Estate Consultants, which has been paid $1.5 million. .... remember that all these payments are approved by the bankruptcy judge."

NO MENTION OF THE YEARS OF SECRET TOXIC WASTE

"In contrast, the United Steelworkers of America have threatened to strike Asarco if Grupo Mexico should take back control of the company, and Kinzie said the parent's proposal will leave Grupo Mexico dangerously short on available cash.

Asarco also noted its plan has the backing of bondholders [HARBINGER, CITIGROUP] , the unsecured creditors committee, and its largest creditor, the U.S. government, which holds more than $1 billion in environmental claims.[...while the EPA and the DOJ continue to IGNORE the DOJ and EPA's OWN now-public evidence that Asarco secretly incinerated military and industrial unmanifested-wastes for years, for money] "

Google News Alert for: asarco

The Daily Docket: Creditors Seek Tribune Probe Wall Street Journal Blogs The future of Asarco LLC rests in the hands of a Texas bankruptcy judge after a two-week long confirmation hearing in the Arizona mining company's case drew ... See all stories on this topic

Asarco Attorney (also represented a client once whose President now runs AIG) argues for due process of law

Ironically, the El Paso Community has been asking for due process of law regarding the contamination left by years of Asarco secret-toxic waste burning ....  will Grupo Mexico get "due process" while the Court ignores this community and ignores its evidence??  

Google News Alert for: asarco

Grupo México is Confident Its Reorganization Plan for ASARCO Will ... Business Wire (press release) (AMC), is entitled under applicable US law to retain control of its wholly owned subsidiary ASARCO through the full payment plan offered to creditors on ... See all stories on this topic

"AMC attorney Robert Moore [do a search on his name in the blog's search-engine] presented the company’s final arguments to U.S. Judge Richard Schmidt of the Corpus Christi Bankruptcy Court on Wednesday, arguing that GMEXICO’s offer to pay the ASARCO creditors $2.2 billion in cash represented a full and fair offer, and one that meets the necessary legal obligations to retain ownership of the company. ...“Our view is that we're facing what in my view is a constitutional level issue,” Mr. Moore argued in his closing statement. “It's an issue of due process. It's an issue of unfair taking."

Asarco contamination of the Hueco Bolson

What we know now is that during those years of El Paso-secret-toxic-waste-incineration ASARCO dumped stuff to the waste water (Sewage) plant and then that water was treated and sent out throughout the city as "purple pipe" water to our schools, parks, and golf courses -- potentially exposing anyone who uses those to the secret undeclared toxic-wastes.   (Anyone who loves to golf could possibly be exposed, also, for example).  That purple pipe water was also injected into the Hueco Bolson.   This may likely be why the EPA mainly-sampled these grassy-areas when they came out here in 2001 - and, the EPA are still not telling us what poisons ASARCO's secret-years left here.  But years later the powers-that-be  built a Hueco Bolson desal plant capable of removing 99% of toxins from the water (and the rest is deep-well injected 20 miles away on Military Property).

Why is there NO Dioxin data available?  Just shameful that this Mexican-American community cannot get basic-chemical information that communities up north have (see Mother Jone's recent issue about Dioxin Dorms).   And also shameful that several of us have been fired/non-renewed for asking about this water contamination.  This community should be the first to support anyone who wants to support Mexican-American community's Right-To-Know.

ASARCO records RECORD PROFITS

Google News Alert for: asarco

July profits 2nd-best of '09 for Asarco Arizona Daily Star The Tucson-based Asarco LLC copper company reported Wednesday that it made an $11.2 million profit in July as it moved toward exiting bankruptcy. ... See all stories on this topic

"July was Asarco's second-best month of the year, after March's $20.4 million net income, the filing says. Since filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in August 2005, Asarco has recorded profits totaling $1.1 billion."

Bank associated with ASARCO bonds (Citigroup) Energy Trader payday in Oil price speculation...

Citigroup's Oil Trader's $100,000,000 Payday: A Wakeup Call for the Nation

"WHAT IN THE WORLD IS A BANK DOING IN THE OIL TRADING BUSINESS?!"

Google "Citigroup" in search engine for epgtlo.blogspot.com and also google "PEMEX"