Business in South Korea
南韩商业
Steely logic
浦项制铁”钢铁般的逻辑”
Aug 28th 2008 | POHANG AND SEOUL
From The Economist print edition
A steelmaking giant is one of several bidders for a shipbuilder
钢铁巨头要竞购造船厂
POSCO, a South Korean firm that is the world’s fourth-largest steelmaker, likes to prove its critics wrong. It proudly points out that the World Bank refused to put money into the company when it was founded in 1968, saying South Korea would never be able to support a steel industry. But POSCO prospered and became the engine for the country’s remarkable industrialisation. Now the company is trying to convince sceptics that it should buy the world’s third-biggest shipbuilder, Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering (DSME). A 50.4% stake in the company, worth $7 billion-8 billion, is up for sale.
韩国浦项制铁公司是世界上第四大钢铁生产商，它希望证明那些批评家是错误的。浦项制铁骄傲的说道，当它在1968年成立时，世界银行拒绝给它提供贷款，原因是韩国无法支撑起钢铁工业的发展。但是浦项制铁成功了，它成为韩国令人骄傲的工业化引擎。而现在，浦项制铁正试图使那些怀疑者相信：它应该竞购世界第三大造船厂–大宇造船和海运工程公司（DSME）。DSME公司50.4%的股票价值约70到80亿美元，正待出售。
Prospective bidders had until August 27th to send letters of intent to Korea Development Bank, DSME’s biggest shareholder, which owns a 31% stake and is also managing the sale. It is one of the last big asset sales by South Korea’s state-owned financial institutions, which took over many companies during the economic collapse of the late 1990s. Since DSME makes submarines for South Korea’s navy, the government is not allowing foreigners to bid on security grounds. Along with POSCO, other bidders include Hyundai Heavy Industries, the world’s biggest shipbuilder; GS Group, a construction, energy and retail conglomerate; and Hanwha Group, an insurance and chemicals firm.
截止8月27日，有意投标人已经向韩国产业银行提交了意向书。韩国产业银行是DSME的最大股东，它持有DSME31%的股份，并且管理此次交易。这将是韩国国有金融机构主导的最后一次大规模资产交易。在上个世纪90年代末期的经济危机中，韩国金融机构接管了众多企业。由于DSME为韩国海军生产潜艇，因此考虑到安全因素，政府禁止外国公司参与竞购。除了浦项制铁，其它的竞购者还有世界最大的造船厂–现代重工、建筑能源和零售集团GS、保险和化工巨头–韩华集团。
POSCO’s management has been planning the acquisition of DSME for a year. It has deep pockets, with up to $30 billion in credit lined up from its banks. It wants DSME to focus on building more technologically complex vessels, such as offshore oil-and-gas platforms and drilling ships, rather than oil tankers and dry-bulk vessels. And it thinks there is plenty of scope for cost savings. “In building a ship, the less you weld the less you spend,” says Lee Ku-taek, POSCO’s chief executive. “If we can tailor our ship plates to a specific ship, then costs can be saved.”
浦项制铁的管理层就此次并购已经计划一年多了，并且公司资金充裕，通过银行可以获得总计3百亿美元的信贷。浦项制铁希望DSME专注于生产那些技术更复杂的轮船，比如远洋油气平台和钻井船，而不是那些油轮或者干散货船。并且它认为DSME有很大的成本节省空间。浦项制铁首席执行官李龟泽表示，建造一艘船，你焊接越少，花费就越少。如果我们能够把造船钢板切割成特定的船型，那么我们就能够节省更多成本。
Mr Lee is in charge of a sprawling industrial empire. POSCO has controlling stakes in 20 domestic companies and 43 foreign firms. Its subsidiaries include South Korea’s sixth-biggest construction firm, a power company and a computer-services provider. Mr Lee says he wants to increase sales from 42 trillion won ($38.8 billion) this year to 100 trillion won in 2018, and steel output from 35m to 50m tonnes.
李龟泽掌管着一个庞大复杂的工业帝国。浦项制铁控制着20家国内公司和43家国外公司。他的子公司包括韩国第六大建筑公司、一家发电厂和一家电脑服务提供商。李龟泽表示他希望把销售额从今年的42万亿韩元（约合388亿美元）提高到2018年的100万亿韩元，钢铁产量从3500万吨提高到5000万吨。
As well as planning to expand into shipbuilding, POSCO is looking out for opportunities to acquire steelmakers in Asia. It hopes to begin work soon on a 12m tonne steel-production plant in the Indian state of Orissa, where it also has mineral rights. And next year it hopes to complete the construction of a cold-rolling mill near Vietnam’s Ho Chi Minh City, and an automotive steel-sheet plant in Mexico to supply General Motors and Hyundai Motor.
在计划进军造船业的同时，浦项制铁也在亚洲的钢铁厂中寻找并购机会。他希望首先从并购印度奥利萨邦的一家年产1200万吨的钢铁厂开始，这家钢铁厂同时还拥有矿产开采权。明年它希望完成位于越南胡志明市附近的冷轧钢工厂和墨西哥的汽车钢板工厂（向通用汽车和现代汽车提供钢板）。
Like other steelmakers, POSCO has sought to acquire mines to insulate itself from the commodity-price boom. The company has stakes in two iron-ore mines and seven coal mines in Australia, but says that prices of mines there and in Brazil make further investment in the two countries unlikely. Mr Lee says the firm is looking to buy mines in Africa, Siberia, Indonesia and Eastern Europe, and has a goal that 30% of its raw materials should be supplied by mines in which it has a stake.
像其它钢铁厂一样，浦项制铁也在寻找机会并购铁矿山，以规避大宗商品价格上涨带来的风险。公司在澳大利亚的两个铁矿石场和几个煤矿拥有股权，但是由于澳洲和巴西高涨的矿石价格，在这两国进一步投资已不太可能。李龟泽表示公司正在非洲、西伯利亚、印度尼西亚和东欧地区寻找机会投资矿山，目标是30%的原材料供给来自于它拥有股权的矿产公司。
Previously, says Mr Lee, steelmakers competed on the basis of their products. “Companies with better technology had an edge,” he says. “Now it has changed. Companies with mines have the advantage.” Some investors, who are sceptical about POSCO’s bid for DSME, agree. They would prefer POSCO to concentrate on buying access to raw materials, as its rivals are. Can the company prove its critics wrong once again?
李龟泽说，”以前钢铁厂竞争的基础是产品，拥有先进技术就拥有优势，而现在则有所变化。公司拥有矿山就比别人有优势。”那些对浦项制铁并购DSME持怀疑态度的投资者对此也表示赞同。这些人宁愿浦项制铁像其它竞争者一样集中精力购买原材料。而浦项制铁能够再一次证明那些评论家是错误的吗？
译者：jyjnl http://www.ecocn.org/forum/viewthread.php?tid=13663&extra=page%3D1