Colombian Terpel Takes Control Over 206 Stations in Chile

Colombian fuel distributor Terpel on December 26, 2007 took control over the 206 service stations in Chile it had acquired from Spanish Repsol YPF in a $210 mln (143.6 mln euro) deal.

According to corporate information, the acquired assets account for 14 pct of Chilean fuel distribution market.

Terpel competed for the stations with Brazilian Petrobras and Primax, a joint venture of Chilean state oil company Enap and Peruvian conglomerate Grupo Romero.

Terpel (www.terpel.com) operates over 1,300 petrol stations in Colombia with a 42 pct participation on the local market. The company is an affiliate of Colombian gas utility Promigas which is controlled by British Ashmore Investment Management.

Publication: Business Digest
Provider: AII Data Processing Ltd.
Date: December 27, 2007

Colombian steel imports grow again

After two negative results in a row, Colombian iron and steel imports resumed positive figures in October, Steel Business Briefing learns from local government data. During October, the country imported 182,000 t, a sharp increase over the 151,000 t purchased in the same month of 2006.

October imports are valued at US$130m cif, a 27% increase over October 2006.

From January to October, Colombia’s imports of iron and steel products came to 1.7m t, against 1.5m t registered in the same period of 2006.

As previously reported, imports comprise more than half of the steel supply to the growing Colombian market.

Of the total, 28.6% is provided by Venezuela, mainly by the flats and longs producer Ternium Sidor. Another 22% comes from Brazil.

Publication: SBB - Steel Business Briefing
Provider: Steel Business Briefing
Date: December 24, 2007