| TIMET and Rolls-Royce Enter Into New Long-Term Supply Agreement
DALLAS, March 19 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Titanium Metals Corporation ("TIMET") (NYSE: TIE) announced today that it has entered into a new, long-term titanium supply agreement with Rolls Royce plc and certain of its affiliates ("Rolls-Royce"). The agreement, effective as of January 1, 2007, provides for TIMET's supply of titanium products to Rolls-Royce for gas turbine engine production through 2016. Total revenues over the term of the contract are estimated to be in excess of $2 billion. TIMET will continue to be the primary supplier of Rolls-Royce's titanium requirements for its gas turbine engines. Steven L. Watson, CEO and Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors of TIMET, noted, "This new agreement extends our longstanding strategic relationship with Rolls-Royce to each company's world-wide affiliates, reflecting the global nature of our companies' operations.
Baht Falls as Bank of Thailand Suggests Lenders Sell Currency
March 27 (Bloomberg) -- The Thai baht dropped against the dollar, extending its slide from a nine-year high, after the Bank of Thailand suggested domestic lenders sell the currency. Deputy Governor Atchana Waiquamdee said today that banks should revert to foreign-exchange positions held on Dec. 31, which preceded a 0.9 percent drop in the baht over two weeks. The currency has since climbed 2.9 percent, eroding exports that account for about 60 percent of gross domestic product. ``The central bank's comments probably caused people who had a speculative position on the appreciation in the baht to close such positions,'' said Hideki Hayashi, a Tokyo-based foreign-exchange strategist at Shinko Securities Co. ``However, in the long term, it is difficult to stop such a move.'' Thailand's currency dropped 0.6 percent to 35.03 to the dollar in onshore trading as of 4:30 p.m.
The heat over ICE
The battle for the CBOT between CME and ICE is illustrative of the future of futures. Futures exchanges are no longer simply markets, but for-profit businesses, and unlike most for-profit businesses or even most exchanges special considerations must be made. Futures contracts are not like stocks, which can be bought at one exchange and sold at another. Most futures contracts are not fungible between exchanges, and so the survival of a futures contract depends not merely on their utility but their ability to attract market share. Liquidity attracts liquidity, this is the social phenomenon known as network externalities. Interest in commodity exchanges has surged as hedge funds have poured money into these markets and as China announces one of the largest investment programs in history to invest in "strategic assets" such as mining and energy resources.
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