Suppliers news: Platts, ArcelorMittal, Igate

Platts buys Minerals Value Service

Platts, the international energy, metals, petrochemicals and agricultural information provider, has acquired Munich-based Minerals Value Service (MVS), a privately owned firm that specializes in determining value-in-use for miners, mills and traders in the iron ore and steelmaking industries.

The deal extends a partnership that began in October 2013 when London-based Platts took an equity stake in MVS and became the exclusive distributor of its web-based value-in-use tool, which allows users to calculate a value of iron ore for various buying and selling scenarios.

“Over the course of our partnership with MVS, the value of this unique analytical tool has become increasingly apparent,” Platts general manager of metals Andrew Goodwin said. “Acquiring MVS will allow us to put the full weight of Platts’ marketing, sales and product development teams behind MVS to help accelerate its growth, bringing value to new and existing customers.”

Founding shareholder and managing director of the development arm of MVS Oliver Gausmann said that “Platts was the natural fit for MVS given its leading position in iron ore pricing, which is the essential starting point for all of our analytical work.”

MVS was founded in 2011 and employs a team of engineers, metallurgists and commercial experts in Munich, with a network of researchers in China, India, South Africa and Australia who provide the transactional, logistical and fundamental data underpinning the MVS application.

Platts was founded in 1909 in Cleveland, Ohio, and became a division of McGraw Hill Financial (NYSE: MHFI) in 1953. It has customers in more than 150 countries and over 1,000 employees in 15 offices worldwide.

ArcelorMittal rejigs Canadian recycling operations

ArcelorMittal’s (NYSE: MT) Montreal-based subsidiary has sold its Ottawa and La Prairie recycling and processing facilities to Montreal-based metal recycler American Iron & Metal. In turn, ArcelorMittal’s Contrecoeur-Feruni scrap recycling and processing centre will become its main platform for scrap shredding, processing and sorting in support of its Contrecoeur steelworks.

The transition will see the shredder restarted and 10 new positions filled at Contrecoeur-Feruni.

“We determined that using Contrecoeur-Feruni as our main scrap processing platform was the most efficient use of our assets,” director of communications for ArcelorMittal Montreal Louis-Philippe Péloquin said. “We remain committed in the scrap metal business, as it enables us to make safe, sustainable steel with recycled materials.

The Ottawa sale took effect after the announcement in March that the La Praire operations will stop on July 17, 2015. ArcelorMittal Montreal employs 1,700 people in Contrecoeur, Longueuil, Montreal and Hamilton. It operates a scrap metal conversion and recycling centre, one iron-ore reduction plant, two steel plants, three rolling mills and two wire drawing mills.

The firm manufactures steel using either scrap metal or iron ore that is mined mostly in northern Quebec by its sister company ArcelorMittal Mining Canada. The group has an annual production capacity of over 2 million tons (1.8 million tonnes) of steel, recycles more than 850,000 tons of scrap metal from various sources and can adapt its steelworks operations based on availability and cost of raw materials, ranging from 100% scrap to 100% iron pellets.

Igate to develop Rio Tinto’s analytics centre

Global mining giant Rio Tinto (NYSE: RIO; LSE: RIO) has tapped IT services firm Igate (NASDAQ: IGTE) to develop its Analytics Excellence Centre (AEC) in Pune, India.

Under the agreement Igate will equip Rio Tinto with analytical capabilities to identify opportunities to boost efficiency and productivity across the major’s operations. The deal includes engineering research and development services, including industrial automation and control, software and embedded design and development, and product engineering services.

The recently inaugurated AEC will analyze data captured by various business systems and the array of sensors attached to Rio Tinto’s assets, and generate insights with an eye toward boosting productivity and safety. The centre will house data engineers and data scientists working on advanced statistics, predictive data modelling and machine learning algorithms.

New Jersey-headquartered Igate provides integrated technology and operations-based solutions to clients in North America, Europe and Asia Pacific. The firm boasts revenues of more than US$1.3 billion in 2014 and more than 33,000 employees across the globe.