Deal making in the global metals sector soared to unprecedented levels during 2007 and is up 67% on the previous year, despite the impact of the credit crunch. ‘Forging Ahead’, the latest study of mergers and acquisitions (M&A) in the metals sector by PricewaterhouseCoopers, also found there have been dynamic shifts of focus: from steel to aluminium and away from Western Europe to the new M&A hotspot of North America.
The rate at which the metals industry, and in particular the aluminium sector, is consolidating increased dramatically during 2007. There were 411 disclosed deals, marginally more than the 385 that took place in 2006. But the aggregate value of those deals was US$144.7bn, a massive increase on the US$86.4bn traded the previous year. The aluminium sector accounted for much of this activity, with 56 transactions collectively worth US$77.3bn, nearly four times the US$21.3bn it generated in total between 2003 and 2006.
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