Fears grow over new Dubai revolt

Financial Times ^ | March 21 2006 20:58 | Stephanie Kirchgaessner in Washington and James Boxell in London

[mr_hammer]

Arab and US officials are growing nervous at the prospect of a second congressional uprising against the acquisition of American assets by a Middle Eastern-controlled company in the wake of the Dubai Ports World debacle.

Snip ...

[oceanview]

and no one will answer it, the same ports deal proponents will come on here and tell us "how dare you ask the UAE why they want to buy this defense subcontractor".

[bybybill]

There is a huge asset that the Arabs own...oil. Cause we can`t kill them all, maybe we need to find the ones that don`t want to kill us and work with us.
Hope you won`t be insulted, but bet that Bush has a better understanding of the Arabs and how to work with them to advance our GOALS then anybody that frequents this blog.

[oceanview]

would you sell Doncasters to the chinese?

[Cboldt]

The Doncasters Group is a leading international engineering group that manufactures precision components and assemblies for the aerospace, industrial gas turbines, specialist automotive, medical orthopaedic and petrochemical markets. The group excels in working with alloys and metals that are difficult to shape and form.

Doncasters operates from 25 sites in the UK, Continental Europe, the USA and Mexico. The client base is genuinely global and comprises most of the industry leaders in its relevant areas of activity. The group currently employs just over 4,500 members of staff worldwide.

Doncasters has an illustrious history having been formed by Daniel Doncaster in 1778 in the city of Sheffield, UK. To this day the company still has manufacturing facilities in the city.

The company has adopted institutionalised 'lean manufacturing' and uses Six Sigma principles throughout its operations. In recent years this has resulted in a dramatic and sustained improvement in profitability. In 2004 group turnover was reported at US$850m.

For more details about the group please access the 'About Us' section of the website.

Doncasters possesses many unique industry leading technological and manufacturing skills that are very highly regarded by our customer base. We are in virtually every respect global leaders in aerospace, industrial gas turbines, automotive turbochargers, medical orthopaedic implants and superalloys. All are household names within their respective industries and highly demanding as regards problem solving, time to market delivery, costs and through life support.

Leveraging the synergies of our superalloy manufacturing, casting, forging, fabrication, machining and assembly capabilities, Doncasters is in a unique position of being able to offer an in house integrated Supply Chain solution for our customers.

http://www.doncasters.com/

Sounds as though pieces of this can be carved off, just as pieces of P&O will be carved off. I haven't checked to see what parts of Doncasters are physically in the US, but the website linked above may provide that level of detail, and more.

[Stellar Dendrite]

we should change your name to 'xenoview'

LOL

[oceanview]

the UAE knows EXACTLY what they are doing buying this company, as opposed to buying a much more profitable casino operation. they want a toe hold in strategic US industries.

[AmeriBrit]

Any further developments on the discovery you made last Sunday?


Guess who leaked the DP World Email?
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/1599357/posts?page=5#5

[oceanview]

same arguments, different thread, no substance, no answers.

[sinkspur]

why do they want to buy Doncasters? and please folks, don't tell me like you did during the ports fiasco - "because it makes money". plenty of other US industries make money. they want this company, knowing full well what it does, for some specific reason. what is it?

It's called "diversification, " dummy. You're one of the biggest grannies on these threads, fanning the flames of hysteria.

You are such a nanny-stater, wanting the US to interfere in a private business transaction.

Congress will likely attempt to find another vendor for this particular need, if there are any.

If there aren't, perhaps the UAE, after the purchase is completed, will simply refuse to sell to the United States, which it is entirely within its rights to do.

[sinkspur]

would you sell Doncasters to the chinese?

Since I don't own Doncasters (nor do you), neither of us have a say in who the buyer is.

[Do not dub me shapka broham]

This is not a question about us "having a problem" or "backstabbing" the UAE.

The UAE is not entitled to large swaths of our economy simply because it is the UAE, any more than other foreign nations are entitled to those segments of our economy.

Simply because there are other countries deracinating their industrial base does not mean that we should follow suit, or that their policies are necessarily the best ones.

[muawiyah]

But you buy off on Chi-com investments without blinking an eye, right?

Any explanation you give for disagreeing with Arab investments really has to cover the Chi-coms.

[rolling_stone]

I sure wish Congress would worry a little more about the 20 million or so illegal aliens in the US that we know nothing about. We close a "porthole" and leave the backdoor wide open...

[sinkspur]

The UAE is not entitled to large swaths of our economy simply because it is the UAE, any more than other foreign nations are entitled to those segments of our economy.

Guess what. You're not king of the world, so you don't get to say who buys what. The UAE will buy Doncasters whether YOU like it or not. They may carve out the subsidiary that makes stuff for us and sell it to some lily-white firm in order to satisfy the xenophobes.

[Paul C. Jesup]

We elect idiots and they should perform as idiots.

What's stupid about stopping the selling of american property to foreigners one piece at a time...

President Bush dropped the ball on this one issue, but overall he has been a good, responsible President.

[jdm]

So, are you free thinkers happy now? /sarc

[oceanview]

they can't diversify into any other US industries? nothing else is for sale in this country, except infrastructure and defense subcontractors? they have to be IN THOSE TWO specifically, and we are just supposed to accept it and not ask any questions?

nope, not me.

you would make a perfect member of CFIUS.

[Stellar Dendrite]

you know i was joking with you right?

[oceanview]

fine, let them carve it out then.

[Cboldt]

the UAE knows EXACTLY what they are doing buying this company, as opposed to buying a much more profitable casino operation. they want a toe hold in strategic US industries.

Doncasters is a British firm, as was P&O. Doncasters has these operations in the US ...

Doncasters Storms Forge
160 Cottage Street
Springfield
Massachusetts

Certified Alloy Products Inc
3245 Cherry Avenue, PO Box 90
Long Beach
California

Doncasters Southern Tool
508 Hamric Drive West
Oxford
Alabama

Doncasters Medical Technologies - Alabama Operations
331 City Park Drive SE
Arab
Alabama

Doncasters Effingham
145 Industrial Boulevard
Rincon
Georgia

Doncasters New England Airfoil Products
36 Spring Lane
Farmington
Connecticut

Doncasters Precision Castings - New England (Groton)
835 Poquonnock Road, PO Box 1146
Groton
Connecticut

Doncasters Trucast Inc.
81 Mawsons Way
Newberry
South Carolina

Most of those businesses are unrelated to defense, e.g., industrial turbine and turbocharger rotors, and the medical one. I don't know how the cash flow and other particulars break out among these operations and the rest of Doncasters. Doncasters is an international operation, and as noted in my previous, it is possible in principle to part out the company.

The Doncasters website is pretty informative - at least as a place to start fact gathering.

I suspect there are some unintended consequences if "we" aim to consign foreign (UAE/Arab/Chinese/Russian/etc.) investment to only service and entertainment sectors.