Earlie,
I searched through some ( well many ) of the messages you have posted lately and could not find the name of the company you referred to when you made the allusion on the clown thread (not literal) : " as long as the clowns are willing to overlook a company with cash in the bank, nat gas and gold properties, i will gladly load up on it" or something to that effect.... Me thinks it could only be FN you were refering to. I have been buying whenever i have been able to, up and down from 18 to 13 and back but wonder if you
a) referred to FN in the first place
b) if so, would you still step up to the plate at the present 17 cad level.
One more question if i may: You never say anything about silver.
( side note: I was talking with some engineers friends of mine at a big Japanese electronic concern and they were telling me how they were rushing to resolve the issue of no lead in soldering. Although the deadline for elimination of lead alloys in soldering (40 % lead, 60% tin) is only 2003, the people i was talking to produce parts for other factories within the group of companies Matsushita Electric owns - might as well say the name - and their deadline is 2001, Apr. The new soldering alloy is 0.3 % silver, 0.5% copper and the rest tin. Up to now, the company as a whole used 100 tons of lead a year in its products. This is not new knowledge as i have seen it pointed out on the GS thread here on SI a while ago. Although the silver quantity is small, it is apparently very important that the alloy incorporates it in order to lower the melting temperature of the solder. There are various problems, besides cost, associated with the new alloy, the biggest of which is the fact that melting temp is 20 C higher than the lead-tin solder. Machines have to be recalibrated, and increased heat stress on the boards is also a problem, nevertheless, these are production issues and the fact is , this will very likely result in a higher demand for silver. The percentage is low (0.3%) but this can also be seen in a positive light as , for example, even a dramatic rise in the price of silver would not impact the price of solder to the point where a substitute is urgently sought, sort of the same situation we find in the palladium market/catalytic converter issue. So, in light of this, and after a rather long windy post, i was wondering why you have not made any comments on silver ...)
Regards,
Stephan |
