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Gold/Mining/Energy : Global Thermoelectric - SOFC Fuel cells (GLE:TSE) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Ciao who wrote (577)	4/17/1999 9:00:00 AM
From: AriKirA	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 6016

One must note that they are not in direct competition as Global is initially targeting a different market than Ballard. Either way, the market is big enough for both. Whoever gets there first might have a bigger piece of the market but..... Global Thermoelectric price soars on fuel cell test results Third most active Canadian stock jumps 46 per cent to $5.05 Tuesday, April 13, 1999 Guy Dixon Investment Reporter Startling price swings aren't only confined to computer and Internet stocks these days. Shares of Global Thermoelectric Inc. soared about 46 per cent yesterday to a dramatic closing high of $5.05 after the Calgary-based power generator company announced promising test results last Thursday for its new fuel cell prototype. After months of trading between 95 cents and $1.30, Global shares closed at $3.45 Friday and then passed $5 yesterday after news that the company's solid oxide fuel cells produced more than twice as much power as in previous tests. More than 3.6 million shares changed hands, making Global the third most active stock in Canadian markets. The draw for Global is that this could mean shrinking the size of the fuel cells and possibly increasing the range of products or applications the cells can be used for. All of this was news that warmed the hearts of investors. "We thought there might be some reaction. I guess the magnitude of the reaction was a little bit of a surprise," said Jim Perry, the company's president and chief executive officer. The words "fuel cell" may be leading some investors to see Global as a new competitor to onetime stock market darling Burnaby, B.C.-based Ballard Power Systems Inc., another maker of non-polluting fuel cells. However, Global initially plans to target a different market than Ballard, staying focused on its core business of power generators. Potential customers are phone companies with transmitters in remote areas, for instance, or other companies that may be relying on diesel or other portable generators. Global says it has had some interest from phone companies in South America. Ballard, on the other hand, is seen as targeting mainly the automotive market with its proton exchange membrane cells, a different type of clean-burning technology. Ballard's fuel cells run at temperatures of about 80 to 100 degrees, as opposed to about 10 times that amount with Global's power cells. "The solid oxide fuel cell [that Global is testing] has been less in the forefront based on some of the characteristics of operation, such as high temperature," said Christine Farkas, an analyst at Merrill Lynch & Co. Inc. in New York. "At the moment, it looks like they are going after different markets. At the end of the day, we will likely have several fuel cell manufacturers in the marketplace," she added. Mr. Perry said his company is focusing on its power generator business, though he indicated the door is open for possible automotive uses. "In order to get into the automotive business, you have to have your prices very, very low. That will come, but that's not something that will happen in any big hurry," he said. Some Wall Street analysts covering Ballard will need more persuading, though, before they view Global's type of fuel cell as feasible for automotive use. "That kind of a fuel cell is definitely not applicable to the automotive systems that Ballard is targeting," said Amir Karim, an analyst who covers Ballard for Goldman Sachs & Co. in New York. Ultimately, as the different types of fuel cell technology evolve, analysts agree that the issue increasingly will become a question of cost in terms of which fuel system will work for which market. Do you guys think that the Wall Street analysts still need some persuading <gggg> Kind Regards AK