Stock Profile: Inco Symbol: N (TSE), N (NYSE)

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Stats as of 5/25/01

• H/L Ratio: 1.52 • RS: 71.8 • Shares: 181,791,214 • P/E: 10.06 • Price: $29.71

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Founded in 1902 as the International Nickel Company, Inco today is the world's largest producers of nickel supplying 24% of the world's demand. How much nickel is that? According to Inco, it's over 550 pounds a year, more than forty times the weight of the Eiffel Tower. The company also produces copper, cobalt, silver, gold and other less well known metals such as ruthenium and selenium.

Nickel is a metal with many uses. It is a key ingredient in stainless steel and other alloys. It is used to make conductive inks used in electronic circuit boards. In fact, according to the Nickel Development Institute, there are over 300,000 end uses of nickel.

Inco's research department has come up with new uses for nickel such as nickel powders, nickel foam, and nickel-coated graphite fibers as smooth as silk. Inco, in fact, is a robust technology company with over 1800 patents, 1000 of them related to primary metals activities, another 550 related to alloys and engineered products and the rest in miscellaneous categories.

While most of the company's production centers around Ontario's nickel belt, the company has operations in Manitoba as well as Britain, the United Staes, and Indonesia.

In the mid-90s, Diamond Fields made a huge nickel disovery at Voisey's Bay in Labrador. Inco bought the property but development has been held up by Newfoundland politicians who apparently want to keep the province's title as the nation's poorest. Meanwhile the company is proceeding with a new development in the French colony of New Caledonia, whose politicians are not so intransigent.

Inco's fortunes have fluctuated with nickel prices over the years, suffering when Russian dumping of stockpiles pushed the price down in the early 1990's and again during the Asian crisis in 1998. The price rebounded by early 2000, but is falling in the early part of 2001 due to economic concerns.

Nevertheless, Inco stock started hitting new highs in March 2001 and continues to do so. If interest rates spur economic recovery as expected, look for Inco to continue its recent success as nickel prices recover.

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