Topic: How To Invest

Q: Pat: What do you think about Westshore Terminals? Thanks.

Article Excerpt

A: Westshore Terminals Investment Corp., $21.76, symbol WTE on Toronto (Shares outstanding: 73.3 million; Market cap: $1.6 billion; www.westshore.com), owns a coal storage and loading terminal at Roberts Bank, B.C., about 30 kilometres south of Vancouver. The terminal started up in 1970. The company loads both metallurgical coal used in steelmaking and thermal coal for power plants. Teck Resources, and its six mines, accounts for 75% of the terminal’s total coal volume. The remaining 25% comes from Westshore’s U.S. customers. Producers ship their coal to the terminal by rail. Westshore then loads it onto ships that deliver it to customers in over 18 countries. Korea and Japan receive 52% of the coal shipped through the terminal. The company does not purchase the coal. Instead, it receives a handling fee for loading it. Westshore continues to replace some of the terminal’s equipment, including ship-loading systems and maintenance facilities. These upgrades will cost $270 million and should be operational by 2019. At that point,…