Share tips: Pick up this unfairly battered steel-mill supplier

Slackening global demand for steel has taken its toll on the shares of this parts maker to the steel industry. But the firm still has plenty going for it, says Paul Hill - so buy now.

Global GDP and steel demand seem to be joined at the hip. The recent economic slowdown triggered an 11% drop in European steel output in July and August. Destocking has added to the pain by hitting US and South American volumes. This has damaged Cookson the world's leading supplier of heat-retardant ceramic pipes, valves and container linings used in foundries and steel mills.

The company was forced to issue a profits warning on 8 October, thanks to a second-half-year performance that will be materially below expectations. But I think the gloom has been overdone.

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Paul gained a degree in electrical engineering and went on to qualify as a chartered management accountant. He has extensive corporate finance and investment experience and is a member of the Securities Institute.

Over the past 16 years Paul has held top-level financial management and M&A roles for blue-chip companies such as O2, GKN and Unilever. He is now director of his own capital investment and consultancy firm, PMH Capital Limited.

Paul is an expert at analysing companies in new, fast-growing markets, and is an extremely shrewd stock-picker.