corus On the slab

Corus has come a long way from its near-bankruptcy of 2003. But the steelmaker still has a big structural problem: its costs remain way too high. Investors are hoping that a corporate deal will ride to the rescue. Corus was recently tipped as a merger partner for Evraz, a Russian rival, and its shares are up 45% this year. But any deal would be difficult and messy. It may seem odd to focus on Corus’s problems. It boasted a 13% return on equity in 2005, the highest since 1996. But Corus is much l...