The latest news follows from Africa, Asia, Canada, and Finland, home of our best performer in 2013. And our last 2013 trade:

*With a dash of schadenfreude a Japanese newspaper predicts that the opening of its jv steel plant in Indonesia will bankrupt Posco (PKX). I am not sure this is right but surely the economic justification for the plant has sunk what with much lower growth in Indonesia since the plant was planned and waves of cheap Chinese steel hitting Asian market from its glut. So we are breaking with Warren Buffett who likes PKX because of its technological edge. This is not enough if steel prices fall below its cost of production not only in Pohang in South Korea but also in the Indonesia jv. Sell the remaining half share of Posco.

*Investor´s Digest of Dec 27 2013 interviewed fund manager Keith Richards about small caps. Of his 4 recommendations we own two: Pure Technologies, PPEHF (PUR in Toronto which Mr. Richards says his firm, Value Trend Wealth Management, doesn´t own yet). We own it in the USA and it has good earnings and was recently tipped by the Toronto Globe and Mail. But we bought it earlier, when its Libyan adventure into water pipeline building for Qaddafi went sour.

Mr. Richard also tipped CAE Inc., maker of flight simulators, which our biotech maven Patti recommended; it is outside her remit but her son is a pilot. Richards expects a technical breakout because of its good backlog fueling profits in coming months. He has a target price of C$13 when the stock was at $11. While we have been overweighting Canada it is not our main target stock market.

*Francophone Canadian rail technology leader Bombardier's transportation sub reports that France's rail system, the SNCF, exercised an option for 30 additional Regio 2N double-deck electric multiple units. The order, which will be financed by the French, is worth euros 277 mn (cUS $379 mn). It is part of a 2010 contract with SNCF for up to 860 trains for the French Regions. Including this order, 9 French regions have ordered 159 Regio 2N trains which will be delivered from June 2016 to April 2017. The train is able to move passengers inter-city, regionally, and for commuting comfortably, tempting them to leave their cars. With an extra-wide carbody, access is improved with wide doors and corridors, and step-free access from the platform height (550 mm in France.) Technical innovations include reduced energy consumption.

The latest BDRAF order is for a train running over 200 kilometers (130 miles) with 10 carriages. It will be built in Crespin Trans Avenir industrial park, in the French Nord-Pas de Calais region.

*After rescuing Apple from its maps disaster with its own navigation aid, HERE, a year later Nokia has removed the map app from the applications store stating that the iOS 7 creates a bad user experience for HERE. Users can still access mobile HERE on-line, but no longer off-line. NOK stated: "We have made the decision to remove our HERE Maps app from the Apple App Store because recent changes to iOS 7 harm the user experience. iPhone users can continue to use the mobile web version of HERE Maps under m.here.com, offering them location needs, such as search, routing, orientation, transit information and more, all completely free of charge."

*More details on Africa Opportunity Fund, which unlike the one pitched by Mark Mobius above, is a closed-end fund with a regional specialization. Two further corrections are in order. First AOF or ALOFF is listed not on the main London Stock Exchange, but on the lower-rated Alternative Investment Market. Second, the fund's “appraisal value” is produced by its managers based on their estimation of the intrinsic value of its positions, which is a guess and possibly self-serving. This appears to be allowed by UK reporting regulations; of course it highly legalistic US fund reporting it would be a no-no.

Oops and oops again. Your editor who is not an Africa hand nor very well-versed in UK closed-end fund (investment trust) rules was in over her head. We hope to beef up our Africa coverage in 2014.

*UPDATE:  I wrote to sell your remaining shares of Warren Buffett favorite Posco, nudged by a reader-expert who had sent a Japanese newspaper report on the risks of PKX's Indonesia plant bet. However, we had already sold out of PKX earlier. I did not have either good computer connections (or even electricity) in our Washington hotel nor access to my archives. Sorry about that.