November, 07 2005
Mukand plans 2 million tonne unit in Jharkhand
Jharkhand state mining secretary Mr AK Singh has announced that the state government has received a proposal from Mukand for setting up a 2 million tonnes steel plant. We are in an advanced stage of negotiations which will result in a MoU with Mukand at the earliest, he said.
It is learnt that Mukand has appointed engineering consultancy firm MECON to prepare a detailed project report.
However a Mukand official said: Currently, no greenfield project has been taken up to the Mukand board. The management is, however, working towards setting up a new steel plant in Jharkhand.
FDI norms to be eased in mining
The government has initiated a process to liberalize the foreign direct investment (FDI) policy in mining and trading. The department of industrial policy and promotion has prepared a Cabinet note on FDI liberalization in a number of areas in the two sectors.
The proposal, which includes suggestions for liberalizing norms for sectors such as coal & lignite, precious stones and floriculture, will be circulated to all ministries concerned for their comments.
Currently, 49% FDI is allowed in captive coal mining for power generation. The current proposal is to allow FDI in captive coal mining meant for commercial sale to industrial users including steel and cement manufacturers, sources said. But the ceiling would still be 49%.
Steel scrap blast kills again in Punjab factory
One worker was killed and nine others were injured, three of them seriously, in a blast in Mukesh Steel factory in Ludhiana, Punjab. The injured were admitted to hospital. The other injured were declared out of danger, police said.
The blast occurred when the workers were cutting some iron scrap for melting, police added. This was the third incident of blast in the Mukesh Steel factory
Indian ports on track to double capacities
Seaports need to double their cargo handling capacities to 800 million tonnes in the coming decade, and they are geared to achieve this target, according to the Union Minister for Shipping, Road Transport and Highways Mr TR Baalu.
He said capacity expansions at all the major ports, and improving road and rail links were happening with the involvement of the private sect. Growth in port handling capacity was about 11% a year with the total handling capacity at 397.5 million tonnes. By 2013-14 they would handle 800 million tonnes, he said.
BJP leader starts agitation for displaced people in Jharkhand
Senior BJP leader Mr Shailendra Mahto has announced the launch of a ten day ''Jamin Chipko Andolan'' in the 23 villages under Seraikela-Kharsawan district from November 20 to protest against the land acquisitions by the Jharkhand government for mega industrial projects. The agitation exhorting villagers to 'stick to their land' would be spearheaded by Lok Adhikar Morcha (LAM) which has been floated by Mr Mahto. It would be initiated from Tentoposi village, the area selected by the state government and the steel giant Tata Steel for the 12 MT Green field steel plants.
Mr Mahto told press that the agitation would be peaceful, and the government would be asked for a concrete rehabilitation policy. He said apart from Tentaposi, the agitation would also be organized in those areas where new industries would come up. Mr Mahto said from the past experience it was observed that the people, who were displaced due to the setting up of big industries, did not get compensation for their land.
Two firms short listed for Sethu project
Hyundai Engineering of Korea, Jan De Nul of Belgium and Boskolis of The Netherlands combine, has been short listed for dredging the remaining stretches of the Sethusamudram Project.
The Rs 2,427-crore Sethusamudram project envisaged dredging of a 167-km channel along the Palk Straits, the Palk Bay and Adam's Bridge between Sri Lanka and India to connect the Bay of Bengal and the Gulf of Mannar.
Dredging Corporation of India is currently dredging one stretch of the project, out of a total of four stretches. About 20 lakh cubic meters have been dredged till now
2006 steel market likely to be better than 2005,
Merrill Lynch has reviewed its expectations for the global steel market, concluding 2006 is likely to be a better year than 2005 has been.
In the brokers view while this year has been a year of surplus production of as much as 15 Million ones, next year the market is likely to reflect a far more balanced situation.
This will be positive for prices, as the broker expects the recent de-stocking to be completed soon, the lift in demand allowing prices to push towards the upper end of recent highs in the Asian market, though trading is likely to stay within this range.
In the brokers view the first quarter next year may be slow but will be followed by stronger demand in 2Q, a pattern likely to be followed in 2007 as well.
Increased costs weighing heavily on miner Rio Tinto
Increased costs are threatening the ability of the world's biggest miners to keep pace with Chinese demand, Rio Tinto CEO Mr Leigh Clifford has warned. In the best insight yet into the cost pressures facing the mining industry, Mr Clifford told investors at a London briefing higher prices could hamper production and constrain miners' ability to meet demand.
Mr Clifford said lead times on heavy mobile equipment had risen from six months to 12 months as a result of the resources boom, with site maintenance costs up 10% and labor costs under continuous pressure. He said Rio was paying 40% more for fuel and 50% more for natural gas than it was 12 months ago. And he said the price of tires had risen by a third, although they were "effectively impossible to acquire unless you have contract coverage and a good relationship with your supplier".
Mr Clifford said Rio was well placed to deal with the supply constraints.
However, he said companies could run into trouble trying to meet increased demand next year
13 Dead in Gas Explosion in Shanxi
13 miners have been killed, with 3 still missing, in a gas exploration at a coal mine in Taiyuan, the capital city of central China's Shanxi province. The blast hit the coal mine early Sunday morning, around 6:10 local time. A rescue team is searching for the missing miners. An investigation into the causes of the explosion is also underway.
There were 25 miners in the mine when the accident occurred and nine of them managed to escape, Mr Gong Anku, director of the provincial coal mine safety supervision bureau, was quoted by a news agency as saying.
He said the Taiping colliery, with annual production capability of 60,000 tons, has a complete set of official licenses and safety production certificates.
Fatal coal mine accidents in China rose 8.5 per cent in the first eight months of this year compared to last year, with thousands dying despite stepped-up efforts to make the industry safer, according to government statistics released last week. More than 6,000 miners died in accidents in China last year, according to previously released government figures. Independent estimates say the real figure could be as high as 20,000. China's mines are considered the most dangerous in the world
Mr Bush meets CVRD & Gerdau chiefs to seek support for free trade
US President Mr George W. Bush had breakfast with five of the Brazils top executives including Mr Roger Agnelli, CEO of Cia Vale do Rio Doce CVRD, the No. 1 iron ore miner and Mr Jorge Gerdau Johannpeter, president of Gerdau SA, Latin America's largest steel producer
Brazilian President Mr Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said yesterday he won't discuss Bush's proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas until the U.S. reduces subsidies for cotton exporters. Brazil was among five nations at the summit that opposed restarting talks for the U.S.-sponsored free trade pact.
Brazil, whose $680 billion economy is Latin America's largest, has led developing nations in demanding the US and European Union makes bigger cuts in handouts to farmers, the biggest barriers to concluding a trade agreement with the 148 nation World Trade Organization. The so-called Doha round of WTO talks begins next month in Hong Kong.
The U.S. is the second-biggest buyer of Brazilian exports after the EU. Last year, Brazil sold $24.2 billion of exports to EU nations compared with $20.4 billion to the U.S. and $14.6 billion to Asia. Record exports of soybeans, iron ore and other commodities have helped Brazil's economy expand.
Vietnamese coal consumers protest price hikes
Industrial coal consumers voiced objections to Viet Nam Coal Corporations Vinacoal petition to the Government to raise wholesale coal prices next year.
In early October, Vinacoal asked the ministries of finance and industry to consider changing wholesale coal prices for 2006, hoping to offset recent losses by the State-owned Corporation. Vinacoal attributed the losses to a combination of production and development spending and falling coal prices in the domestic market. The company also said a reduction in the use of cost-effective open-pit collieries, which yield most of the nations coal, also contributed to falling revenue. Vinacoal estimates that by 2010, underground mines, which are more expensive to operate, will account for 60% of coal output, up from present levels of 30-40%.
The Vinacoal proposal entails a price hike for coal supplied to service sectors, effective January 1, 2006. This increase would apply to electricity, cement, paper, and fertilizer producers. Coal dust prices for electricity producers would increase by 25%, for cement makers by 44%, for paper producers by 41% and for nitrogen and phosphate fertilizer producers by 50%
Malaysians to explore Coal in Vietnam and Laos
Natural Resources and Environment Minister Datuk Seri Adenan Satem will lead a Malaysian delegation to Vietnam and Laos from Nov 8-16 to explore investment prospects in coal and tin mining. He said the Malaysian investors hoped to sign several memoranda of understanding with their partners in the two countries by year-end.
The collaboration might be expanded to include joint venture partners in other ASEAN countries like Cambodia, Indonesia, Myanmar and the Philippines in the near future, he told reporters at his Hari Raya open house at Santubong-Damai near here.
Amalgamated Industrial Steel to start water pipes next month
Malaysian Amalgamated Industrial Steel Bhd AISBs venture into steel water pipe manufacturing to increase its range of products will initially see a monthly output of up to 500 tonnes of pipes when operations start next month.
Our cement-lined steel pipe production at our Shah Alam factory is expected to reach up to 1,000 tonnes per month in one years time, AISB acting chief executive Mr Ronnie Lim told. He expects AISBs steel pipe business to account for 15 per cent of the groups revenue initially, before increasing to 25 per cent of turnover within a year.
It will be competing with the likes of JAKS Resources Bhd, YLI Holdings Bhd and Engtex Group Bhd
Selangor-based AISB is essentially a steel-product maker whose current offerings include side rails and scaffolds, besides structures for commercial buildings.
Rio to expand alumina output
RIO Tinto is considering expansion of the world's biggest alumina refinery, the Queensland Alumina operation at Gladstone. But it has rejected expansion of its adjacent Boyne Island aluminium smelter which produced 541,000 tonnes last year in favor of greenfield plants either in the Middle East or Asia, possibly Malaysia.
The group's head of aluminium, Mr Oscar Groeneveld, told a weekend investor briefing in London that Rio was planning to lift production capacity of aluminium metal by up to 600,000 tonnes a year on expectations China would lead a surge in global demand.
The location of the greenfield sites would depend on the price of electricity, almost certainly ruling out significant expansion of brownfields smelting operations in Australia and New Zealand.
MSCs annealing capacity to reach 1.2 million ones
Irans Mobarakeh Steel Complex (MSC) is implementing a development plan with regard to increasing the production capacity of its annealing units. The current production of 700,000 tons is to hit target figure of 1.2 million tons
Mr Mohammad Hossein Asgari, head of Annealing Unit of MSCs 2nd Cold Rolled-steel said By employing HNX, a mixture of 10% hydrogen and 90% nitrogen as a protector gas, method, our current production capacity stands at 700,000 tons. However, the implementation of 100 % hydrogen, with the assistance of the Austrian EBNER, will increase the capacity by 500,000 tons,
In this development plan, the hydrogen production unit with the capacity of 250 normal cubic meters per hour and a 700cu.m/h cooling tower will facilitate the project.
Spanish coal miners announce indefinite strike from tomorrow
Spanish coal miners have announced that they will start an indefinite strike from today in all parts of the industry. The stoppage is draw put pressure on the talks and also in solidarity of six miners who have started a sit in at a pit in Torre del Bierzo
The Ministry for Industry, JosMontilla, says he will meet tomorrow with the mining union chiefs, Mr Felipe Lez from the CCOO and Mr Francisca Schez from the FIA-UGT, to restart talks on the future of the coal industry in Spain for 2006 to 2012.
Gasco invites tech bids for 310 km gas pipeline
Abu Dhabi Gas Industries Company (Gasco) has invited companies to submit technical bids by 14 November for the position of project manager for the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) phase on the proposed offshore associated gas (OAG) scheme. The invitees include the VECO, Stone & Webster, WorleyParsons, Foster Wheeler and Mustang Engineering. A tentative deadline of 28 November has been set for the submission of commercial bids.
Estimated to cost $550 million, the project will be carried out in three packages.
The first will cover the supply and installation of compressor and booster stations, dehydration units and facilities on Das Island for the separation and treatment of bulk natural gas liquids (NGL) recovered from offshore gas.
Package 2 will involve the supply and installation of a 24-inch-diameter, 200-kilometre-long marine and land pipeline to transport 470 million cubic feet a day (cf/d) of associated gas from Das island for processing at Habshan.
The last package will cover the supply and installation of a 24-inch, 110-kilometre offshore pipeline. The local Fugro Survey (Middle East) has been awarded a subcontract to carry out route and bathymetric surveys for the projects pipeline element.
The UK office of the US Fluor Corporation is carrying out the overall front-end engineering and design (FEED) contract, which is due to be completed in late November. Stone & Webster is providing the project management consultancy (PMC) services for the FEED phase.
The project will connect the onshore and offshore gas networks in Abu Dhabi emirate and increase OAG utilization by 200 million cf/d. At present, Gasco operates eight process trains at Habshan, handling more than 3,300 million cf/d of associated and non-associated gas.
Kosovo to sell ferro-nickel plant to British Alferon
The Kosovo Trust Agency KTA, charged with the sale of hundreds of state-owned companies in the U.N.-run Serbian province, decided to sell the ferro-nickel plant Ferronikeli to UK-based Alferon, an official said on Wednesday. "KTA's board of directors decided to authorize its management to sign the final contract with Alferon," a KTA official, who declined to be named, told local press.
KTA revised in July its choice of buyer picking the second-highest bid of Euro 33 million made by Alferon, "because the highest bidder [the Albanian-based Adi Nikel] doesn't have a valid consortium anymore," KTA spokeswoman Renate Schmidt had said earlier in July.
Ferronikeli workers have protested the sale since early July, when the first-ranked bidder was disqualified. They allege the decision to pursue Alferon was politically motivated.
According to KTA's requirements, the buyer is to invest at least 20 million euro in the plant over the first three years after the purchase and to employ 1,000 at the end of the first year.
Ferronikeli ore mining and metallurgical complex was set up in 1984 to produce ferro-nickel for exports. It produced and exported 6,800 tonnes a year of nickel, in ferro-nickel ingots, before the 1990s but since 1998 it has been idle. Ferronikeli has three open pit mines: the Dushkaja mine with estimated reserves of 6.2 million tones; the Suka mine 0.8 million tonnes and the Gllavica with 6.8 million tones. All the mines in the complex were covered early this year with exploration and exploitation license by the Ministry of Energy and Mining of Kosovo.
Reduced iron making costs in all BFs in Gwangyang Works
POSCOs blast furnaces in Gwangyang Works have achieved 204kg/T-P, the highest average rate of pulverized coal injection in the company, last October, greatly contributing to lowering iron making costs. POSCO set a new record by achieving an average rate of over 200kg/T-P of pulverized coal injection for three consecutive months since last August.
The First Blast Furnace made a new record last August by achieving an average rate of 225.5kg/T-P of pulverized coal injection, and the Second Blast Furnace injected 213kg/T-P of pulverized coal last October, only four months after the firing of its second unit.
Gwangyang Works is focused on the process of pulverized coal injection, which greatly affects the production cost of hot metal and is considered the key to establishing higher competence. The Works developed and applied the technologies of mixing coals with high heating value and injecting separately packaged coal for stable quality of sintering. As a result, POSCO has significantly increased the average rate of pulverized coal injection from 160kg/T-P to over 200kg/T-P.
KSC employs slag pot processing method
Slag pot processing was implemented at Irans Khuzestan Steel Company (KSC) on September 23, 2005 with the assistance of Zayandehrud Industry Promotion Company.
Mr Mohammad Krusnejad, acting director of KSC, said About 1,000 tons of slag steel is daily produced at the company, comprising 12% to 15% of total production volume, The slag is made of silica, iron and calcium, a compound which is similar to cement. However, the existing iron 6% to 7% of volume prevents it from being used in cement industry and road construction sector. The SSP allows separating iron by grinding and introducing it again in production time.
Another important end result of this process is using residue as construction material, thus avoiding dumping any waste into environment. Several companies in various sectors have made some proposals with respect to use of iron-free slag, the director maintained.
Tractorul Brasov workers protests
Approximately 1,000 workers from Brasov based plant Tractorul protested, claiming that parts of the employee have not received their salaries since October, and the unit is threatened with disconnection from electric energy and methane gas supply networks. The workers gathered in the plant yard, demanding their salaries.
Mr Gheorghe Apostu, plant union leader said that the workers had nothing against the plant going private, but this should not be another bluff as has happened. According to him, the employees are also upset because of the situation related to the privatization of the plant. Discussions took place on Friday evening, between AVAS representatives and those of the Indian group Mahindra & Mahindra.
Sources close to AVAS negotiating team said that the Indian company Mahindra had some issues unsettled in its favor yet. No decisions may de made until Monday evening under union pressures. On the contrary, Mahindra may run away, the sources declared.
