Committee on iron ore export to submit report soon

It is reported that during the meeting of the high powered inter ministerial committee set up by the Prime Ministers Office on the controversial issue of regulating exports of iron ore, no decision has been taken and the committee has been asked to submit its report within two weeks.

The recommendations of the committee are expected to be form the policy for the amendments to the Mines and Minerals Development and Regulation Act of 1957 which is slated to be approved in the next session of Parliament.

The inter ministerial committee is reported to be considering several options including restriction on exports of iron ore with Fe 64% & up, incentives for beneficiation of low grade iron ore, country wise quotas, canalization through state owned enterprises and to maintain status quo for the next three years & conduct a review thereafter.

ASSOCHAM calls for infrastructure status for gas pipelines

The Associated Chambers of Commerce & Industry of India has sought conferment of infrastructure status on gas pipelines to encourage easy flow of petroleum products across the country and has submitted a study paper Supply Network for Natural Gas to the ministry of petroleum & natural gas, finance and the commerce & industry.

ASSOCHAM has submitted that the laying of pipelines are in public good as these carry basic energy input for a large amount of economic activities, granting of infrastructure status on them will help industry to lay large network of gas pipelines. It added that gas pipelines are a critical infrastructure project which benefit large sections of society and therefore, be provided with incentives to facilitate development of a comprehensive network of gas pipelines.

Mr Anil K Agarwal president of ASSOCHAM said that a pipeline built on common career principle with 33% excess capacity would be akin to a road or bridge, which is accepted as public goods. Mr Agarwal said that High input costs would translate in to high costs of outputs of crude or natural gas and transportation thereof. This would indirectly affect the cost of output of main consumers of natural gas such as, power and fertilizer industries. Hence, to maintain cost efficiently and affordability, pipelines should be extended benefits that are available to other infrastructure projects.

ASSOCHAM is also of the view that transportation of natural gas through pipeline is economically cheaper and safer as according to Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, the cost of pipeline transportation is 30% to 50% of railway freight and 20% to 25% of road freight.

Combined traffic at major ports of India up by 6.15% in H1

According to Indian Ports Associations tentative data, traffic during April to September 2006 at Indias 13 major ports totaled to 214.648 million tonnes up by 6.13% YoY as compared to April to September 2005 although it fell short of the target of 227.91 million tonne set by the shipping ministry.

Visakhapatnam continued to be the largest port. But the growth in traffic we led by Kochi registering YoY growth by 28.5%

Source Indian Port Association
Quantity in million tonnes

Displaced villagers stop fencing works at Essars plant in Orissa

Statesman News Service has reported that the villagers agitating against their displacement have stopped fencing activities at the proposed Essar steel plant near Paradip.

The villagers said they would be adversely affected by the proposed plant and they would be robbed of their agricultural income. Some of them charged that they had not been included in the list of displaced families and hence, would not be entitled to any rehabilitation benefit.

The report mentions that Paradip Port Trust had acquired the land initially and returned 1500 acres to the revenue department in 1987. The government had than given 1,100 acres for the Oswal fertilizer unit which sold the plant to the IFFCO last year. Now Essar has acquired the land for its proposed steel plant.

About 177 acres of land continued to be under cultivation by people of Bijayachandpur village and now some of them had moved to the courts against the eviction. They want ownership of the land saying that they had been cultivating it for decades and were paying water cess and revenue as well.

BHEL to set up Bharat Oman Refinerys captive power plant at Bina

Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd announced that it has secured a Rs 950 crore order on a turnkey basis to set up a 99 MW captive power plant for Bharat Oman Refinery Ltd at Bina in Madhya Pradesh. The first unit is slated for commissioning in 26 months and the entire project will be completed within 30 months.

BHEL's scope of work in the project envisages design, engineering, manufacture, supply and commissioning of the power plant. The equipment would be supplied by BHEL's Hyderabad, Trichy, Ranipet, Bhopal, Jhansi and Bangalore plants.

Dhamra Port launches its website

L&T & TATA Steels JV Dhamra Port Company Limited has launched its website www.dhamraport.com, which features updated information about the company and highlights various aspects like the maritime history of Dhamra, exact location of the port, details of infrastructure & facilities being created and the companys commitment to protect the environment.

Mr Santosh Kumar Mohapatra CEO of DPCL said Sharing of information is vital and this website will act as a channel of information for all our stakeholders.

DPCL has been awarded a concession by government of Orissa for expansion and development of Dhamra Port on Build, Own, Operate, Share and Transfer basis. DPCL is building a deep draft port north of the mouth of river Dhamra in the northern part of Orissa coast capable of handling super cape size vessels up to 180000 DWT. The master plan provides for 13 berths capable of handling more than 80 million tonnes of dry bulk, break bulk, liquid bulk and containerized cargo per annum.

Godawari Ispat sells carbon credits

Chattisgrah based Godawari Power and Ispat Ltd has announced signing of a deal with Sweden's Carbon Asset Services to sell 65,205 carbon credit units. The carbon credits were generated up to December 31st 2005 from a waste heat based captive power project.

US steelmakers & workers coalition intensifies battles for AD duties

The US steel industry during a conference call with reporters, under the banner of Stand Up For Steel, accused the automakers of hypocrisy and short sightedness, intensifying battle over whether the federal government should cut import tariffs on some forms of steel.

The call was in response to a joint statement last week from 6 US and Japanese automakers General Motors Corp, Ford Motor Co, DaimlerChrysler AG, Toyota Motor Corp, Honda Motor Co and Nissan Motor Co that called for an end to tariffs on the corrosion resistant steel used to make cars and trucks because they artificially inflate steel prices .

The heated debate between the two industries comes a week before the International Trade Commission meets to discuss ending the tariffs or keeping them in place for another five years. In 1993, US ITC had slapped anti dumping duties on corrosion resistant steel, hiking prices for steel from Australia, Canada, France, Germany, South Korea and Japan.

Stand Up For Steel is a coalition representing leading steel makers and the United Steelworkers union. It also unveiled a new advertising campaign attacking the automakers' position on the tariffs with ads running in major newspapers with the headline "Don't Let America's Steelworkers Get Run Over By the Auto Companies." The ads say automakers should abide by the rules and play fair, not drive American manufacturing into the ground.

Evraz looking to buy assets overseas & denies merger reports

RIA Novosti has reported that Evraz Group is looking to buy assets outside Russia.

Mr Pavel Tatyanin CFO of Evraz told RIA Novosti in an interview that "As for our international operations, there are several interesting units we are looking to buy. These are units that fit into our general down stream acquisition logic, units complementary to our export of slabs from Russian subsidiaries."

However, he denied reports about Evraz is in merger talks with Russian and foreign groups. Mr Tatyanin said "The Company is not holding talks on a merger with anyone at this point. We are not looking at Russian assets as we are busy completing our investment program at Russian metals units, and there is enough to do here in terms of further cost cutting."

Mr Tatyanin also said that "We will also try to continue consolidating our positions in steel roll sales on mature European and US markets.

Chinas trade surplus totals $109.9 billion in 9 months

Chinas General Administration of Customs has announced that China's monthly trade surplus narrowed to $15.3 billion in September from the record high of US$18.8 billion in August although second highest during 2006. Chinese exports totaled to $91.64 billion in September up by 30.6% YoY as compared with September 2005 and imports increased by 22% YoY to $76.34 billion.

With this, Chinas trade surplus totals to $109.9 billion during January to September 2006 up by 60.8% YOY as compared with $68.33 billion during January to September 2005 and exceeding the $101.9 billion for all of 2005. China has done $1.27 trillion in foreign trade from January to September 2006 up by 24.3% YoY. For the January to September period, exports increased by 26.5% to $691.2 billion and imports rose by 21.7% to $581.4 billion.

During the period of January to September 2006, exports of steel products surged by 81% YoY to 28.59 million tonnes, imports of iron ore increased by 24.2% YoY to 247.13 million tonnes, exports of coal reduced by 11.9% YoY to 48.07 million tonnes and exports of coke increased by 9.3% YoY to 10.7 million tonnes.

The average annual growth rate of foreign trade from 2001 to 2005 was 24%. Foreign trade is targeted to grow at around 10% YoY in the next five years with total imports and exports hitting $2.3 trillion in 2010.

Japan appeals against WTO ruling in dispute with US AD

Japan has appealed against a ruling by a World Trade Organization panel that favored the United States in a bilateral dispute over antidumping duties the US applied to Japanese carbon steel products and ball bearings. Mr Takuya Kimura a trade ministry official confirmed that Japan has filed its appeal with the WTO.

WTO had previously chided the US for how it determines what anti dumping fees to apply. Japan claims the practice can artificially inflate dumping margins. The WTO panel in its September decision said that most of the examples cited by Tokyo of alleged wrongdoing did not violate international trade rules.

WTO panel sided largely in September 2006 with the US in its ruling on a dispute that focused on Washington's complicated procedure for determining tariff rates on certain carbon steel products and ball bearings.

Chinese steel glut to become focal point in US-China trade talks

Ms Susan Schwab trade representative of US, during an address to the National Committee of US-China Relations, expressed concerns about a glut of Chinese steel production in 2006 and indicated that steel could become an area of friction in trade talks between the two nations.

Ms Schwab cited Chinese government data that China was set to produce 117 million tons of excess steel in 2006. She said "Needless to say, there are likely to be implications. This is not in China's interest.

Timken to pulls out of seamless tube plant in UK

The Timken Co announced its intention to exit its European seamless steel tube manufacturing operations located at Desford in England as part of its strategy to manage its business portfolio to improve performance. The company will begin consultations with representatives of the 400 associates located at the Desford facility to explore alternative solutions to closure.

Mr Salvatore Miraglia Jr president of Timkens steel group said "The proposed action is part of the company's strategy to focus on lines of business that produce differentiated products while driving profitable growth. Exiting this business would further advance the focus of the Steel Group on differentiated products that deliver value to both customers and shareholders."

The Desford facility generated sales of approximately $85 million to $95 million in recent years, but has not been profitable. It manufactures seamless steel tube for machining and mechanical applications, primarily serving the bearing industry in Europe.

AR & CMGC ink MoU for Balmoral South iron ore project

Australasian Resources Ltd has announced signing of a MoU for strategic alliance with Chinese government owned China Metallurgical Group Corporation to construct and provide finance for ARs Balmoral South Iron Ore Project. The MoU is non binding and subject to both parties board approval within 30 days.

The MoU provides that
1. MCC will provide a commercial proposal for the construction of ARs iron ore project.
2. At the request of AR, MCC will organize up to 70% of the contract price by way of debt funding.
3. MCC agree to provide sale and off take of iron ore concentrate in proportion to their funding.
4. MCC will provide equity investment in the share capital of AR in an amount to be agreed between the parties.
5. AR will send its technical team to China to meet MCCs designated special team for the project to finalize MCCs commercial proposal for the construction of the AR project.

The Balmoral South deposit contains about 958 million tonnes of magnetite ore.

8 coal miners rescued after 40 hours of mine cave in

Xinhua has reported that 8 Chinese coal miners who were trapped when a tunnel collapsed were rescued early Thursday after 40 hours underground. They were weak but in good condition following their rescue.

The miners were trapped on Tuesday when the ceiling collapsed in the Xieqiao Coal Mine in Fuyang in the eastern province of Anhui.

China modifies export rebate policy for some items

According to the Chinas finance ministry several adjustments to its export tax rebate policy announced on September 14th 2006 have been made to fix some errors in the original list. The ministry said that it made the corrections in response to problems local government departments encountered in implementing the new tax rebate policy without elaborating.

The finance ministry announced that the exports of stainless and alloy steel ingots will not receive any tax rebate while a rebate rate of 5% will be applied to exports of tin and tin products and nickel and nickel alloy powder and foil will be removed from the list of products whose export rebate rates have been cut. Exports of coated and galvanized iron and steel cords will receive a tax rebate rate of 8%.

In the original list, steel products such as stainless and alloy steel ingots, and tin and tin products including alloy bar, rod, wire, foil, sheet and strip, were awarded an 8% export tax rebate. The original tax rebate rate for nickel and nickel alloy powder and foil was 13%.

Evrazs H1 profit down by 6.7% YoY

Evraz Group has announced that its net profits, calculated according to international accounting standards, fell by 6.7% in the first half of 2006 YoY to $571 million. Its incomes grew by 5.3% to $3.825 billion, whereas operating profits dropped by 6.7% to $938 million.

Mr Tatyanin CFO of Evraz told RIA Novosti in an interview said that he expected Evraz' 2006 profits to exceed figures for the two previous years. He said "The second half of 2006 will look much better than the first one in terms of EBITDA and net profits. Profits will be higher because the prices, especially on export markets, will be much better. We therefore expect year end EBITDA and net profits in 2006 to top not just last year's figures, but also the record-highs we posted in 2004."

Mr Tatyanin said that incomes from the consolidation of US vanadium producer Stratcor, in which Evraz bought a 73% stake in August and from the acquisition of 25% in South Africa's Highveld will also contribute to larger overall profits.

Earlier this week, Evraz had reported that its output of rolled metal products rose by 22.3% YoY in the first nine months of 2006 to 10.8 million tonnes, steel output increased by 17.6% YoY to 12 million tons and hot metal production was up by 13.8% YoY to 9.7 million tons.

OMK to put 2 pipe coating lines at Vyksa

United Metallurgical Company OMK will invest RUR2 billion in the purchase of two lines to cover large size pipes with anti corrosion coating for its Vyksa Metallurgical Plant at Vyksa in Nizhniy Novgorod region.

Netherlandss Selmers and Bauhuis has been contracted for designing, manufacturing and assembling two new lines for the application of anti corrosion coating to pipes 508 mm to 1,422 mm in diameter with wall thickness up to 50 mm.

China delays closure plan for small coal mines by 2 years

Xinhua has reported that China will delay its plan to close all unsafe small coal mines within two years. The target was originally set for the end of 2008 but after meeting opposition from local governments the central government has been forced to postpone the plan until 2010.

China currently has 17,000 small coal mines, which produce one third of the nation's coal output and aims to reduce the number to around 10,000 by the end of 2010. China plans to close 2,652 small mines in 2006 and 2,209 in 2007. Chinese mine safety authorities have called for small mines with an annual output of below 30,000 tons to be shut down by the end of this year in order to reduce the number of accidents.

Small coal mines, some of which are notoriously dangerous, are considered the major capital sources for local governments leading to many local authorities protecting unsafe mines for financial gain.

Ukraines steel scrap exports dip by 45.3% in 9 months

Interfax, citing Ukraines scrap metal industry association UAVtormet, reported that Ukraine has reduced export of ferrous metal scrap by 45.3% YoY during January to September 2006 to 580,200 tonnes.

Scrap supplies to Ukrainian steel mills increased to 4.915 million tonnes in January to September 2006 up by 8.6% as compared to 4.525 million tonnes in January to September 2005.

AK Steel sets deadline for accepting contract by IAM

AK Steel set a new deadline for the International Association of Machinists union to accept a contract that would end a lockout in its eighth month. The company said its latest offer expires October 19th and if accepted, the lockout at the Middletown Works would end October 26th.

Mr McCoy spokesman of AK Steel said that no more negotiations were scheduled, however. He said the company has been extraordinarily patient and that the union can end this lockout in just two weeks and begins a vital restoration of economic security and harmony in this community.

Union workers voted down what the company had called its final offer on September 25th and said later the vote was 54% against and 46% in favor of accepting it.

Zamil Steel Vietnam to build aviation exhibition center in Singapore

Zamil Steel Vietnam has won a contract to manufacture a large scale pre engineered steel building for Asias largest Aviation Exhibition Center in Singapore. Value of the deal is yet to be announced.

The Singaporean Aviation Exhibition Center will be built on a 4 hectare site in the Changi East industrial zone and would include an exhibition hall and a separate aircraft showroom among other facilities. Construction is to start soon to put the center into operation by April 2007, serving for International Aviation Exhibition 2008 Asias biggest aviation event

Peabody appoints Mr Schoch as chief legal officer

Peabody Energy announced that it has named Mr Alexander C Schoch as chief legal officer and executive VP. He will report to Mr H Boyce CEO of Peabody.

Mr Schoch most recently served as VP and general counsel for Emerson Process Management, a unit of electronic products maker Emerson Electric Co.