November, 12 2006
Record performance by SSP
SAILs Salem Steel Plant (SSP) has performed well in the current financial year registering a growth of 65%, by selling 44,125 tonnes of stainless steel products up to October. Sales of carbon steel products has been 68,214 tonnes with a growth of 127%.
Production of Hot Rolling Mill has been 1,01,027 tonnes and production in Cold Rolling Mill has been 35,826 tonnes with a growth of 12%.
As informed earlier, the SAIL Board has approved a proposal for expansion of SSP at an indicative cost of Rs.1553 crores. The new and additional units include 50 tonne electric arc furnace, 60 tonne AOD converter with ladle furnace and single strand slab caster, additional annealing and pickling line, grinding machine, etc. The steel making facility will have the capacity to produce 1,80,000 tonnes of stainless steel slabs per annum while the cold rolling capacity would increase to 1,46,000 tonnes per annum. As SAILs Alloy Steel Plant in Durgapur would supply around 1,90,000 tonnes of stainless steel slabs per annum to SSP, the plants hot rolling mill would be able to process 3,70,000 tonnes of slabs each year. Steps are underway to implement the expansion process.
Salem Steel is already an environment friendly plant, with ISO 14001 certification for its Environment Management System. Now the plant is also taking steps to go for Occupational Health and Safety System 18001 (OHSAS), to cover its most valuable resources, its employees.
The plant has fared extremely well on the quality front also with its Quality Circles and employees winning several awards in this field.
Salem Steel Plant has won the prestigious National Sustainability Award 2006 (First prize) from the Indian Institute of Metals, among Secondary Steel Plants/Alloy Steel Plants category. The award, earlier termed as IIM Quality Award, has been won by SSP for the tenth time.
SSPs Brearley Quality Circle won the Overall Best 2006 Award from the Quality Circle Forum of India (QCFI), Madurai Chapter, competing with 60 QC teams. The plants Brilliant QC and Modern QC have won the Excellent Awards, while the Power Team QC and the Jasmine QC bagged the Distinguished Awards.
While excelling in overall performance, Salem Steel also maintained its accent on safety, by winning the Tamilnadu State Safety Awards for 2003 and 2004.
Punj Lloyd bagged a major project from Qatar
Punj Lloyd announced that the company bagged an EPC order worth Rs.803.70 crore from Qatar Petroleum for the Doha Urban Pipeline Relocations Project (DUPRP).
The company's scope of work includes lying of 97.2 km pipeline; 36" diameter bi-directional gas and spur pipeline, 12" diameter multi product and 8" diameter gas pipeline, 3 new and 6 modification stations, decommissioning of the existing pipeline and demolition of 9 existing stations.
Govt planning for selling Hindustan Zinc shares
Indian Foreign minister Mr Pranav Mukherjee is set to revive its divestment agenda by selling its shares in Hindustan Zinc Limited.
Hindustan Zinc which is a non controversial venture whose 26% of the governments equity was unloaded by NDA government in favor of Sterlite Opportunities and Ventures Ltd and Sterlite Optical The shares were sold for Rs 445 crore at Rs 40 to 50 % share in 2002.
Today, each share of this company is valued at Rs 964.60 on the Bombay Stock Exchange. Earlier Prime Minister Manmohan Singh also told that if the government was to mop up funds for the various social sector programs, divestment was inevitable.
Visa steel increased its net profit
VISA Steel Limited is a part of the VISA group which deals with minerals and metals in countries like India, China, Australia, Indonesia, Switzerland, UK and Hong Kong.
The company increased its net profit in the Q2 of this fiscal rose to Rs 5.6 crore from Rs 2 crore a year ago. Net revenues increased to Rs 150.4 crore from Rs 102.7 crore. PBIDT was Rs 12.4 crore compared with Rs 7.5 crore in the previous year. Earnings per share were Rs 0.51 against Rs 0.27 a year ago.
L & T team meets CM
Larsson and turbo limited who deals with design and construction met chief minister Mr Naveen Patnaik to discuss the progress in the alumina project proposed by the company.
Issues relating to mining lease figured in the meeting and the state government has sought certain clarifications from the company. Officers of the company said they had also deliberated on L & Ts participation in the railway corridor to Gopalpur, construction of Dhamra port and other projects.
Haldia Dock to transfer land to WB government
It is reported that the Haldia Dock authorities propose to transfer to the West Bengal Government about 76 acres of land out of a total 6,367 acres in its possession at Haldia to facilitate rehabilitation of a number of families by the local administration.
Suzlon Energy to increase overseas exposure
Indian wind energy major Suzlon Energy is expanding its operation overseas to grow and de risk its profile and plans to increase its overseas sales share to 40% in 2007 from about 8.5% in 2006 mostly from US and also fro Brazil and China. However it expects sales from India to fall to 20% in the long term
The US and China are also expected to be major markets with a similar share of sales and Suzlon has already put up plants in these countries. Suzlon provides full services to customers in India, which includes conducting wind studies and developing infrastructure in addition to supply of equipment, but in foreign markets, Suzlons role will largely be for supplying equipment lowering margins.
Suzlon had a market share of 40% in India and accounted for 15% of the global market in 2005. As per reports Indian orders account for only 12.5% of the companys current order book of $1,467 million.
North American Automotive industry cut production, affects steel industry
Dofasco in an attempt to balance production with demand may cut some production in their hot mill and finishing facilities. Similarly United States Steel corp will shut three or four blast furnaces for some part of this year or rest of the year.
Dofasco however, was less affected by the Motown slowdown than Stelco because it ships large percentage of its steel to Honda and Toyota, the Japanese automakers that are expanding their North American operations.
Three Detroit based companies, Ford Motor Co., General Motors Corp. and the Chrysler group are cutting production in the Q4 to deal with the swollen inventories at their dealerships. Ford and GM are permanently closing more than 10 vehicle assembly units to align their production capacity with market share. Chrysler has not made a similar move but analysts say it may close at least one US vehicle assembly unit looking at its $1.5 billion Q3 operating loss. Earlier this year Ford announced its layoff.
Stelco slashes steel production further
Stelco Inc. has planned further shutdowns in sections of its steel mills due to deep slump in demand. Earlier Stelco reported $25 million Q3 loss and expects shipments to drop as much as 30% in Q4.
Stelco Mr Rodney Mott, CEO said that the he don't think they are going to miss their second half projections substantially, but it will be too early to tell at this point. Following this cut in production, company may fall short of some financial and production targets.
Mr Mott further said that the situation may continue till early next year. The company is extending planned operation cuts for maintenance at the Lake Erie and Hamilton steel operations. The company may choose to halt the production.
CSC and Baosteel to announce prices for next quarter
The largest steel mill in Taiwan, CSC and Baosteel are expected to announce the new steel price for Q1 of 2007 at the end of this month. Due to the increasing cost of iron ore, they may not decrease the steel price for the next quarter.
Possibilities are that companies may keep the price unchanged or increase the price. Accordingly, Baosteel will remain the price unchanged while CSC may choose to increase the price.
Yusco plans two steel mills
Yusco, the largest integrated steel mill in Southeast Asia, plans to build two steel mills in an industrial park in Pingtung County, Mr Tsao Chi-hung, county magistrate informed.
In a report Mr Tsao noted that Mr Lin Yi-shou, chairman or Yusco has agreed to build two steel mills with investment of $620 million. Mr Tsao said that the construction would start by this month end. The construction work will end in 2.5 years.
ThyssenKrupp Inaugurates Polish Service Center
ThyssenKrupp as a part of its expanding service offering and developing new markets, inaugurated a new service center in Poland. ThyssenKrupp Stainless Polska, a subsidiary of ThyssenKrupp Stainless International GmbH, will mainly serve the Polish market. The demand for stainless steel flat products is growing in this region. Supplies to the Baltic states will also be made from this location.
Mr Jurgen Fechter, Executive Board Chairman of ThyssenKrupp at the inauguration said that to enable ThyssenKrupp aims to serve the global customers from the areas like automotive, electrical and appliance sector as locally as possible. To achieve this goal they are constantly expanding their distribution network in the form of service centers, sales offices and distribution warehouses. Growing East European steel market is important for ThyssenKrupp. This is also a reason why the company established the service center.
This service center will process and distribute the entire ThyssenKrupp Stainless product range and service for welded stainless steel tubes. The center also has cut-to-length and slitting lines as well as modern surface grinding/polishing equipment.
Huaye Special steel performing well
Baotou Huaye Special steel group has started cold rolled coils and sheets production. The unit is capable of melting steel, hot rolled, pickled and cold rolled steel.
The unit is capable of cold rolling coils between thickness 2.5mm to 4.5mm and width 400mm to 650mm. It is capable of adjusting sizes and grade according to user specification within given limits. The company will be largest steel producing base in northwestern China.
POSCO CEO optimistic about rapid growth of China and India
In the keynote speech for 5th World Korean Business Convention, MR Ku-Taek Lee, CEO of POSCO stressed that the transnational community of Koreans who provide human, intellectual, and material resources in a global environment of diverse cultures and languages will carry enormous power. CEO Lee explained that China and India will be able to achieve rapid growth because of the national capital network of Chinese and Indian merchants and that POSCO and many other Korea-based global companies throughout the world will greatly contribute to Korea`s future growth.
POSCO is planning to make 1.5 trillion won in capital expenditure by 2008 to boost the share of the strategic and upmarket steel products to 80% of its total output. Strategic products include steel plate for vehicles and electric steel plates.
Kazakhyms zinc output in Q3 down
Kazakhmys has reported a drop in its byproduct zinc metal output to 12,100 tonnes during July to September quarter from 15,600 tonnes in the previous quarter although it was up as compared to 9,600 tonnes produced in the Q3 of 2005.
The company attributed the lower production in Q3 to technical issues with the coolers at the Balkash zinc plant, which were exacerbated by the hot summer conditions. It said that Zinc metal production bounced back by 31% in September relative to August.
Its cumulative production during January to September 2006 at 45,900 tonnes was also up on the year earlier figure of 38,200 tonnes.
Puda Coals sale to Baotou up surges in Q3s
Puda Coal Inc announced this week that it has achieved significantly increased sales to existing customer Baotou Iron & Steel (Group) Company Ltd, the 17th largest steel mill in China. During Q3 2006 alone, Puda sold approximately 123,800 tonnes of coke to Baotou up by 19% more than the 103,708 tonnes to Baotou in all of 2005.
As per the release, Pudas sale to Baotou during January to September 2006 is 233,639 tonnes up by 125% more than 2005 sales to the customer.
Mr Zhao Ming, chairman & CEO of Puda Coal said "Puda has made exceptional progress in 2006, both in acquiring new business and expanding the scale of our existing customer relationships. The sales achieved with Baotou are but one example of our ability to execute against both notable agreements and our business plan in general."
Puda Coal, through its affiliates and controlled entities, supplies premium grade coking coal to the steel making industry for use in making coke. The Company currently possesses 2.7 million tonnes of annual coking coal cleaning capacity.
Inprom to open a branch in Perm
Inprom OJSC has announced opening of a branch in Perm as its board of Directors has approved the provision on the new branch and the corresponding alterations to the Company's Articles of Association.
Inprom is one of the largest Russian network metal servicing companies with branches in 21constituent entities of the Russian Federation. Its core business is small size wholesale trade and retail of steel rolled products, pipes and building materials; it also renders metal working services.
Cassar World Investments Corporation registered in the British Virgin Islands is its final beneficiary of Inprom. Its sale procceds in 2005 amounted to $279.45 million
Harris Steel Group posts record quarterly earnings
Harris Steel Group Inc has announced record quarterly earnings of $25.6 million up by 74.5% YoY and that its earnings during January to September 2006 were $63.5 million up by 43.2% YoY.
Harris said that its rebar segment continues to outperform, accounting for 53.6% of total sales and 76.2% of total pre tax earnings YTD measured before inter segment eliminations. Pre tax margins in the steel trading and distribution segment trended down in the third quarter as it reported pre tax earnings of $1.9 million during the quarter on our highest quarterly segment sales volumes achieved to date. The industrial products segment includes the effects of the Tru-Weld Grating acquisition that closed in April this year, and pre-tax earnings of $6.5 million in the third quarter are more than double their levels in the comparable quarter last year. Strength in the grating operations has mitigated the continuing margin pressure in our cold-finished bar operations in the industrial products segment.
YTD sales in 2006 of $1.076 billion already exceed full year 2005 sales of $1.013 billion. The main contributor to the sales increase year over year is the steel trading and distribution business, which accounts for $316.2 million of the year-to-date sales, compared to $106.6 million in its first partial year of operations in 2005. Rebar segment sales of $232.5 million in the quarter increased by 7.1% over second quarter 2006 sales of $217.1 million. The steel trading and distribution segment also increased its sales, with the third quarter being the highest segment volumes achieved to date. Industrial products sales declined by 8.0% from sales in the second quarter this year, reflecting mainly the seasonality of the cold finished bar products due to summer maintenance slowdowns.
Kumba to take up issue of increased royalty with government
South Africas largest iron ore producer Kumba Resources, which is being split into Exxaro and Kumba Iron Ore later this month, has given notice that it will be meeting government to discuss the latest royalty rulings on both coal and iron ore.
Dr Con Fauconnier, who will become Exxaro CEO on November 27, said he would be discussing a relook at the coal royalty, while Kumba executive Mr Ras Myburgh who becomes Kumba Iron Ore CEO on November 20 said he would be doing likewise on iron-ore.
South African National Treasury last month unveiled the revised royalty of 4% on the unrefined iron and 2% on refined iron, which was identified pig iron, directly reduced iron, hot briquetted iron or steel. Likewise, the royalty on coal with ash content less than 15% has been raised from 2% to 3% and the royalty on coal with an ash content greater than 15% lowered to 1%.
TISCO becomes world's largest SS maker
With the recent commissioning of RMB 16.578 billion new stainless steel project of Taiyuan Iron and Steel (Group) Company Ltd, its capacity has become 3 million tonnes per annum making it the largest producer of SS in the world.
TISCO has built a new steel melt shop with 160 ton super high power electric furnace, 180 ton AOD furnace, 180 ton converter furnace, 180 ton LF furnace and slab continuous casting machine. As for hot rolling system, TISCO newly built 2250mm hot rolling unit and skin pass finishing unit which was the world most advanced and widest in stainless steel industry. The mill will be able to produce 1 million tonnes of SS HRC in thickness range of 2mm to 20mm with maximum width if 2100mm. TISCO has also built a new cold rolling complex with an annual of 0.5 million tons.
Mr Li Xiaobo GM of TISCO told the reporter that TISCO has adopted the most advanced equipment and technique in the New Stainless Steel Project in the world.
