TATA Steel managing director Mr. B Muthuraman in the inauguration of the 'National Metallurgists Day (NMD) said, The country required at least 10 more steel plants in the near future to meet the escalating domestic consumption of steel.

The country requires one steel plant every year for the next 10 years if we want to attain self-sufficiency. For that we have to create land and the requisite infrastructure, which could be made possible only through encouraging industry-friendly policies of the government" he added.

Income tax (I-T) collections in the steel city registered a growth of 65% between April and October 2006, over YoY. Rupees 210 crore has been collected till October 31 in this fiscal.
Chief commissioner of income-tax (Jamshedpur circle) Mr Nanda Kishore Shukla said: After reduction in tax rate, organizations and individuals are now more willing to pay tax and enjoy the benefits of loans by banks.
The I-T department is hopeful of meeting its target in the time frame of remaining four and half months. About Rs 17 crore remain to be collected, of which most has been achieved, said K. Sarkar, income-tax commissioner.
An overall amount collected as tax in other areas of Jharkhand under the chief commissioner is around Rs 391 crore. This excludes Dhanbad and Bokaro, which fall under Patna circle.

Steel pipes maker Welspun Gujarat Stahl Rohren Ltd. bagged an offshore pipeline order worth Rs 4.60 billion from Exxon Mobil Corp.

A stock exchange notice earlier said the company had secured orders, but Welspun Gujarat said in a statement that it was a single order.

The company expects to execute the order for the 120-kilometre pipeline by 2007. Its order book stands at about Rs 25 billion, it said.

Shares in the company rose 0.61% to Rs82.40 in a firm Mumbai market.

Small steel firms are diversifying and JS Steel and Bhushan Steel are leading the way with large expansion plans into power, mining and integrated steel manufacturing.
Mr Nitin Johri of Bhushan Steel & Stripe says that they are planning a capacity expansion to 3 MTPA while Mr. Sushil K Maroo, Director of Finance at Jindal Steel & Power says he is targeting capacity at 17-18 MTPA by the next 7-8 years.

The New Mangalore Port Trust and Federation of Karnataka Chambers of Commerce and Industry are organizing a trade meet in Bangalore on November 10th to apprise importers and exporters in the State about the facilities available at the New Mangalore port.

NMPT release said that the port is all set to handle any type of cargo with utmost efficiency and that the commissioning of Mangalore-Hassan stretch of railway line for freight traffic, creation of a deep draught multipurpose general cargo berth and other related infrastructure have contributed immensely for the growth of the port.

Mr Laloo Prasad union railway minister during the Economic Editors conference in New Delhi last week informed that there would not be any reduction of freight rates owing to fall in global crude prices.

Mr Prasad, while replying to a question on possibilities of reduction in freight rates due to declining trend of global crude prices, said "We have not increased fare even when oil prices were raised.

Mr Prasad clarified that "We purchase diesel worth about Rs 6,000 crore and the loss was compensated through other sources.

As per reports in media TATA Steel and BlueScope Steels JV TATA BlueScope Steel is conducting due diligence in some Sri Lankan companies including TransLanka and Alliance Lanka Steels and may close an acquisition by early 2007 to increase its presence in the Sri Lankan construction industry.

The report mentions as a company spokesperson saying that Tata BlueScope Steel operates in the SAARC region. There are opportunities that keep emerging and if they interest us, we look at them. Currently we are focused on starting our facilities in Bhiwadi and Chennai. We would not like to comment on any speculations regarding due diligence.

BlueScope already has operations in Sri Lanka through BlueScope Lysaght Lanka, which operates Industrial & Commercial Development (Pvt) Ltd and Metroof (PVT) Ltd for manufacturing and suppling various products for roofing, wall cladding and structural solutions in the country. On the other hand TATA Steel operates Lanka Special Steels for manufacturing of galvanized wires.

The Russian Cabinet has approved a plan to develop domestic metallurgy in the period from 2007 to 2008. Reporting on prospects for the development of metallurgy in Russia, Mr Andrei Reus, Deputy Minister of Industry and Energy said that the state should give a new impulse to boost the competitiveness of this branch of industry to ensure a stable socio-economic development of the country.

The share of metallurgy industry's share in Russia's GDP makes up some 5% and Russia rank first in the world in terms of nickel production. According to Mr Reus, nine large companies and corporate groups have emerged in ferrous metallurgy, which makes it a sphere of competence of big-time business.

Investments in the branch made up 154.6 billion rubles in 2005, and are expected to reach 195 billion rubles this year.

Evraz Group S.A. announces that its major Russian operating subsidiaries have filed financial results with the Federal Financial Markets Service of the Russian Federation for Q3 2006. The major subsidiaries include OAO Nizhny Tagil Iron and Steel Plant (NTMK); OAO West Siberian Iron and Steel Plant (Zapsib); OAO Kachkanarsky Mining and Processing Integrated Works (KGOK); OAO Vysokogorsky Mining and Processing Integrated Works (VGOK). The results are prepared in accordance with Russian Accounting Standards.

RAS accounting results differ materially from IFRS and are not comparable to financial statements prepared in accordance with IFRS. The RAS accounting results of Evraz's major Russian subsidiaries are not indicative of the financial condition or results of operations of these entities or of Evraz Group S.A. under IFRS. RAS accounting results are not approved by external auditors and the Internal Audit Committee of Evraz Group S.A.

According to results, the net profit of NTMK and ZapSib went up 95.7% and 672.2% respectively in Q3 2006 YoY as a result of increased sales volumes and stronger prices in the domestic and export markets while the increased costs for iron ore were partially offset by lower prices for coking coal year-on-year.

The two GOKs 3Q 2006 net profits expanded more than fivefold due to higher prices and growing production volumes at KGOK. The prices increased in Q3 on average by 30-45% YoY and more than 10% QoQ.

Falling steel prices are forcing Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel to temporarily exit the flat-rolled steel spot market. The company attributes those falling prices to high imports, weak automotive demand, reduced housing starts and high service center inventories.

Wheeling-Pittsburgh has told Wall Street it expects its shipments in the fourth quarter to decline by 25% versus 610,000 tons in the third quarter. U.S. steel supply decreased slightly in September from August and executives at the West Virginia firm expect that domestic production cuts and expectations of reduced import activity will result in improved market conditions as the market enters 2007.

According to NDRC the China's domestic steel market will continue to be in oversupply due to new production capacity. The slowdown in demand is caused by government's macro-economic controls. The economic planning body said that the macro-economic tightening policies will show further effects and restrictions on project approvals which will surely slow down demand for steel products.

Steel companies will face more difficulties in terms of cost control, restructuring, energy savings and fluctuating steel prices. Increased exports and decreased imports will mean that the state of oversupply will not be as severe.

POSCO, in partnership with Hyundai Motor Company, has successfully developed an 1180MPa-class automotive GI known as hot dipped galvanized iron plate which has twice the amount of strength and 2/3 less weight compared to existing plates.

An 1180MPa plate has the strength to withstand 120kg/meter-square of force while the 590MPa plates currently in use withstand only half that.

POSCO declared the world's first mass production of the high strength automotive material and plans to apply it to Hyundais current models, providing them with a greater strength that is essential for the safety of passengers as well as lesser weight that ensures higher fuel-efficiency.

POSCO and Hyundai Motors began research of technologies for a high strength plate and established a taskforce with Shin Young Materials for various design work and process assessments in late 2005.

The motor industry sees POSCO's plan to mass-produce the newly developed automotive plates as a positive action, which will help them achieve both greater collision-safety and cost cutting through lightening their automobiles. In response to these demands, POSCO is raising the total shipment share of this high value-added steel product.

Companhia Vale do Rio Doce announces that it signed new and additive long-term contracts to sell iron ore to a group of Chinese steel companies, which will involve additional average annual sales volume of 19.4 million tons between 2007 and 2017 and 8.1 million tons between 2018 and 2031.

These contracts contribute to strengthen even further the excellent relationship that already exists between CVRD and its Chinese clients.

Mittal Steel Company N.V. today announce interim dividend of $ 0.125 per share. The cash dividend will be payable on 15 December 2006 to European Shareholders of record on 28 November 2006, and to NYSE shareholders of record on 1 December 2006. European Shareholders will receive $ 0.125 per share in Euros, based on the ECB exchange rate of 29 November 2006; NYSE shareholders will receive $ 0.125 per share.

On payment of the cash dividend 25% dividend tax will be withheld. Arcelor Mittal is the world's leading steel company, by both revenue and production.

Mr Imtiaz Rastgar, CEO of Engineering Development Board has requested the steel industry to increase its investment on energy conservation measures in order to reduce its cost of production. He said that the steel units could recover these investments within three months by saving in their energy bills.

The steel sector is wasting around 750MW of electricity in steel melting while estimate of electricity wastage in the re-rolling sector is more than 135MW. They emphasized the need for benchmarking in the steel sector through introduction of modern technology, regular and consist supply of electricity & gas and improving the quality of the refractories, design of the re-heating furnaces and the burners.

Vietnamese government gave a nod to POSCO's investment of $360 million in a steel plant in Vietnam. POSCO will build a sole owned plant 100 kilometers east of Ho Chi Minh City.

The plant will have a production capacity of 700000 tonnes of cold-rolled steel products per year. The license is expected to be issued soon. The production is expected to start by 2010.

MEPS has forecast that in the short term stainless steel prices will move even higher due mainly to an unprecedented hike in the price of nickel on the LME during October. It said that this gain will impact on alloy surcharges in December and January and basis values are also likely to rise until the end of the year pushing selling prices to their highest ever recorded figures.

MEPS believe that the year end will be the peak of the current cycle, as we stated last month and in the longer term expect stainless selling values to decline. The LME 15 month buy price for nickel in the last few days of October was hovering around $24,000 per tonne. This compares with a daily cash price of over $34,000 on several occasions during October and a figure of around $32,000 in recent days. In fact, the October average nickel price will be almost $2,000 higher than the August record high.

MEOS anticipates that the monthly average nickel cash price declining to near $24,000 in mid 2007 and predict stainless basis agreements being at a reduced level. This would bring MEPSs forecast for grade 304 cold rolled coils in October 2007 to approximately $560 below the current levels and $790 below the anticipated high point in December this year.

Schnitzer Steel Industries Inc announced that its board has authorized the buy back of an additional 3 million shares. It said that the new authorization is in addition to about 1.7 million shares remaining under an earlier share repurchase plan, taking the repurchase to up to 4.7 million shares or 15% of the total shares outstanding.

Schnitzer has also named Mr Tamara Adler Lundgren as COO and executive VP. Mr Lundgren most recently held the position of executive vice president, strategy and investments.

The US International Trade Commission has voted to expedite its 5 year sunset review concerning the antidumping duty order on imports of foundry coke from China. As a result of today's vote, the Commission will conduct an expedited review to determine whether revocation of the order concerning this product would be likely to lead to continuation or recurrence of material injury within a reasonably foreseeable time.

All 6 Commissioners concluded that the domestic group response for this review was adequate and the respondent group response was inadequate and voted for an expedited review.

Arcelor Brasil expects an increase in steel prices at home in the fourth quarter of this year compared to Q3 and that steel prices abroad in October to December 2006 could remain stable.

Mr Leonardo Horta investor relations director told analysts during a webcast "In the third quarter of this year there was a recovery in prices on international markets, and this recovery will be stable in the fourth quarter.

Arcelor Brasil director said that furthermore prices within the South American country could slightly increase due to stable production at compatriot integrated steelmaker CSN which has cancelled a discount on its steel prices put in place following a blast furnace accident. Mr Horta explained that Brazilian civil construction sector would also push up the demand for long steel products in Q4.

Hebei province government have been asked to disclose details on all steel projects built after 2003 that don't meet industry requirements and close them before the end of next year. Only three projects received central government approval during the period. NDRC attributed the galloping growth in Hebei to a series of unauthorized projects. The probe is being seen as a step of NDRC's macro-economic tightening policies.

The province has 200 steel companies which produced 40.35 million tonnes of crude steel in 2005 and the production output is this year is projected to be more than 90 million tonnes.

The province is country's fifth largest steel producer which posted 35% annual growth of crude steel between 2003 and 2005, which constitutes 10.5% higher than national average.

Investment Services on November 15, 2006, issued an alert in which it cited six aspects of the enhanced Companhia Siderurgica Nacional offer, which was made public on November 14, to support its conclusion that CSN's proposal presents a better alternative to shareholders.

Mr James G. Bradley, Wheeling-Pittsburgh Chairman and CEO said that ISS's new analysis fairly represents the significant improvements in CSN's enhanced proposal. He said he is disappointed, that despite ISS's endorsement of CSN's improved offer, ISS kept its recommendation of Esmark's Board of Directors slate unchanged because only one day remains to the Annual Meeting and the situation remains fluid with counter claims by each party.

Wheeling-Pitt said that if the company's slate of directors is changed, that would be considered a default on the company's $250 million Byrd Bill loan. Investors will vote Friday on who should control Wheeling Pitt.