November, 09 2006
SAIL sees Indian steel sector growth to surpass China
Steel Authority of India Limited is upbeat on the growth in Indian steel sector, surpassing even China steered primarily by the GDP growth rate and the population. Mr SK Roongta chairman of SAIL while addressing the inaugural session of the 2 day international Symposium on Future Technologies in Iron and Steel Making in Bhilai said According to IISI predictions, the growth in consumption of steel in India would be the highest in the world, surpassing China after 2010.
Mr Roongta also said that the concerns before the industry were environment, sustainability, safety and energy and emphasized developing corrosion-resistant and earthquake-resistant steel that is affordable for common man.
Mr R Ramaraju MD of SAILs Bhilai Steel Plant in his address spoke on the technological revolution in steel making during the last four decades describing major advancements in blast furnace operations, steel making and casting. He said We must make investment plans and choose right technology so that our company gets benefits. The meeting will generate ideas that could be taken from the drawing board to the project sites.
Sponge iron units demand regulator for ore sector
It is reported that sponge iron industries in West Bengal have asked the government the government to classify iron ore as a major mineral so that it can regulate prices as it does for coal and have questioned the profit being made by iron ore miners. The sponge iron units also sought a levy on standalone mines to ensure stability in the iron ore market, while at the same time granting more mining leases.
Mr Gouri Shankar Jain president of West Bengal Sponge Iron Manufacturers Association said that sponge units face closure and this would eliminate 12,000 jobs directly linked with the industry. He said We have appealed to the West Bengal government to arrange for a supply deal.
WBSIMA claimed the mine owners are selling iron ore at Rs 3,600 a tonne against its production cost of Rs 580 and as a result, the sponge iron units are making an operational loss of Rs 1,200 to 1,400 a tonne at their all inclusive selling price of Rs 13,000 a tonne.
There are 44 coal based sponge iron units in West Bengal producing about 4 million tonne a year.
Arcelor Mittal awaits Mecon report for Orissa steel plant
Statesman News Service has reported that Arcelor Mittal is awaiting a final report from consultants Mecon which is expected in the next four to six weeks for its proposed 12 million tonnes steel plant in Orissa,
Mr Sanak Mishra chief of Arcelor Mittals Indian operations said that the joint task force set up by the Orissa government to expedite the project will meet once the final report is available. Mr Mishra also stated that Arcelor Mittal had already registered itself as an Indian company known as Mittal Steel India.
Mr Mishra refused to speculate on the location of the proposed plant and said 6 sites had been short listed and each of this will be ranked as per certain parameters and the one getting the highest rank will be selected.
Gopalpur Port to be operational from Jan
It is reported that Gopalpur Port will become operational from January. Mr Mahima Mishra director of the Gopalpur Port Limited while speaking at a press conference said that efforts were on to make the defunct seasonal port operational again from January. He said the GPL had decided to reopen the seasonal port in Gopalpur by January and around Rs 100 crore will be spent in the next two months for this purpose.
Mr Mishra said that the target is to convert the Gopalpur port into a modern all-weather port by the end of 2010. In the first phase, the Gopalpur port will have a loading capacity of 250,000 tons and it will be increased to 750,000 tons by the end of third year of operation.
GPL has taken up the work of converting this minor seasonal port into an all weather port. The seasonal port in Gopalpur has been defunct since 2002. Earlier this seasonal port was being managed by the Orissa government.
GPL is a consortium of three companies, Orissa Stevedores Limited, Sara International Limited and HK based Noble Group Limited, which entered into a MoU with the Orissa government on 14 September to develop the defunct port into an all weather port with modern facilities. The total cost needed to transform the port into an all-weather one is pegged at more than Rs 1,700 crore, 34% of which will be born by OSL, while that of Sara International and Noble Group is 33% each. The rest of the cost will be financed by other agencies.
L&Ts Oman JV to set up facility for oil rigs & structures
Larsen & Toubro Ltd has announced that its Oman JV L&T Modular Fabrication Yard LLC took another major step on November 08, 2006 towards establishing Oman's first modular fabrication facility with the signing of a sub usufruct agreement with Sohar Industrial Port Company.
The new modular fabrication facility is located at Sohar in north Oman, and would significantly augment the country's industrial base by manufacturing latest-generation products for the offshore oil & gas sector. Fabrication of a range of complex plants including integrated Decks from 10,000 to 20,000 tonnes, Jack up Rigs and Floating Production Storage & Offloading vessels will introduce a new dimension to Oman's offerings and leverage its geographical position as the gateway to the Gulf. The yard is spread over an area of 400,000 square meters and will have facilities for heavy structural fabrication, sophisticated equipment & systems integration and testing, and load-out of ultra-large modules. The water front captive jetties will be able to accommodate ocean-going vessels of 10 to 12 meter draft. The plant will be a global centre of manufacturing excellence in its field and, as planned at present, will produce about 50,000 tonnes of finished goods per year.
L&T MFY is a JV with The Zubair Corporation, which is one of the largest industrial houses in Oman.
TATA Motors acquire Nissan's plant in South Africa
TATA Motors has acquired a Japanese auto conglomerate Nissan's manufacturing unit at Pretoria in South Africa. Mr Debasis Ray head of corporate communication of TATA Motors Ltd said "the acquisition has been done by TATA Africa Holdings.
Tata Motors already have strong presence in the South African market, having sold over 16,500 vehicles there in 2005-06.
TATA Africa Holdings, headquartered in Johannesburg, is the TATA group's dedicated enterprise looking after all Tata activities in the African continent.
CVRD becomes 2nd largest miner in the world
CVRD announced acquisition of 87% of the outstanding shares of Canadian nickel miner Inco Ltd. in a deal valued at roughly $17 billion. It also informed about its plans to buy the rest of the shares which CVRD said would put the final purchase price at about $17.6 billion.
This purchase gives CVRD the world's biggest nickel miner, and makes the Brazilian company the world's 2nd largest mining company, after the BHP Billiton Ltd.
EU readopts steel beams cartel decision and fines Arcelor
The European Commission has readopted a decision on a cartel in the steel beams sector and fined Arcelor Luxembourg SA, Arcelor International SA and Arcelor Profil Luxembourg SA a total of Euro 10 million for participating in a cartel in steel beams, in violation of Article 65 of the European Coal and Steel Community Treaty and Article 81 of the EC Treaty.
Between 1988 and 1991, the companies fixed prices, allocated quotas and exchanged confidential information in the steel beams industry covering the whole of the Single Market. The re-adoption follows a judgment of 2 October 2003 by the Court of Justice, where the Court annulled the Court of First Instances judgment (T-137/94) and, on procedural grounds, the Commission decision, insofar as it concerned Arbed SA.
Mr Jonathan Todd spokesman said that this decision sends a very strong signal to companies that you cannot escape penalties for violating the antitrust rules on procedural grounds.
In October 2003, the European Court of Justice overturned on procedural grounds a commission decision to fine the companies. The commission said it corrected its procedural error by addressing a statement of objections to all three Arcelor units on March 8, 2006.
Atoun Steel to setup steel plant in Yanbu
Atoun Steel Industry Co is setting up a major steel plant at the Yanbu Industrial City II at an investment of SR1 billion. It is reported that the civil works begin immediately and the plant will go into commercial production on 1st November.2008.
The plant will also produce 1 million tonne of reinforcement bars for the construction industry, which is booming not only in and around Yanbu but also elsewhere in the Kingdom and the Gulf.
ASI has signed an agreement with Voest-Alpine for supply of equipment worth SR800 million for the plant.
Based in Jeddah, the ASI has been established by 24 investors and is projected to cover local market needs. It will also explore export possibilities in future.
CVRDs profit surges by 47% YoY in Q3
Companhia Vale do Rio Doce SA has recorded 47% increase in the third quarter profits by posting BRL 4 billion ($1.9 billion) in the July September period amid continuing high global demand. This is a new quarterly record for CVRD.
CVRD sold a record 63.1 million tons of iron ore during the quarter, another quarterly record and an increase of 14.3% YoY over the same quarter last year.
MMKs steel production by 9.4% YoY in 10 months
Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Works has produced 10.27 million tonnes of steel during January to October 2006 up by 9.4% YoY. MMK increased production of rolled metal by 9.9% to 9.96 million tonnes, of saleable steel products by 11% YoY to 9.33 million tonnes with export accounting for 50%.
Its production of finished ore slid by 6.9% YoY to 1.2 million tonnes but production of agglomerate rose by 7.2% to 9.06 million tonnes, of coke by 0.1% YoY to 4.62 million tonnes.
NUMSA to protest against steel price hike in South Africa
South African National Union of Metalworkers stage a general strike and other industrial action in protest against the latest price increase of steel products.
The National Union of Metalworkers said that it was adamant and would mobilize a series of work stoppages, demonstrations, including general strikes in protest against steel price increases. No definite date had been announced for the start of campaign which was still being planned.
Mr Mziwakhe Hlangani spokesman of NUMSA said "It's in the very early stages, we are now just beginning to mobilize. It's not going to involve a full blown strike next week or tomorrow. They know about our campaign."
Mittal Steel South Africa said it knew nothing of planned protests by its workers' union over high steel prices. Mittal Steel SA said in a statement "Nothing has been communicated about it at all.
Mittal Steel SA posts 20% increase in quarter earning
Mittal Steel South Africa today announced a 20% increase in headline earnings for the quarter ended 30 September 2006 to R1.47 billion when compared to the previous quarter and by 49% when compared to the corresponding period last year.
Revenue for the third quarter increased by 16% to R7, 23 billion as compared to the previous quarter and by 17% when compared to the corresponding period last year. Operating profit gained 61% to R1.94 billion compared to the past quarter and 22% on the comparable quarter.
Liquid steel production for the quarter decreased by 5% compared to the previous quarter and 3% on the same period last year as a result of a cut back in production due to a lack of iron ore.
Mr Rick Reato CEO of Mittal Steel South Africa said that the increase in headline earnings was driven by higher domestic sales, higher sales prices and a weaker Rand US dollar exchange rate, although earnings were partially offset by lower export volumes and an increase in input material costs.
Zinc to cross $5,000by year end Macquarie
Macquarie Bank Ltd has predicted that the prices for zinc may rise by 11% to trade above $5,000 by the end of the year because of rising demand from China and supply disruptions.
Mr Adam Rowley a UK based analysts during an interview said "Zinc looks as though it's running out, When a commodity runs the price can go anywhere as we have seen in copper and nickel. Zinc supply looks extremely tight, while the drawdown has increased in the past three years, demand has risen. Mr Rowley said that this year's supply will lag demand by in excess of 300,000 tons.
MMK to setup continuous caster and mill
It is reported that Magnitogorsk Metal Integrated Works on November 7th 2006 signed a contract with SMS Demag for supply of equipment for the setting up a thick sheet mill '5000' and a continuous slab casting machine.
Ukraine steel mills to ship 90% of rolled steel quota from EU
Ukrainian Journal citing the Ukrainian Economy Ministry has said that Ukrainian steel mills have obtained licenses to ship 963,126 tons or 90.44% of the country's 2006 quota of nearly 1.065 million tons, of rolled steel to the European Union in January-October 2006.
As per the reports, steel mills received licenses to export 168,750 tons of SA1 category flat roll in coils to the EU or 100% of the quota for this commodity, 316,141 tons of SA2 uncoiled flat roll, or 86.78% of the quota 364,320 tons and 108,073 tons of SA3 flat roll or 99.04% of the quota 109.125 tons.
Gindalbie appoints Mr Garret Dixon as new MD
Gindalbie Metals Ltd has appointed Mr Garret Dixon as MD of the company following the resignation of Mr David McSweeney from the company. Mr Dixon was the former MD of Mitchell Corp Australia and will lead development of Gindalbies Karara Iron Ore Project in Western Australia to become a leading Australian iron ore producer.
Mr George Jones executive chairman of Gindalbie's welcomed Mr. Dixon to the company, saying his mining project development and construction expertise would be invaluable to the company as it moved towards hematite and magnetite production in the future.
