TATAs Nat Steel buys two rolling mills in Vietnam

TATA Steel announced that its wholly owned subsidiary NatSteel Asia Pte Ltd has entered into an agreement to acquire controlling equity stake in two rolling mills located at Haiphong in Vietnam, subject to certain conditions from Perth based Vietnam Industrial Investments Ltd. The enterprise value for the above acquisition is around USD 41 million, subject to certain closing adjustments on the completion date. This transaction is likely to be completed by June 2007.

The acquisition aggregating to 430,000 tonnes per annum finishing capacity will be made in the following two companies:

1. 100% equity holding in a 250,000 tonnes per annum bar & wire rod mill in SSE Steel Ltd.
2. 70% equity holding in Vinausteel Ltd which produces 180,000 tonnes per annum reinforcing bar. The remaining 30% equity is held by Vietnam Steel Corporation.

TATA Steel, through its subsidiary presently operates a 100,000 tonnes per annum reinforcing bar & wire rod mill in a JV with VSC in Thai Nguyen north of Hanoi in Vietnam. The acquisition of these two mills will allow TATA Steel to complement, strengthen and expand its current presence in Vietnam.

Tribal lift year long highway blockade at Kalinga Nagar

Kalinga Times reported that the agitating tribal of Kalinga Nagar in Jajpur district of Orissa announced on their own that they will lift their road blockade agitation showing respect to the orders passed by the Orissa High Court.

Mr Rabindra Jarika secretary of Visthapan Virodhi Janmanch announced this decision but clarified that that their opposition to displacement by the proposed steel plant project to the TATA Steel would continue. Mr Jarika further said that the tribal will resort to agitation if the State Government did not fulfill their demands that include withdrawal of cases registered against the tribal of the locality.

Tribal of Kalinga Nagar area have been blocking the Paradip-Daitari national highway since January 2nd 2006 when 13 of them were killed in police firing while opposing construction of a boundary wall for the TATA Steels project. Acting on a public interest petition, Orissa High Court had on January 5 this year directed the state government to remove the road blockade immediately and listed the case for further hearing on February 8th 2007. The court had then extended the deadline for lifting of the blockade to March 9th 2007.

TATA Steel announces results of Corus shareholders meeting

TATA Steel has announced that at the meeting convened by the Court and held on March 07, 2007 and at the subsequent Extraordinary General Meeting the scheme of arrangement to implement the recommended offer for Corus by TATA Steel UK Ltd at a price of 608 pence per ordinary share in cash was considered and at both the Court Meeting and the Extraordinary General Meeting, shareholders approved the scheme by the requisite majority.

In total, 31,985 shareholders holding, in aggregate, 232,771,300 shares attended the Court Meeting in person and shareholders holding, in aggregate, 233,034,491 shares attended the EGM in person.

The resolutions include approval of the scheme, amendment of the Articles of Association of the Company, cancellation all the Cancellation Shares and the Corus Deferred Shares, reduction in the share capital of the Company, increase in the authorized capital of the Company and authorization for allotment of shares.

The expected timetable of the remaining principal events required to implement the Scheme is as follows:

1. March 27, 2007 - Court hearing to sanction the Scheme
2. March 29, 2007 - Dealings in Corus Shares suspended on the London Stock Exchange and the Amsterdam Stock Exchange and dealings in Corus ADSs suspended on the New York Stock Exchange.
3. March 30, 2007 - Court hearing to confirm the Reduction of Capital
4. April 02, 2007 - Effective Date of the Scheme

TATA Steel announced on February 7th 2007 that it intends to dispatch the consideration pursuant to the Scheme as soon as practicable following the Effective Date and, if practicable, on the Effective Date. TATA Steel, in any event, required under the terms of the Scheme to dispatch the consideration pursuant to the Scheme not more than 14 days after the Effective Date.

WB CM hoping for iron ore linkages to steel mills in state

It is reported that the state government of West Bengal is banking on the inter ministerial group headed by Mr Pranab Mukherjee to come up with a solution that will enable it to attract investments in steelmaking despite the absence of local reserves of iron ore and the raw material.

Mr Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee CM of West Bengal said that the Hoda Committee's report was bogus and he was hoping that Mr Mukherjee would come up with a better idea.

Mr Bhattacharjee said that "Now it is the responsibility of Pranab Mukherjee who is heading the inter ministerial group to address the issue of iron ore. I hope that he will be able to address the problem as the earlier Hoda committee recommendations were all bogus."

Mr Bhattacharjee has pointed out that the present group should look into two aspects of the mining issue. First, how much iron ore the country could export. Second, the relationship between the states having iron ore and not having iron ore.

GSI estimates Indian coal reserves at 255 billion tonnes

Geological Survey of India has so far estimated a total of 255.17 billion tonnes of geological resources of coal in India as on 1st January 2007. Despite huge reserves, as Indian coals are mainly of poor quality and cannot able to keep pace with the burgeoning demand, some of these are required to be imported to meet the additional surge in such demand.

Dr Dasari Narayana Rao minister of state for coal in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha said that following steps have been taken to augment mining capacity in Coal Companies towards achieving self sufficiency

1. Exploration capacity to prove more coal reserves is being expanded.
2. Faster allocation of more blocks for captive mining.
3. Speedy approval of projects.
4. Increased application of continuous miner and long wall technology in underground mining.
5. Emergency coal production has been planned for increasing production from existing mines/projects.
6. Mechanization and modernization of existing mines
7. Increasing productivity in underground and opencast mines

Dr Rao also informed that 97 new and expansion coal projects with a capacity of 241 million tonnes per year in Coal India Limited with an investment of INR 18383.25 crore has been identified to be taken up during the 10th Five Year Plan period to increase coal production while 41 projects with a capacity of 38 million tonnes per year has also been identified in Singareni Collieries Company Limited with an investment of INR 3126.30 crore. The total likely investment for increase in capacity under ECPP of CIL is INR 3783 crore.

During the terminal year of the 10th Plan (2006-07) the production from 32 coal projects of CIL is expected to be 71.74 million tonnes and from 9 projects of SCCL is 5.285 Million tonnes. The other projects of 10th Plan will come into production after 2006-07.

As per Coal Controllers Organization, total coal extracted from the coalfields of India since 1950 up to 2004-05 is around 8.02 billion tonnes.

Change of guard at TATA Sponge

TATA Sponge Iron Ltd has announced the following changes in its board of directors

1. Mr PC Parakh has been appointed as Additional Director on the Board of the Company wef March 7th 2007. He will be a non executive and independent director.

2. Mr Ashok Pandit the existing Managing Director of the Company will retire from the services of the company wef March 10, 2007 after completing his second term of 3 years on March 9th 2007. Consequent upon this, he will also cease to be a director of the Company wef March 10th 2007.

3. Mr. Suresh Thawani has been appointed Additional Director wef March 10th 2007. He has also been appointed as the Managing Director of the Company wef March 10th 2007 for a period of 3 years.

4. Mr Sudhir Deoras has resigned from the post of Joint Managing Director of the Company. His resignation has been accepted by the Board, which will be effective from April 1st 2007. Consequent upon this, he will cease to be the JMD as well as director wef April 1st 2007. Mr Deoras has again been appointed as Additional Director in the non independent and non executive capacity wef April 1st 2007.

NTPCs application for coal blocks pending with government

Dr Dasari Narayana Rao minister of state for coal informed the parliament that NTPC has applied for Mandakini, Ganeshpur, Gourandih ABC and Fathepur East coal blocks in response to an advertisement issued by the government in the month of November 2006 offering coal blocks for captive mining but the government has not allocated any block applied in response to advertisement of November 2006 as yet.

Dr Rao however informed that NTPC has earlier been allocated following coal blocks

Paradip Port likely to post 18% YoY growth for 2006-07

Paradip Port Trust hopes to end the current fiscal with a traffic throughput of 39 million tonnes as against 33 million tonnes handled in 2005-06 up by 18% YoY. Till February the throughput was 35.39 million tonnes up by 18.17% YoY over the corresponding period of 2005-06.

Mr K Raghuramaiah chairman of PPT, while pointing out that in February alone the port handled 3.75 million tonnes of traffic surpassing the target of 3.65 million tonnes, told Business Line that "We are confident of maintaining the growth trend in the current month also." Mr Raghuramaiah attributed the improvement to three items namely, iron ore for exports, thermal coal for coastal shipments and imported fertilizer raw materials.

During April 2006 to February 2007 the throughputs is as under

1. Iron ore 11.22 million tonnes
2. Thermal coal 11.43 million tonnes
3. Fertilizer raw material 2m6 million tomes
4. Petroleum products - 1.27 million tonnes
5. Coking coal - 3.84 million tonnes
6. Finished fertilizers - 88,577 million tonnes
7. Container cargo - 28,275 million tonnes equivalent of 2,276 TEUs
8. Other items - 4.89 million tonnes.

Colachel port to be developed as a major port

Mr TR Baalu minister of shipping, road transport and highways informed the parliament that Tamil Nadu government has undertaken a techno economic feasibility and detailed project reports as well as environmental impact assessment studies to make Colachel Port as a major port.

The project is to be implemented on BOT basis, for which a letter of intent has been issued to the consortium of Port of Singapore Authority International Pvt Ltd and South India Corporation Limited Logistics during November 2006.

As per the draft license agreement, the licensee guarantees that the project completion shall be achieved in accordance with the provisions of the agreement on a date not later than 24 months from the date of award of the license.

BHPB to combine thermal & coking coal businesses

BHP Billiton announced that, as part of the decision to manage the energy coal business alongside the iron ore, manganese and metallurgical coal businesses, energy coal and metallurgical coal would now be brought together under a single customer sector group president. There will be no change to the groups marketing structure.

Mr Dave Murray, the current president for metallurgical coal, will become president of coal, with responsibility for both the metallurgical coal and energy coal businesses. He will continue to report to Mr Chris Lynch group president Carbon Steel Materials.

Mr Lynch said that that the combination would further strengthen BHP Billitons commitment to improving and enhancing the operations of the Groups coal assets in Australia, South Africa, Colombia, the US and Indonesia. He said "This combination will allow us to maximize the operating synergies between our coal businesses and facilitate the transfer of skills and systems between countries and operations. It confirms our commitment to further improve the coal business in each of the countries where we operate."

POSCO Starts Running Steel Processing Center in Mexico

POSCO has started operating an automotive steel processing center in Mexico to increase its supply of the steel product to several global carmakers that have plants there.

POSCO invested USD 21.6 million for building the processing center in Puebla in east of Mexico City. The center is capable of processing 170,000 tons of steel annually. Construction on the plant began in April 2006.

Mexico produces some 2 million cars a year but it imports about 80% of the steel needed. POSCO itself exported about 200,000 tonnes of steel products to Mexico in 2006 and with this facility the lead time will come down.

Salzgitter to acquire 78% stake in Kloeckner-Werke from WCM

Germans 2nd largest steel manufacturer Salzgitter AG announced that it has signed a contract to acquire a 78% stake in Kloeckner Werke AG from the WCM Group for an undisclosed amount. It also said that it will acquire a 71 % stake in RSE Grundbesitz und Beteiligungs AG as part of the deal. The acquisition is subject to the approval of the boards of the parties involved and the respective anti trust authorities.

Kloeckner Werke AG is an industrial holding with globally operating subsidiaries. Kloeckner Werke's core holding is Germany based filling and packaging equipment maker KHS AG which also has operations in the US, Brazil, Mexico, India and China. Kloeckner Werke Group has a global workforce of more than 5,000 employees.

Salzgitter AG said that it is entering a prospering and less cyclical market holding strong future potential and is thereby further increasing the Group's diversification with this acquisition. It said The combined capabilities of Kloeckner Werke AG and the successful and globally operating Salzgitter Group will open up synergies and future potential for both corporations.

Chinas NDRC approves Shougang Jingtang project

Xinhua reported that China's National Development and Reform Commission have approved the construction of the Jingtang Iron and Steel Project. NDRC said This signals the complete start up of Shougang Jingtang Iron and Steel Project."

NDRC said that investment on the project would reach CNY 67.7 billion and is expected to produce 8.98 million tons of pig iron, 9.7 million tons of steel and 9.13 million tons of rolled steel.

Beijing based steel giant Shougang is relocating to the neighboring Hebei province and setting up a new joint venture with Hebei based Tangshan Iron and Steel Group, named Shougang Jingtang Iron and Steel Corp.

Shougang would shut down a production capacity of 8 million tons of iron and steel in Beijing, while 7.3 million tons would be eliminated in Hebei province.

CVRD to invest in China's ports, nickel and coal business

Xinhua reported that Brazil's Companhia Vale do Rio Doce plans to make investment in China's ports, coal mines and nickel smelters.

Mr Roger Agnelli CEO of CVRD told Xinhua in an interview during his visit to Beijing that the investment will go into the company's nickel processing and coal mining activities in China, and also into equipment purchases. He said "The economic outlook in China is positive and so is the investment environment and government planning. China is a good place to invest money."

CVRD will launch a USD 62 million project in northeastern coastal city Dalian in July next year, which will churn out 32,000 tons of nickel products each year. Mr Agnelli said that this will make the CVRD the second largest manufacturer of nickel products in China.

He said that CVRD is also considering expanding its investment in China's coal mines, with an anthracite plant and a coke project already launched in the country.

He said that CVRD also intends to buy more equipment in China for use in power plants, ports and railways in Brazil.

Another report said that CVRD is in talks with the two ports but no further details were provided. The Caofeidian port in Tangshan city on the coast of Hebei province with 250,000 deadweight tons ore dock is the designated relocation zone for steelmaker Shougang Group's new steel mill. Dalian Port the operator of China's 8th largest port has the nation's largest 300,000 deadweight tons ore unload berth.

Salzgitter 2006 pretax profit nearly doubles

Germans 2nd largest steel manufacturer Salzgitter AG said that its full year 2006 pretax profit nearly doubled to EUR 1.85 billion from EUR 941 million mainly due to strong demand for its tubes and rolled steel products and the sale of its 17 % Vallourec SA stake.

Salzgitter said that its 2006 sales reached EUR 8.45 billion up from EUR 7.15 billion in 2005 and net profit soared to EUR 1.51 billion up from EUR 842 million.

The company said in its earnings statement In view of the end of the operating contribution from Vallourec coupled with trading margins returning to a normal level it would, however, appear too ambitious at this time to expect a repeat of the previous year's level. Salzgitter announced in August it had sold the stake for about EUR 1.5 billion.

BHPB shuts operations partly due to cyclone George

BHP Billiton PLC announced that it has temporarily shut down a floating oil production and storage vessel and an iron ore rail and port facility in Western Australia due to cyclone George.

BHP spokeswoman said that Griffin vessel was disconnected while Port Hedland was closed down a few hours ago she added that Operations at the company's nearby iron ore mines continue,

George, graded a category 3 cyclone, is packing wind gusts of over 200 kilometers an hour as it moved toward the northwest Australian coast. Weather forecasters warned George could intensify to a category 4.

A second storm, Tropical Cyclone Jacob, was also heading towards Western Australia, but was still far off the coast and was 285 kilometer south of the Australian territory of Christmas Island.

MMKs crude steel output up by 11.1% YoY in 2 months

Russia's Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel boosted commercial output by 12.7% YoY in January to February to 1.92 million tonnes. Its crude steel production grew by 11.1% YoY to 2.08 million tonnes, roll production grew by 9.9% YoY to 2.01 million tonnes and finished iron ore by 21.9% YoY to 293,900 tonnes.

MMK produced 959,000 tonnes of crude steel, 924,400 tonnes of roll and 876,300 tonnes of commercial metal in February.

Hongfa coal mine explosion kills 15 in Hunan province

Xinhua has reported that an explosion at a coal mine in south China killed at least 15 workers and that 17 managed to escape. 32 workers were underground when the blast occurred at the Hongfa Mine in Hunan province's Niumasi town

The report said that most of those killed were local farmers hired to work the mine which was operating with an expired license and no safety permit

The report said damaged ventilation shafts and illegal electrical systems caused the accident at the Hongfa mine but did not give specifics.

Police were trying to locate the mine's GM and had already arrested two of the nine shareholders of the Hongfa mine

Weirton based ISU members to merge with USW

It is reported that officials of the Independent Steelworkers Union at Mittal Steel Weirton in West Virginia will ask their 1,250 members to approve a proposed merger with the United Steel Workers through a mail in ballot later this month.

AS per reports, the proposed merger agreement was unanimously approved by the ISU 5 member executive committee and by the 13 member steward body.

Mr Mark Glyptis ISU president said During the past few years, we have witnessed the domestic steel industry evolve into a global steel industry union leadership felt it was time to consider joining with the USW in order to better serve our membership. He said in the past four years our union members have gone from a local employee owned steel mill to part of a national steel company with the International Steel Group and then to a global steel corporation with Arcelor Mittal.

USW is one of the US's largest labor unions, with 1.2 million working and retired members in the United States and Canada. Its reach is far beyond steel, into mining, manufacturing, even health care.

Eramets 2006 turover up by 13% YoY

French mining major Eramet has finalized the accounts for the 2006, which will be submitted to the shareholders' meeting on April 25th 2007 for approval.

The 2006 results are as under

In EUR millions

Eramet said This performance was achieved, not only despite the decline in sale prices of manganese, molybdenum and vanadium from the very high average levels of 2005, but also despite the serious industrial dispute in New Caledonia.

Mr Jacques Bacardats chairman of Eramet said "2006 was an excellent year, with further progress on our 2005 performance, when results were already very strong. This good performance validates our growth strategy and our strategic decisions in each of our business lines, illustrating the healthy balance between the Group's activities in staggered cycles. We again enhanced our financial strength in 2006, despite a high level of investment and the acquisition of Weda Bay, and the Group continues to generate substantial net cash. Our capital expenditure will increase again in 2007. Eramet, which has the resources to fulfill its ambitions, is ready to take advantage of targeted external growth opportunities."

Chinese steelmakers starting to face cost pressure

Steel prices on Chinese domestic market have ascended steadily by some CNY 600 to CNY 800 per ton for flat products and CNY 200 CNY 300 per ton for construction steels, which are rarely seen ever before. But at the same time, tight supply prices for raw materials and fuels has led to their price climb also.

Iron ore was revised up by CNY 50 per ton, billet per slab posted similar upturn pig iron recorded the widest upward scale of some CNY 300 per ton coke price was quoted generally above CNY 1200 per ton; and ferroalloy and scrap both advanced accordingly.

As cost effect often lags behind the up trending fuel and raw material price, it has just began displaying its impact and therefore the steel market is firm for the moment with few possibilities for drop nor sharp rise in near future.

The steel makers remain in bulk demand for raw materials and fuels, reflecting huge production scale while escalating output implies future price drop and may reach a climax for production hence supply and demand imbalance risks in future.

(Source from Mysteel.net)

Celsa Steel commissions new melt shop and caster

Celsa Groups Celsa Steel (UK) Limited has successfully commissioned a turnkey steelmaking plant of SMS Demag with a downstream continuous billet caster from Concast AG at its operations in Cardiff.

Designed for an annual production of 1.2 million tonnes, the plant will use 100% recycled steel scrap as charge material. The EAF meltshop for carbon steel consists of a 140 tonnes electric arc furnace with electric bottom tapping, a 140 tonnes ladle furnace as well as the associated dust extraction facilities.

The 6 strand billet caster features latest technology for rapid high capacity casting of various section sizes.

Nippon Steel now owns 5% stake in POSCO

Japan's leading steelmaker Nippon Steel Corp said that it owns a 5 % stake in POSCO as part of bilateral agreements increasing shareholding in each other.

Nippon Steel Corp has bought 4.36 million depositary receipts of the POSCO bringing its total interest in the South Korean company to 5%.

POSCO to supply auto grade steel to DaimlerChrysler

POSCO announced that it will supply DaimlerChrysler AG, one of the world's leading automakers, with high quality steel sheets used for cars, from the second half of 2007

Last month, POSCO received a quality authentication of its advanced high strength steel from DaimlerChrysler. Sales of AHSS, used for light weight cars and trucks, have grown considerably recently.

It is the first time for POSCO is to supply steel sheets to a foreign carmaker. The steelmaker said about 20,000 tons of steel sheets will be shipped to the automaker this year.

Rusina & DMCI ink contract for part of Acoje nickel project in Philippines

Australia's Rusina Mining Limited is set to become a nickel producer within months under a financing and mining contract announced for part of its lucrative Acoje project in the Philippines. The deal will see 5 million tonnes of Acoje's surface nickel laterites mined over the next five years under a profit sharing, partnering contract signed with one of Manila based DMCI Holdings group.

Rusina will share 50:50 with DMCI in all net profits from the sale of the mined laterites Nickel and Platinum Group Metals at Acoje. The contract commits DMCI to be responsible for all funding, mining, grade control, rehabilitation, road and port development work, as well as the marketing and sales obligations, for the agreed 5 million tonnes ore parcel.

Mr Robert Gregory MD of Rusina said that "Acoje ferro nickel will come onto the market at a time the commodity is commanding premium prices of around USD 18 to USD 29 a tonne. DMCI had proven expertise in project start-up and cash flow generation and had long-term plans to develop a local pig iron plant, ensuring a sales opportunity for Acoje's high iron content nickel limonite.

Baotou Steel's 2006 net dips by 35.04% YoY

Inner Mongolia based Baotou Steel Union posted a 35.04% drop in net profit during 2006 to CNY 654 million as a result of sliding steel prices, higher input costs and surging period expense.

Its annual report showed that the listed unit has produced 5.27 million tons of steel in 2006 up by 4.77% YoY but its sales income has slid down by 3.72% YoY to CNY 18.27 billion due to steel price slide and core business profit also down 4.45% YoY to CNY 1.28billion.

In addition to rising raw materials cost, the company has also seen period expense rocketed 213.88% from a year earlier to CNY 569 million last year. The operating expense reports the sharpest increase to CNY 302.45 million, because of product mix adjustment and sales growth.

(Source from Mysteel.net)