October, 31 2005
SAILs Bokaro unit earns Rs 1266 crore profit in H1
The Bokaro Steel plant BSL of SAIL has registered a profit of Rs 1266 crore during the first half of the current fiscal. According to an official communiquthe turnover of the plant has also registered a 13% growth as compared to the same period last year and has reached Rs 4829.62 crore mark. The profit in the corresponding period last year was Rs 1251 crore.
The plant produced a record of 2.33 million tonnes of hot metal, 2.08 million tonnes crude steel and 1.81 lakh tonnes of sellable iron during H1.
SC nod for TATA Steel to go ahead with steel plant in Orissa
The Supreme Court has given its nod to TATA Steel to go ahead with its ambitious Rs 15,400 crore mega steel plant project at Dubri in Jajpur district of Orissa which was unable to take off because of the dispute on land allotment with the Kalinga Power Corporation Ltd KPCL. While allowing the Tata Steel to construct the 6 million ton plant, a Bench headed by Hoble Chief Justice RC Lahoti said the steel company could commence its project at its risk at the disputed site subject to the outcome of the petition pending before it.
KPCL has filed a petition before it claiming right over the 1,000 acres land allotted to TATA Steel, which was originally given to it in 1994 and was later cancelled arbitrarily by the Orissa government.
The apex court on an appeal by the KPCL against the Orissa High Court verdict had asked the contesting parties to maintain status quo on the land on dispute but TISCO said the interim order in this regard was causing huge monetary loss. KPCL had told the court that the state government itself had asked it to delay the power project till 2007 as the power position in the state was satisfactory and the locals were opposing the project for non-payment of compensation. The power company had stated that it had already paid Rs one crore in installment towards payment of total land cost of Rs 10 crore.
After cancellation of the allotment of land made to KPCL, Industrial Development Corporation Bank had signed a contract with TATA Steel for setting up an integrated steel plant and the steel major had already paid Rs 67 crore towards cost of land.
Construction of India's first indigenous warship underway
Taking first strides towards complete indigenization of India's defense armory, the Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers (GRSE) Kolkata have begun building country's first completely indigenous warship. "On August 12 Defence Secretary Mr Shekhar Dutt cut the steel, thus paving way for the construction of the country's first indigenously built anti-submarine warship with stealth technology," GRSE CMD Rear Admiral (Retd) T S Ganeshan told PTI
"It is a 25,000 tonne corvette armed with stealth-mounted guns, the latest electronic warfare suite which, together with other key operational equipment, is shielded using stealth technology incorporated into the design of the bulwarks," Admiral Ganeshan said.
RINL to employ 12,000 more after expansion
RINLs Visakhapatnam Steel Plant VSP will provide another 2,000 jobs directly and about 10,000 indirectly when its capacity expansion to 6.3 million tons is completed by 2007-08.
Addressing a press conference RINL CMD Mr Y Siva Sagara Rao said gas will be used for new furnaces. There is need for two 67.5 MW power generating units for the expansion work that would be done on build own and operate basis. An air separation plant with a capacity of 2x1200 tons/day would also be established on BOO basis, he added.
Work would be completed in a phased manner. The first phase would be completed in three years and the second in four years, the CMD said.
Sundram Fasteners net up by 18% in H1
Sundram Fasteners Limited has posted a net profit of Rs 31.06 crore in the half year ended 30 September, 2005 as against Rs 26.34 crore in the same period last year. The company has recorded total sales of Rs 577.79 crore with the export sales for the period increasing by 27% to Rs 155.33 crore as against Rs 122.23 crore in the same period last year.
The operating margins during the period were under strain due to continuous pressure on domestic selling prices, and steep hike in the cost of inputs, especially steel and petroleum products. The pressure on margins is likely to remain during the rest of the financial year.
Gujarat NRE Coke to set up a wind farm in Kutch
Kolkata based Gujarat NRE Coke Ltd GNCL has decided to set up 20 wind turbine generators WTG of 1.25 MW each, aggregating 25 MW, in the district of Kutch at a cost of Rs 122 crore as per a release from the company
The WTGs with a life of 20 years and payback period of five years will serve as GNCL's captive requirements as it has commissioned two met coke manufacturing facilities in Gujarat, one at Bhachau in Kutch and the other in Jamkhambhalia in Jamnagar district. The company has already set up two wind farms of 2.5 MW capacities in Kutch.
The company has also announced Gujarat NRE FCGL Pty Ltd GNFL, a subsidiary of FCGL Industries Ltd, taking 49% equity in Plouton Resources Pty Ltd in Australia. The investment entitles GNCL to the right of refusal on any marketing agency agreements for any products or participation in future equity funding of any project undertaken by Plouton Resources. The Australian company's chairman, Mr Neville Wran, and GNCL MD Mr Arun Kumar Mr Jagatramka will be joining the board soon.
GNCL has acquired several coal mining leases in the whole of old Avondale Colliery and part of Huntley Colliery in NSW earlier in July 2005.
Orissa CM focuses on technical skill
Orissa state government will submit a proposal to the Centre for setting up an institute in the Kalinganagar industrial complex at Duburi, Jajpur, on the lines of Biju Patnaik Steel Institute in Puri in order to cater the need for technical manpower of upcoming steel industries in the state. It was also decided to establish training institutes on steel industry at Paradip and Jharsuguda the two upcoming steel hubs.
Training would be imparted to the graduates from the technical institutions for another 6 months to upgrade their skill. For the next four years, 10,000 youths will be trained on advanced technology as part of the skill up gradation program.
Bao Steel net up by 41% up
Top Chinese steel maker Baoshan Iron and Steel Co. Ltd. reported a 41% surge in quarterly earnings despite grappling with plunging product prices and lingering overcapacity at home. The world's sixth biggest steel maker faces more pain ahead after it was forced to cut prices on core products by a tenth for the current quarter. Baosteel posted net earnings of 3.31 billion yuan in the July-September quarter versus 2.34 billion yuan a year ago.
China's construction-intensive economy has fueled global steel demand over the past two years. But unchecked expansion in the country has fomented a glut and pushed prices for the metal southward since they peaked at a decade's high in March a situation likely to persist well into next year.
CSFB anticipates severe price fall for steam coal
Credit Suisse has joined the queue of experts noting the outlook for the steaming coal market is deteriorating, the broker cutting its coal rice forecasts as a result.
In the brokers view there are four reasons for concern, including supply elasticity particularly with respect to Australia and Indonesia; Demand reflects a move to higher levels of nuclear power utilization; the metallurgical coal market weakness is impacting other coals; and market balance is very much in favor of oversupply.
As a result, the broker has lowered its steam coal price forecast back to levels of before June, meaning cuts across all coal types of more than 15%. The broker has lowered its thermal coal forecast for 2Q06 by 16.7% to US$45 PMT, for semi soft the reduction is 18.7% to US$63 PMT and for PCI it is 20.3% to US$79.PMT
POSCO looks to Toyota for management advice
POSCO announced yesterday that it has launched a research group to study how Toyota's management maximizes its cost efficiency. The group will study the core management strategy of the Japanese automobile manufacturer, which has not face a union strike for 55 years and had enjoyed an operating profit of over 10 trillion won ($9 billion) every year since 2000.
Mr Lee Kyu-jeong, the steel company's marketing executive, will head the new research group and Mr Chung Joon-yang, who runs the company's plant in Gwangyang, South Jeolla province, will be the group's advisor. The group is organized by previous core members that participated in the company's management improvement campaign, Six Sigma.
The Toyota management system is also well-known for using employee suggestions to improve its work system and production process. "The research will focus on Toyota's ability to save more than 1 trillion won every year by accepting employee suggestions and using voluntary activities to improve and harmonize labor-management relations," said a member of the research team
US scrap metal trader designs container loader
Mr Nathan Frankel 31 year old president of Fontana, California-based Advanced Steel Recovery, who joined his fathers scrap business five years ago noticed that the bottleneck in increasing scrap export business is the rate of loading steel scrap into containers, especially to China which is a major scrap importer and also a major exporter of containerized cargos to US
Mr Frankel jumped at the opportunity as loading bulky metal pieces into shipping containers was time consuming and difficult to do without damaging the containers and developed a machine that can fill a container with scrap metal in less than 15 minutes, as against four hours with a backhoe. As well as reducing labor costs, it significantly cut potential container damage.
The Frankel Advanced Shipping Technologies machine, also known as FASTek, is not being sold commercially yet. Since Frankel began operating the device at his Fontana scrap yard, he has shipped 400 containers to South Korea and China. He hopes to have a second unit in place by September. Mechtronic Solutions, an Albuquerque, New Mexico-based company specializing in prototype development, manufactured the machine. If successful, Frankel's machine could revolutionize the overseas transport of scrap metal.
By taking advantage of low US to China container rates, Mr Frankel said he could ship scrap to China for half the cost of traditional methods: $10 to $25 a tonne, as against about US$40 at the break-bulk rate.
Battle over sale of Ridley Island coal terminal likely to heat up
Some coal mine companies in British Columbia feel like they've been handed a lump of coal over a proposed deal to award the running of the Ridley Island terminal to an operator from Ontario. But the London based company, Fortune Minerals Ltd., said it went through the required hoops and won a bidding process fair and square.
The Ridley terminal, built in the 1980s and located in Prince Rupert, B.C., is an ice free, deepwater harbor. It was originally built as a Crown facility by the federal government at a cost to taxpayers of $250 million to load and ship coal from the Quintette and Bullmoose mines at Tumbler Ridge in northeast BC The other strategic reason for its importance is that it is the western terminus for the CN Railway and the closest port in North America to Asia.
Over the last several years, with coal prices in the dumps and Quintette and Bullmoose shut down, the future of Ridley looked bleak. The federal government wanted to sell the property because it said it was costing taxpayers $500,000 a month in subsidies to operate.
But the future of coal has suddenly brightened, especially due to China's booming economy. Now new coal mines are being developed in B.C. and Alberta and Ridley management estimates that coal shipments will increase dramatically over the next several years. Last year, only 1.3 million tonnes of coal was shipped and the terminal's capacity is 16 million tonnes.
So a couple of years ago the federal government called for bids to operate Ridley. It's not clear how many bids were submitted but Fortune president Robin Goad "suspects" there were at least 15. A group calling itself the Ridley Shippers Coalition and consisting of about five shippers wants to run the terminal as a non-profit co-operative. Fortune wants to run it as a for-profit venture.
Mr Pat Devlin, president of Northern Energy Mining Inc and a coalition spokesman said the federal government's decision to sell the terminal was made before coal's price revival. "Now there are several northeast coal producers who have gone in the area and are spending hundreds of millions to develop their coal mines," said Mr Devlin.
The coalition's argument is that by operating the terminal as a non-profit entity it could keep shipping costs down and compete with Australia - the world's biggest exporter by far of metallurgical coal. "The federal government doesn't seem to understand that selling the only access route to the market to a single competitor is an unfair advantage to rest of producers." The coalition also points out that Fortune owns a coal property in northern BC
Zamil Steel starts steel exports to Japan
Viet Nam based Zamil Steel has recently exported steel products to Japan for the first time. A company spokesperson said their products met the strict design, material and quality requirements of the Japanese Industry Standard Committee.
The director of Zamil Steel said he expects the company to export 7.5% of its output to the Japanese market over the next three years. The company also exports steel to several Southeast Asian countries, Bangladesh, Nigeria, and the Congo.
Export duty on coal could still be lowered
Indonesian Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources disclosed that the 5% export duty recently imposed on coal could actually still be lowered. The Ministries Director General of Geology and Mineral Resources Mr Simon F. Sembiring said here on Sunday that his office is still awaiting proposals from the different associations for a lower export duty. He said the associations were still discussing four alternatives which have already been considered by many circles in giving a response to the five percent export duty.
Firstly, the export duty is not applicable to mining companies which have signed a contract of work on the mining of first-generation coal (PKP2B). There are 11 companies which have signed such contracts, and they are big foreign coal mining companies like PT Berau Coal, PT Adaro, PT Arutmin, and PT Kaltim Prima Coal. They control 70% of Indonesias coal exports.
Under the second alternative, all companies are subject to the duty, except that PKP2B companies will get compensation.
Thirdly, it is the government which will decide on the coal price limit subject to the export duty and this will apply to all PKP2B companies.
Under the last alternative, the export duty rate is reduced covering all PKP2B companies.
"It is now up to the associations which of the four alternatives will be chosen. The associations will then submit their decision to the government which will discuss it further to decide on the acceptability of the alternative," he said. He said if the government agreed on a reduced export duty, the relevant Decree of the Minister of Finance would be revised.
Malaysian Yung Kong to use 50% of galvanized steel capacity
Sarawak based Yung Kong Galvanizing Industries Bhd YKGI, a major galvanized steel maker in Malaysia, is expected to utilize 50% of its total installed capacity of 250,000 tonnes for galvanized steel coils HDG the next two years. Its MD Dr Hii Wi Sing added that YKGI would also use 60% of the 90,000 tonne capacity for pre painted galvanized steel coils PPGI for the same period.
That will cover about 20% of the domestic galvanized steel market, following the commencement of operations at the production mills in Klang in March this year. This is through our wholly-owned subsidiary, Integrated Coil Coating Industries SB ICCI, he said
At present, YKGI has a plant each in Kuching and in Klang, Selangor. It first ventured into galvanized steel manufacturing and distribution in 1984 in a JV with Marubeni Corporation, producing GI plain sheets, PPGI sheets, corrugated roofing sheets and roof formed sheets.
Air Liquide strengthens its presence in Finland
Oy Polargas Ab a 100% Air Liquide subsidiary in Finland has signed a new 15 year agreement for the supply of oxygen, nitrogen and argon to the number one Finnish carbon steel producer Rautaruukki Corporation in Raahe.
The agreement prolongs the output of the four existing Air Separation Units and also provides for the installation of a new ASU with a capacity of 860 tonnes per day of oxygen. The overall investment amounts to EUR30 million and will be Air Liquide's most important investment in Finland. The new ASU, to be designed and manufactured by Air Liquide Engineering Division, will start operation in third quarter 2007 to fulfill the increasing oxygen demand of Ruukki's steel plant in Raahe.
H beam plant to start in Iran by mid-March 2006
Iran's Aryan Fulad Co MD Mr Majid Qassemi informed press that the project work started in 2002 and by now more than 95% of machinery and facilities installation has been done and the H Beam facility will be operational by March 2006. He added that $29 million have already been invested in the project
He added that Aryan Fulad has observed all environmental standards and purchased all equipment from Mannesmann Demag and its initial annual production will be 520,000 tonnes
Al-Babtain gets PDH Al Fasel project for structural steel
Al-Babtain, the leading supplier & manufacturer of Structural steel, signs a contract worth Saudi Riyals 2 Million with Saudi based Nesma & Partners Contracting Co. Ltd. for the supply of structural steel at PDH Al Fasel Petrochemical Plant project in Yanbu- Saudi Arabia. This project is due for completion in January 2006
The scope of work involves the designing, manufacturing and supply of CCR Structural tower, which consists of three modules, each with 7.5 meters wide, 12 meters long & 18 meters in height. In addition to the main structure, Al-Babtain also supplies grating, handrails and staircases.
The main contractors of this project are LURGI- Germany & TECHNIP- Netherlands. Nesma & Partners Contracting Co. is the sub-contractor of this project.
Mr Wael Hassan, Sales Manager of Al- Babtain's said "The sub- contractor-Nesma was looking for a partner with a proven reputation in this sector, capable of delivering a solution on-time with proven engineering capabilities. It chose Al- Babtain and this is due to our ability to handle projects of any size and complexity."
Vietnam's crude oil & coal export values up
Vietnam is estimated to earn more than US$6.7 billion from exporting crude oil and coal in the first 10 months of this year, accounting for nearly 25.4% of the country's total export revenues.
In the 10 month period, Vietnam, for the first time, earned $502 million from shipping abroad nearly 13 million tons of coal, posting YOY surges of 80.3% and 38.2%, respectively.
The country plans to sell some 14 million tons of coal overseas this year, up 32% over last year, of which 9 million tons are expected to go to China. Last year, Vietnam exported more than 10.6 million tons of coal valued at $319 million, to over 20 countries and regions, including China, Japan, South Korea, Thailand, Malaysia, India, Brazil and members of the European Union.
Saba Steel Complex exports 53,000 tons products in 2 years
Saba Steel Complex of Isfahan has exported over 53,000 tons products since its establishment two years ago, Mr Dariush Azari, MD of the complex said
The products have been exported to countries such as Greece, Spain, Italy, Belgium, and the United Arab Emirates, he added. The exported products have generated over $12 million foreign revenues, he added
Mr Azari put the total steel production of this complex at 423,560, since its establishment
