January, 03 2006
TATA Steel plant in Orissa witnesses violence
It is reported that violence erupted during protests at the site of TATA Steel at Kalinganagar in Orissa. While 12 locals were killed in police firing, one policeman was hacked to death by the angry locals, who were protesting against the construction of a boundary wall of Tata Steels project. Tension has grown over the plant, which locals say will cost them land.
Police say about 800 tribes people armed with bows and arrows converged on the proposed Tata Steel plant site near the town of Jajpur to protest at the erection of a boundary wall and police opened fire after a mob attacked them with arrows and a policeman was hacked to death by the tribesmen
Private steel companies are setting up huge steel mills in mineral-rich states such as Orissa and Jharkhand as India's demand for steel rises. Locals complain they are not given adequate compensation for land lost. Police told that the land at Kalinganagar had been acquired by the government for TATA and Steel compensation had been offered to locals but rejected.
Orissa Chief Minister Mr Naveen Patnaik described the police-tribal clash as unfortunate and announced an ex-gratia of Rs one lakh each to the next of kin of the killed.
Indian National Trade Union Congress INTUC Orissa unit President and AICC Secretary Mr Ram Chandra Khuntia demanded a judicial inquiry. He said the tribal had earlier demanded that they would not leave their homes unless they were paid the compensation adequately. He condemned the state government for using bullet to suppress the voice of the tribal while acquiring their land for industrial projects in the state.
Indian Seamless signs proposal with BSL and Breitenfeld
Indian Seamless Steels & Alloys Ltd ISSAL has signed a proposal for co-operation with Australian Boulder Steel Ltd BSL and Austrian Breitenfeld Group for setting up a Seamless Tube plant in Australia.
ISSAL will provide complete know-how and engineering services for setting up and operating the project and take up around 35% cent equity in the project in consideration thereof and some cash outflow. The company would also help market up to 100,000 tonnes of Seamless Tubes per annum globally.
The necessary agreements to implement the above are expected to be signed by the parties concerned in due course.
Asbestos laden French aircraft carrier on the way to Alang
While the decommissioned French aircraft carrier Clemenceau is sailing its last journey from Toulon in France to Alang in Gujarat, the controversy thickens over pollution hazard likely to occur due to the asbestos laden on the ship. The ship, after being in service for 35 years, was decommissioned in 1997. As Greece and Turkey have already refused it the permission to break and environmentalists strongly believe that India is being used as a dumping ground for toxic wastes.
This 27,000 tonne aircraft carrier would be the biggest vessel to arrive in Alang in the last decade and is expected to reach in three weeks time.
Gujarat Ship Breakers Association GSBA does not find anything controversial about the ship. We badly need a big vessel to revitalize ship liners confidence in us internationally. Out of 173 plots, only 16 or 17 are operational in Alang. Earlier, we have received bigger navy ship from US and dismantled as per the norms, said Mr Raj Bansal, president, GSBA. According to Mr Mukesh Patel of Sriram Vessels that bagged the contract, the vessel will give a major push to the industry.
Gujarat Maritime Board GMB seems to have woken up to the toxic waste threat as the ship is reported to have 40 to 50 tonnes of hazardous asbestos. GMB has asked the Gujarat Enviro Protection and Infrastructure Limited GEPIL, whose team went to France to gather actual details, to submit a report. The boards decision will now be based on the report submitted by GEPIL. GEPIL happens to be a sister concern of the Luthra Group, which along with Shree Ram Vessels, has bought the warship for breaking at Alang.
HC rejects Visa Steels plea on thermal coal supply to NTPC
It is reported that Delhi High Court has dismissed a petition filed by Visa Steel seeking quashing of State Trading Corporation STCs tender notice for supply of 1.9 million tonne of imported coal worth Rs 800 crore to NTPC from November 2005 to February 2006. VISA had alleged that the impugned tender notice was arbitrary and tailor made to suit one private coal supplier Adani Exports Ltd.
The tender required a supply expertise of 1.9 million tonnes in the past three years, bidders net worth of Rs 250 crore, submission of original mine owners exclusive commitment certificate and minimum previous history of pre payment of railway freight for 1.9 million MT.
Visa Steel had alleged that one of the ports where the delivery of coal was to be made was the Adani-owned Mundra Port and all private players except Adani and MMTC did not have a net worth of Rs 250 crore. Only a player with non-coal ancillary business would possess a pre-qualification net worth of Rs 250 crore and Adani possessed it on account of its non-coal activities, the petitioner contended. Besides, none of the parties other than Adani and MMTC possessed the desired qualification of having made pre-payment of railway freight, it alleged.
While observing that Visa Steel and others had failed to prove malafides, the court held that the tender conditions were not violative of Article 14 of the Constitution and that the stringent conditions were set down to ensure power generation remained unaffected throughout the nation.
TATA Steel to wait for clearance for restarting construction
Terming as "tragic," the clash between tribal and police at its project site in Orissa leading to death of six people, including a policeman, TATA Steel said that it would await clearance from Orissa government for restarting the construction. "We were told by the government yesterday to start the construction. Accordingly, we started the boundary wall in the presence of a police party when a mob of about 600-700 people attacked," a spokesperson of TATA Steel told press.
Stating that it was for the state government to get the land vacated in the industrial area in accordance with the MoU for its six million tonne steel plant, the spokesperson said: "Now we have asked the government for direction. Only when we get a clearance, we will start the construction work."
TATA Steel was allotted land in Kalinganagar in Jajpur district last year and the government had since then been trying to convince the tribal to vacate the place in lieu of the compensation. Many of the tribal had left but a hard-core group was still adamant.
It is reported that the government had acquired the land in 1992 for developing it as an industrial estate and had allotted land to major steel producers including TATA, Mesco, Visa and Jindal
2006 be remarkable year for Tata Steel - Mr Muthuraman
TATA Steel MD Mr BMuthuraman said that the New Year is going to be tremendous for the company. He said that at present TATA Steel's total capacity touched 8.7 million tonnes including 5 million tonnes in Jamshedpur plant, 2 million tonnes in Singapore's Natsteel plant and 1.7 million tonnes in recently acquired plant in Thailand.
The capacity in Jamshedpur plant would be 6.8 million tonnes by the middle of 2008 while the company set a target of 15 million tonnes by 2010. We are expecting to enhance our overall capacity from 20 to 30 million tonnes by the year 2015'', Mr Muthuraman said.
Mr Muthuraman said that the 6 million tonnes Kalinganagar project in Orissa was progressing well and the sinister plants and blast furnaces for the project had already been procured while progress for the 5 million tonnes Chhatisgarh project was satisfactory.
Besides, the company would set up a 12 million tonnes green field integrated steel plant at Tentaposi in Seraikela-Kharsawan district near here soon. Acquisition of land for the project was in the pipeline after singning of MoU with the Jharkhand government, Mr Muthurraman said.
ECL turns around
Eastern Coalfields Ltd ECL, a subsidiary of Coal India Ltd, has posted an operational profit of around Rs 43 crore against a loss of Rs 242.06 crore between April and December. In December itself, the company made a profit of Rs 55 crore against Rs 21 crore in the same period last year.
ECL, a BIFR company, has recorded a growth of 9.5% in coal production during the current year compared with the previous year and is expected to produce 31.5 million tonnes of coal during the full year.
The company is projected to produce 43.74 million tonnes of coal during 2009-10 and 46.91 million tonnes during 2012-13. The company hopes to make its net worth positive during 2009-10 and come out of the BIFR.
Jharkhand & Chattisgarh CMs ask for enhancement of coal royalty
Jharkhand CM Mr Arjun Munda and Chattisgarh CM Dr Raman Singh urged Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh to fix the coal royalty on ad valorem basis and should be fixed at the rate of 20% of the price of coal.
Mr Munda stated that the Jharkhand government earns about Rs 800 crores per year as Coal royalty which is about 5.8% of coal's average price. Mr Munda apprised the Prime Minister of proposals for mega investment, particularly in state, which would require coal on a large scale. Jharkhand state Mineral Development Corporation JSMDC has applied to the Ministry of Coal for 24 coal blocks and requested the Centre to take immediate step in this matter so that JSMDC could complete all procedural formalities and provide coal from these coal blocks, he said.
Dr Raman Singh said the coal royalty issue was pending with the Centre since August 2005 and the delay had caused revenue losses to states. He also apprised the Prime Minister about the problems of iron and steel units of Chhattisgarh due to inadequate supply of coal. Production in these units had stopped since December 2005.
The Prime Minister assured that a positive decision will be taken on the states demand for value-based coal royalty within a month
BHEL bags NALCO order for captive power plant
Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited BHEL has bagged Rs 800 crore order from the National Aluminium Company Ltd NALCO to set up its tenth unit of the 960 MW (8x120 MW) captive power plant at Angul district in Orissa. With the completion of the project in 29 months, the installed capacity of the plant will go up to 1200 mw.
BHEL has won the contract under stiff international competitive bidding and this is the largest-value single order bagged by the public sector unit for a captive power plant.
Indian PMs New Year resolutions include infrastructure
Indian Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, chaired a meeting of senior officials in the Prime Ministers Office to review the implementation of the National Common Minimum Program in 2005 and outline priorities for 2006.
Apart from implementation of NCMP initiatives, the meeting also stressed the importance of continued focus on the Infrastructure sector, especially power, coal, roads, railways and airports. It was decided to ensure quarterly monitoring of project implementation in each area.
NTPC to add 2,950 MW capacity in Tamil Nadu & Kerala
It is reported that National Thermal Power Corporation NTPC would add an additional 2,950 MW to the southern grid by the turn of 2011-12 fiscal. The new capacity would be created in Tamil Nadu and Kerala.
NTPC Tamil Nadu Energy Company Ltd, a 50:50 JV between NTPC and the Tamil Nadu Electricity Board TNEB would go on stream by 2011-12. The coal-fired power station would have an installed capacity of 1,000 MW. According to the in-principle agreement, the power station would get five million tonnes of coal per annum from Mahanadi Coal Fileds Ltd MCL, a subsidiary of Coal India Ltd.
NTPC is expected to complete the second phase of its Kayamkulam expansion plan by 2011-12. The Kayamkulam second phase would have an installed capacity of 1,950 MW and the entire new capacity would be commissioned by that period.
Visa Steel files for IPO
To meet its expansion plans, Visa Steel Limited, a part of the Visa group on Monday expressed its intention to enter the capital market with an issue of 3.5 crore equity shares of Rs 10 each at a premium to be decided through book building process. The company has filed its Draft Red Herring Prospectus (DRHP) with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), according to a release.
The proceeds will be utilized to finance part of the capital expenditure for Brownfield expansion of existing manufacturing activities into an integrated 0.5 million TPA Special and Stainless Steel plant at Kalinganagar Industrial Complex, Orissa.
China welcomes US decision on steel pipe trade
China welcomed on Monday a decision by US President to reject a request by some U.S. manufacturers for curbs on imports of steel pipes from China. "The Chinese side believes that the policies the U.S. government has adopted up to now in these special protection cases help the healthy and stable trade relations of the two countries," a spokesman for China's Commerce Ministry said
Steel-pipe producers have asked for curbs under a special provision of Beijing's accession in 2000 to the World Trade Organization that allows countries to restrict imports of manufactured goods from China in response to a surge. But Mr Bush said that since many other countries also supply steel pipes to the US market, any curbs would likely be replaced by imports from third countries and that restricting Chinese imports would cost US consumers.
West Virginia explosion traps 13 coal miners
Rescuers on Monday began efforts to reach 13 miners trapped more than a mile underground by an early morning explosion at a West Virginia coal mine. The cause of the blast, which occurred about 6:30 AM was not yet known, said officials. Miners are equipped with breathing equipment and other survival supplies.
The explosion happened when the mine was reopening after it had been closed for the holidays, according to Manchin's spokeswoman. She said two cars had been entering the mine and the second car, carrying six miners, made it out after feeling the effects of the explosion. The six miners tried to reenter the mine to rescue their fellow workers but could not reach them, she said.
Gas levels outside the mine had threatened further explosions and caused officials to evacuate the area before the gas was dissipated. The gas was initially thought to be methane, but officials later said they were not certain what it was.
Since October, the US Mine Safety and Health Administration has issued 50 citations to Sago mine, some as recently as December 21, including citations for accumulation of combustible materials such as coal dust and loose coal.
Japanese steel makers to spend yen 600 billion for upgrades
Four major Japanese steelmakers plan to spend a total of around yen 600 billion over a 4 year period through 2009 to expand production of high grade steel used in car-making and in the energy sector, as per a report in Japanese daily
Nippon Steel Corp will spend about yen 220 billion, while JFE Steel Corp has earmarked yen 150 -180 billion, Sumitomo Metal Industries Ltd about yen 150 billion and Kobe Steel Ltd around yen 60 billion
The four firms intend to increase their ratios of high grade steel from the current 70% to roughly 80% by upgrading seven of their 26 domestic blast furnaces. They will hike their furnaces' total volume by 5% to 113,000 cubic meters, according to the report.
Siemens supplies electrical for 3 lines of new Shougang complex
The Siemens Industrial Solutions and Services Group I&S have received an order from Beijing Shougang Co Ltd to supply the electrical equipment for an annealing line and for 2 hot-dip galvanizing lines. The order includes the basic and process automation as well as all the drives for these processing lines, part of a new production complex presently being constructed north-east of Beijing. The value of the order is around Euros 20 million and the processing lines are scheduled to start production in spring 2008.
Siemens is supplying all the drive systems as well as the basic and process automation, including the technological control systems for the built-in skin-pass mill stand and the stretch leveler. All the main and auxiliary drives are based on AC technology. In addition, the projects include HMI equipment with user-friendly process and plant diagnostic functions. Automation will be provided in the form of the Siroll PL automation concept for strip processing lines on the basis of Simatic S7 programmable controllers. Standard application modules will be widely used for programming. This will facilitate commissioning and maintenance.
Flatness will be controlled at the skin-pass mill stand of the annealing line by means of the Siflat contact less flatness measurement system. This system reliably ensures that narrow tolerances especially demanded by customers in the automotive industry are not exceeded and that no damage is done to the surface of the strip, for example due to scratching.
For all three lines, Siemens will also be responsible for supervision of installation work, commissioning and customer training. The annealing line will be set up by a consortium consisting of Siemens, SMS-Demag AG, Dsseldorf, Germany, and Drever International, Lie, Belgium. The two hot-galvanizing lines will be built in a consortium with CMI, Seraing, Belgium, and Drever International.
With an annual production capacity of around 8.5 million tonnes of crude iron and steel, Shougang is the third largest steel producer in China. Within the framework of measures to improve environmental protection in large conurbations, the company is moving production facilities from the city area of Beijing to a new location to the north east of the Chinese capital.
The new production complex will have a capacity of over 1.7 million tonnes per year and will mainly produce input material for the local automotive industry in the region. The new strip processing lines, including an annealing line with a capacity of 950,000 tonnes per year and two hot-dip galvanizing lines each for 415,000 tonnes of cold strip per year, will be used for processing low-alloyed, cold-rolled carbon steels for high-quality car body parts.
Ukrainian PM announces natural gas economy plan
Ukraine's Prime Minister Mr Yury Ekhanurov has announced an energy economy program aimed at guaranteeing continued regular natural gas supplies in Ukraine after Russia's halt of gas deliveries. "I want to make clear that the Ukrainian population will not feel the effects of the blockade at all," Ekhanurov said at the opening of a televised meeting. "Our priorities are for small users, central heating stations, and state-run institutions such as schools and hospitals," he said.
The prime minister said metal and chemical manufacturing firms could suffer shortages and should look to energy economy and alternative power sources. State-run power producers would also use oil and coal as a substitute, he said.
Ukraine would pursue a long-term goal of improving energy efficiency -- something most of Ukrainian industry has largely avoided due to decades of cheap Russian fuel supplies Mr Ekhanurov said.
Steel imports hit steel mills in Pakistan
Mr Kashif Mahar, an executive member of the Lahore chamber of commerce is reported to have told a correspondent that around 25 casting plants have been closed in the country due to cheaper steel imports resulting in loss of approximately Rs. 3000 per ton loss to domestic steel makers.
The plants which have been reported to close down include 7 in Islamabad, 15 in Lahore, 2 in Gojranwala and 1 n Karachi.
In a meeting with the member sales tax CBR last week it was indicated that imports of the steel for structure and steel billets in large quantities have hit hard to the domestic industry. A six-member delegation of the steel industry will meet the Chairman of CBR in Islamabad to resolve the issue
Brazil trade surplus reaches record high
Brazil's foreign trade surplus hit a record high of $44.76 billion in 2005, Trade and Development Minister Mr Luiz Furlan said. The 2005 trade surplus was 33% higher than the record $33.66 billion surplus posted in 2004, the ministry said. Mr Furlan said 2005 exports of $118.31 billion were 23% higher than in 2004. Imports rose by 17% during 2005 to $73.55 billion
This has been recorded in spite of 16% appreciation of Brazilian Real. But Brazilian exports of raw materials such as iron ore and agricultural commodities continued expanding in response to strong international demand.
Mr Gregory H Boyce is the new President & CEO of Peabody Energy
Peabody Energy today announced that Mr Gregory H. Boyce has assumed responsibility as President and CEO since January 1. Mr Boyce was elected to the position on March 1 2005. Boyce was also elected to the Board of Directors on March 1, and continues as Chairman of the Executive Committee. Mr Boyce succeeds Mr Irl F Engelhardt, who will remain Chairman of the Board.
Mr Boyce joined Peabody in October 2003 as President and Chief Operating Officer, and under his leadership the company has achieved record safety, productivity and financial results. He has extensive U.S. and international management, operating and engineering experience. Prior to joining Peabody, Boyce served as Chief Executive Officer - Energy for international mining company Rio Tinto in London. Prior to that, he was President and Chief Executive Officer of Kennecott Energy Company.
Peabody Energy is the world's largest private-sector coal company, with 2004 sales of 227 million tons and $3.6 billion in revenues. Its coal products fuel more than 10 percent of all U.S. electricity and 3 percent of worldwide electricity.
New generation on the Executive Board of ThyssenKrupp Services
Effective January 1 2006 Mr Stefan Klebert (40) was appointed to the Executive Board of ThyssenKrupp Services AG.
Mr Klebert, also Chairman of the Management Board of ThyssenKrupp Industrieservice Holding GmbH, will take over responsibility for the Industrial Services business unit on the Board and replace Mr Gnther Giffels, who enters retirement after more than 30 years with the Group.
