Premium supplier of auto grade CR steel, Bhushan Steel & Strips Ltd is expecting more than 40% jump in its net profit and a 25% to 30% jump in revenue during 2006-07 due to growth in Indian passenger car sales.

Mr Nittin Johari told Reuters in an interview last week that "We expect the growth to come mainly from value added products and our off take is directly related to the growth in the automobile sector. Our focus is the niche market segment as we are not a commodity player."

As per reports, BSSL sells nearly 57% of its production to the automobile and home appliance sectors, while 35% to 38% is exported for applications in the construction sector. Its list of domestic client includes Maruti Udyog, TATA Motors, Mahindra & Mahindra, Videocon Appliance, Whirlpool and LG Electronics.

It is reported that 2 Orissa state forest officials were beaten up in Orissa's Jagatsinghpur district by villagers threatened with displacement by POSCO's proposed steel plant on last Wednesday night. The incident came to light after the officials formally filed a complaint with the local police on Friday.

Around 100 people attacked the officials near Gadakujanga village while the officials were returning from the Bhitarkanika National Park in a jeep at night.

Thousands of people in five villages of Jagatsinghpur, including Dhinkia, Badakujanga and Nuagaon are opposing the project. They claim the plant will displace them and ruin their betel-leaf farming.

PTI has reported that the consortium led by Orissa Stevedores Limited, Sara International and HK based Noble Group has signed an agreement with the Orissa government to develop Gopalpur port into an all weather port at an investment of Rs1,700 crores.

The consortium is confident of lining up the cargo for its proposed port by shifting of operations from Paradip and Visakhapatnam ports. The consortium also plans to combine its members' cargo strength to put the port on revenue generating mode in the first year itself.

Mr DP Singh MD of SARA said "At the moment there are about 3 million tonne of cargo waiting to go through the port as Gopalpur based Indian Rare Earth's 0.25 million tonne cargo is now channelised via Visakhapatnam, while OSL handles 1.5 million of alumina import through Visakhapatnam. The consortiums own cargo which is about 1 million tonne of iron ore would be routed through Gopalpur. We are using Haldia, Paradip and Visakhapatnam to import and export iron ore. The cargo is available. Once the port is operational, the cargo will be shifted to Gopalpur port. We hope to have some shipments at Gopalpur minor port in January.

As per reports, Gopalpur port on completion would be the third largest port in the Orissa after Paradip and proposed Dhamra port.

Indias 5,5000 crore transformer industry is riding a boom due to reforms in the power sector since 2001 after undergoing a lean patch during 1997 to 2001. Its production has gone up 3 folds in last 5 years equivalent to 23.5% compounded annual growth rate. The industry is facing sellers market scenario with all the transformer makers having their order books full

The factors driving this growth include huge expansion drive undertaken by Power Grid Corporation India Limited for enlarging power distribution network, expansion through the governments accelerated power development & reform program, thrust on rural electrification and overall infrastructure development in the country.

The transformer business is broadly divided into power and distribution segments. A power transformer with higher capacity is used for transmission of power through long distances. Distributor transformer is required for last mile connectivity to bring power to the consumers doorstep and for rural electrification. During this period, in terms of units, while distribution transformer segment has grown at a rate of 24% and power transformer has grown at 15% while in terms of MVA, power transformer has grown faster at 17% as against 11% for distribution transformers pointing that power transformers are being built of higher rating.

TOI has recently reported that New York based Avenue Capital group is close to buying a significant stake in Ispat Groups GPI Textiles.

As per reports GPI Textiles balance sheet is being restructured whereby the new investor would bring in Rs 120 crore to pay off the debt and both the promoter and the investor would hold 40% stake each in the restructured entity. The balance 20% will be held by financial institutions.

The Ispat group diversified into textiles in the late nineties and was part of Gontermann Peipers (India). In 2003, the textile business was demerged due to financial reasons. GPI Textiles has a turnover of over Rs 250 crore and its bed sheet manufacturing unit is located at Nalagarh in Himachal Pradesh. Exports contribute 40% of its revenues. GPI Textile owes Rs 225 crore to lenders including IFCI, IDBI and ICICI.

Avenue Capital manages assets valued at around $10.5 billion.

Russian Norilsk Nickel said that more companies will combine to form miners of a similar size to BHP Billiton as they seek to expand and diversify production.

Mr David Humphreys chief economist of Norilsk said Miners are acquiring rivals with world class assets to save time and exploration costs. Takeover activity will leave the industry with diversified miners and smaller companies exploring regions such as Africa. The changing risk reward structure of mining makes it likely that the industry will see a polarization towards large diversified companies.

Mr Humphreys said The middle ground would appear to be being progressively squeezed as mid sized companies having world class assets get absorbed into the majors. Those without such assets slide to a natural death.

He said Developing a new nickel project is getting more difficult as most existing mineral deposits called laterite as they cost more to mine and need a more sophisticated production technology than sulfide deposits. This is perhaps one reason why the nickel sector has been such a magnet for mergers and acquisitions.

Mining boom has already prompted more than $100 billion of mining industry takeover offers this year including CVRDs offer for Inco Ltd, Xstratas purchase of Falconbridge Ltd.

According to department of industry and resources statistics, Western Australia's mineral and petroleum sales have increased by 29% in 2005-06 to $43.2 billion with petroleum being the largest resource sector in the state, followed by iron ore and alumina

Mr John Bowler resource minister said "Iron ore was the next biggest resource, with a record 244 million tonnes valued at $13billion up by 56%. And with mine and port expansions and an anticipated continued strong demand, it is expected that this sector will continue its record-breaking run through this year and beyond."

Mr Bowler said the remarkable result could be attributed to high overseas demand for resources that had underpinned solid commodity prices. He said "This strong result was achieved against a background of adverse weather conditions in the first quarter of 2006, mining equipment supply constraints and some shipping bottlenecks.

SA Business Daily has reported that SA's largest construction group, Aveng fears for steel shortages and warned has that steel users might not be able to import steel to overcome shortfalls amid the handover of countries largest steel makers Mittal Steel SA and Highveld Steel to foreign hands.

Mr Carl Grim Aveng CEO last week said that possible steel shortages would have important implications and that these could thwart government's ability to deliver promised infrastructure, and could hamper private sector expansion plans, among other things. Mr Grim said importing steel was difficult due to high demand internationally, driven partly by an infrastructure boom in Australasia and the Pacific. He said "International steel mills are very busy. We can't import at the moment.

SA's rapidly growing automotive sector already raised the alarm last month, saying that Mittal Steel SA was unable to meet demand.

Aveng owns Trident, which buys steel from primary steel makers to produce a wide range of steel products, such as tubes and roof sheets.

Incos subsidiary Voisey's Bay Nickel has obtained a court injunction that will end a union sponsored harbor blockade at the mine site in northern Labrador. The Newfoundland Supreme Court issued an interim injunction last week ordering that shipping lanes around the mine site remain clear.

The striking workers, who launched picket lines on July 28, are seeking parity in wages and benefits with Inco employees at Sudbury in Ontario. About 117 striking workers at the mine site prevented cargo ship MV Arctic from docking at the mine site's wharf last week by forming a floating picket line using 2 boats.

However, union representatives at Inco smelters in Ontario and Manitoba have vowed not to process concentrate from Voisey's Bay as long as the strike continues.

As per reports production at the mine has stopped, although the mine site is still active with exploration and other work.

JMB has reported that Japanese steel industry expects the domestic carbon steel demand will increase by around 1 million tonnes to 65 million tonnes for fiscal 2006 ending March 2007 from fiscal 2005.

The demand increase is for high valued steel products from manufacturers including automobile, shipbuilding and industrial and construction machinery industries. Appliances makers and other manufactures build new plant in domestic sites and building demand increases while the civil working demand keeps decreasing.

It is reported that 150 year old UK based Morgan Crucible is expected to unveil a 924 million takeover deal form Credit Suisses buyout arm DLJ early next week after blocking a takeover attempt by its smaller German rival SGL Carbon. Morgan Crucible is being advised by JP Morgan Cazenove

Windsor based Morgan Crucible was founded in 1856 by five brothers from the Morgan family and is now led by Mr Mark Robertshaw as CEO. It supplies ceramics to steel makers and is a market leader.

Local media has reported that Vietnam's finance ministry plans to impose export tax of 3% on coal to ensure sufficient supply of the coal to domestic industries, mainly electricity, paper, fertilizer and cement.

Recently, Vietnam's ministry of planning and investment had asked the government to reduce coal exports in the 2006-2010 periods. Under a proposal, the country's coal export volume in 2006 is equal to nearly 17.9 million tons in 2005 and will annually drop by one million tons between 2007 and 2010.

Vietnam, levying an export tax on coal prior to 1998, removed the tax in the year to encourage the export. Vietnam earned $658 million from exporting coal to over 20 countries and regions, including China, Japan, South Korea, Thailand, Malaysia, India, Brazil and the European Union in 2005.

Vietnam's biggest coal producer and exporter, Vietnam National Coal Group (Vinacoal) plans to produce 36.4 million tons of coal this year, up by 7% over 2005 and sell 31 million tons of coal including 16.4 million tons in Vietnam and 14.6 million tons in foreign countries.

Interfax has reported that French companies are eyeing the Ukrainian economy, their main interest being coalmines and thermal power plants that are to be privatized.

French ambassador Mr Jean-Paul Veziant during a meeting with Mr Serhiy Tulub Ukraines coal industry minister said that French companies would like to buy interest in coalmines and thermal power plants.

Me Veziant said "The Ukrainian brown coal complex is extremely attractive for investors. Thermal power plants can be built right in open cast mines and it will be possible to have 6 billion KWH of electricity yearly."

Itar Tass has reported last week that Russian pipe major TMKs $300 million worth bonds will be presented in Asia and Europe with the first road show due in London on September 21 and that TMK has appointed Citigroup, Credit Suisse and Dresdner Kleinwort as lead managers of a Eurobond issue. The bonds will be issued in late September and early October.

TMK also plans placing 10% to 15% of authorized capital on the London Stock Exchange and on Russian exchanges in November.
Offering could draw 500 million dollars.

TMKs production facilities are the Taganrog steel plant, Volzhsky, Sinarsky and Seversky pipe plants in Russia, and Artrom pipe plant and Resita steel plant in Romania. The company plans producing 2.8 million tons of pipes and 2 million tons of steel in 2006.

Yulong copper mine in Tibet has recently received environmental approval to start development from the state environmental protection administration, because of which the construction has been delayed for half a year.

Now the Yulong copper mine will start construction this year. Yulong plans to invest RMB 1 billion ($125 million) in the first phase of construction, which will be able to produce 30,000 tons of copper per year.

Mr Xie of Yulong said that the project still needs necessary documents for land leasing and comprehensive development planning, but they would not take long.

Algoma Steel Inc said that more than the required $200 million worth of its shares was tendered to the company's issuer bid by the September 14th deadline. As a result, Algoma will buy and cancel 5,479,452 of its common shares at $36.50 each, the low end of a pricing range provided by the company last month.

Algoma announced the Dutch auction on June 28th and on August 8th said it would pay within a price range of $36.50 to $39.50 per share. Shareholders who deposited the shares to the offer at $36.50 will have about 70% of them purchased for cancellation. Common shares tendered above $36.50 per share will not be purchased.

Algoma used a Dutch auction tender procedure, which allows shareholders to select the price, within the specified range, at which each shareholder is willing to sell all or a portion of the shares he or she owns.

It is reported that Macarthur Coal will dump Roche Mining as the contractor at its underperforming Coppabella mine in Queensland and take over the operation of the mine itself once the existing contract expires in mid 2008 due to dispute over $107 million in claims from Roche over extra costs incurred on the project that it believes Macarthur is liable for.

Mr Ken Talbot CEO of Macarthur said "In the long term, we were always going to owner-operator ship anyway, but the Roche issue is one we are very disappointed with and it further outlines to us the benefits of going to your own workforce. I expect that going forward more and more companies will consider a transition to owner-operating.

Downer EDI owned Roche is in a similar dispute with miner Iluka Resources over Roche's claims for $150 million in cost overruns on the development of Iluka's Douglas mineral sands project in western Victoria.

Canam Group's Point of Rocks based subsidiary Structal-Heavy Steel Construction has won a $40 million contract to supply structural steel for the new Yankee Stadium in New York from builder Koch Skanska. Fabrication of the structural steel components will begin in December, mainly at the St-Gedeon, Que and Point of Rocks plants and last about one year.

The new Yankee Stadium, with a seating capacity of 51,800, will be built across from the existing stadium at the intersection of 161st and 164th streets and Jerome and River avenues. The new ballpark is expected to open in the spring of 2009. The total cost of the construction project is estimated at C$900 million.

Mr Luc Pelland president of Structal said in a release "We are delighted to be associated with such a prestigious project as the new Yankee Stadium. It attests to Canam's expertise, as well as to its proven record of building large-scale projects such as sports facilities, convention centers and airports and successfully carrying out major projects simultaneously."

Earlier this year, Canam won a $70 million contract to fabricate steel for the New York Mets' new baseball stadium in suburban New York.

Canam Group operates 11 plants specialized in the design and fabrication of construction products. The firm, employing close to 3,000 people in Canada, the United States, Romania and India, also has joint ventures in Mexico, France, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Russia.

Mr Gonzalo Urquijo, has been appointed in Arcelor Mittal board last month with responsibility for Long, AM3S, Distribution and Wire Drawing.

Mr Gonzalo Urquijo, previously senior executive VP and CFO of Arcelor, held the responsibilities for finance, purchasing, IT, legal affairs, investor relations, Arcelor Steel Solutions & Services, and other activities. Mr Gonzalo Urquijo formerly held several other functions within the group and this sector including deputy senior executive VP and headed the functional directorates of distribution.

Until the creation of Arcelor in 2002, when he became Executive VP of the operational unit south of the flat carbon steel sector, Mr Urquijo was CFO of Aceralia. Between 1984 and 1992, he held a variety of positions at Citibank and Crit Agricole before joining Aristrain in 1992 as CFO and later Co CEO.

Mr Gonzalo Urquijo is a graduate in economics and political science of Yale University and holds an MBA of the Instituto de Empresa in Madrid.

Cleveland-Cliffs Inc has decided to buy 4 new electric shovels at its Northshore Mining Cos Peter Mitchell Mine near Babbitt to replace aging shovels that have been loading iron ore and waste rock at the mine for more than 25 years.

The new shovels, each equipped with a 35 yard bucket, will be acquired from Hibbing based P&H Minepro Services during a 3 year period. The first is expected to arrive in the spring and the second will be delivered in the third quarter of 2007.

Mr Jeff Lipovetz area manager of the mine said "These new shovels will help us meet our targets and remain competitive. We've done a great job with the old shovels, but we will be much more efficient with the new, more reliable ones."

Cleveland-Cliffs own and operate Northshore Mining Co. The taconite facility has a mine near Babbitt and processing plant in Silver Bay. In Northeastern Minnesota, the company also manages and holds ownership in Hibbing Taconite and United Taconite.

Azerbaijan's statistics committee announced that countries gross domestic product totaled 10.3 billion manat ($11.4 billion) in the first eight months of the year, representing a 34.4% YoY increase. GDP per capita stood at 1,233 manat ($1,363) during January to August 2006 up by 32.8% YoY

Industry's share of GDP was 70.4 up by 5.1% from last year, whereas the service sector's share declined by 4.8% to 22.4%.

Tri Origin Minerals has last week entered into a MoU with Golden Cross Resources for the Cullerin Project JV for which the agreement will be formalized over the coming month. Tri Origin may earn a 51% interest in EL 6292, but is required to expend a minimum of $50,000 within the first year and $200,000 within a 4 ear period to earn its interest.

The Cullerin Project Joint Venture area is north of the Woodlawn mine site and contiguous with Tri Origin's other tenement interests and the recently applied for Cullerin South project.

Upon earning its interest, the company would control approximately 50 kilometers strike length of the Woodlawn Volcanics or equivalent Silurian age rocks that are highly prospective for zinc and associated base and precious metals. The project area has demonstrated potential for VMS type deposits, intrusive related porphyry deposits and associated skarns.

This joint venture is a significant achievement for Tri Origin as it now controls a major zinc province within the Lachlan Fold Belt of New South Wales and is able to take a long-term view in its exploration strategy.