Steel Authority of India Ltd is set to consolidate its position further in the domestic steel sector on the strengths of its sound foundation and supportive business outlook. Mr SK Roongta chairman of SAIL while addressing SAILs 34th AGM told shareholders that the company's ongoing modernization & expansion program, which would take SAIL's hot metal production to a level of 23 million tonnes up by nearly 60% from the existing level, was in tune with the boom being experienced by the global steel industry and the high rates of growth being established by the Indian economy and the major steel consuming industrial sectors.

Mr SK Roongta said "The expansion plans are not aimed at volume gains alone. Benefits would come by way of all round improvement in productivity levels in all areas of operation. Issues pertaining to elimination of technological gaps, energy savings, yield improvement, pollution control, matching infrastructure facilities etc will be fully addressed. Wider product mix with emphasis on value added products, improved product quality, enhancement in terms of grades and dimensions, will be ensured with latest automation."

Mr SK Roongta added that with focused efforts in areas of cost competitiveness and quality improvement, the company's solid financial foundation and skilled, committed and experienced human resources, SAIL is well set on its way to a glorious future.

SAIL already has projects worth Rs.18,500 crore in various stages of implementation. Major projects cleared in recent months include modernization cum expansion of IISCO Steel Plant, steel melting and additional cold rolling facility at Salem Steel Plant and installation of a bar & rod mill at Durgapur Steel Plant. Many other projects forming part of SAIL's Rs. 37,000 crore growth plan are in the final stages of approval.

As per reports, the battle for iron ore between Indian steel makers and miners is likely to last longer as the 2nd meeting of the Committee of Secretaries set up by PM to consider the steel sector's case for restricting iron ore exports, proved inconclusive. But the steel ministry stands alone and unbending against other representatives from mines, DIPP, finance, Planning Commission, economic affairs and commerce ministries.

On the other hand, mining major MSPL has alleged that on one hand steel companies are clamoring for ban on iron ore exports but themselves have been exporting iron ore and its products. Mr Shrenik Baldota ED of MSPL said It just shows that there is no shortage of iron ore in the country. It is a misinformation campaign by Indian Steel Alliance. Even if steel production increases to 110 million tonne per annum by 2020, India has enough iron ore to last 110 years.

Mr Shrenik Baldota said that "Instead of evaluating the Hoda Committee Report, the Indian Steel Alliance has held two subjects close to its heart, captive mines for steel plants and ban on export of iron ore. ISA has unleashed a misinformation campaign stating that iron ore resources would last only 20 to 30 years. Their call that the Supreme Court has banned mining of magnetite resources is not true."

Mr Baldota also said that As a matter of fact, ore resources are growing in the country. More reserves have been discovered with intensive mining and exploration. Iron ore resources in India will last for 110 years even if steel production touches 110 mt by 2020.

Mr Shrenik Baldota clarified that "Steel manufacturing companies are not interested in using iron ore fines for steel making because it is a lengthy process. They only use lumps for making steel. Steel companies having their own mines have stock piled tonnes of fines in their mines. This may create environmental hazards and pollute rivers and affect agriculture fields.

Mr Baldota appealed that "Steel companies are advocating a ban on iron ore exports to strangulate this sector. This will paralyze the sector making them easy buy out targets for these companies. We request the Government to stop leasing out mines to steel plants.

The mining and steel industries have been on loggerheads ever since the Hoda Committee submitted its report earlier this year. Among its recommendations, the committee had supported export of iron ore and said that captive mining licenses should be granted only to meet existing steel capacities. But the steel industry, led by Indian Steel Alliance has demanded phased ban on iron ore exports and asked for captive mines for the manufacturers.

Steel Authority of India Limited plans to develop linkage with new iron ore mines in Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand to match its requirement in line with ambitious expansion program. Mr SK Roongta chairman of SAIL during its 34th AGM informed shareholders the government has reserved F deposit of Rowghat mines for Bhilai Steel Plant and SAIL is moving positively towards obtaining statutory clearances.

Mr Roongta said "This will be crucial for attaining the production targets set in our growth plan.

SAIL is engaged in a legal battle with Jharkhand government over Chiria mines. The ore from this mine is very crucial for SAIL to carry forward its ambitious expansion projects that involves an investment of over Rs. 37,000 crore till 2011-12.

It is reported that a severe cyclonic Storm Mukda over east central and adjoining northeast Arabian Sea about 280 kilometers southwest of Porbandar in Gujarat is likely to intensify further and move slowly in a north northeasterly direction towards Gujarat coast.

Under its influence, fairly widespread rainfall accompanied with strong winds reaching 80 to 100 kilometer per hour may commence along the coastal areas of Gujarat. The sea condition is likely to be rough to very rough long Gujarat coast.

Strom signal warning no 9 has been hoisted at Kandla and Mundra ports. Kandla port has issued a notice to all the vessels at berth that they will be given 1 hours notice to move to outer anchorage and has cancelled all inward vessel movement.

Three MoUs for development of hydro electric projects to the tune of 15,000 MW were signed in Itanagar, between the Government of Arunachal Pradesh and National Thermal Power Corporation, National
Hydro Power Corporation and NEEPCO. The combined capacity of these MoUs is almost equal of one third of the total hydro potential of Arunachal Pradesh. These projects would require investments of the order of Rs. 75000 crore.

The projects will be constructed taking all the environmental safeguards in accordance with the conditions of the Ministry of Environment and Forests besides making additional investments by way of catchment area treatment etc for control of soil erosion.

Arunachal Pradesh has the highest hydro potential in the country estimated to be of the order of over 50,000 MW. However, owing to the difficult geographical terrain and the remoteness of the potential hydro sites, up to now, only 416 MW has been developed. Currently, two projects with a total installed capacity of 2,600 MW are under construction by NHPC and NEEPCO.

It is reported that India's Sun Group, Russian steel major Severstal along with 12 other Russian and foreign companies, have decided to set up a $100 million business school in Russia. The Skolkovo School of Management is scheduled to become fully functional by 2009.

Mr Vladimir Putin Russian President lauded the effort while laying the foundation stone of the school at Skolkovo.

Mr Shiv Khemka vice chairman of Sun Group said that Due to our strong historic relations with the Russian business community spanning nearly five decades, we are proud to be one of the school's founding partners.

Maharashtra State Power Generation Company has requested the Central Mine Planning & Design Institute to complete the geological reports on Machhakata and Mahanadi coal mining blocks as early as possible. MahaGenco has also proposed that CMPDIL might engage private or other government agency for expediting the drilling of bore holes for proper geological assessment,

The early completion of these reports is necessary as MahaGenco has an ambitious capacity addition plan and has undertaken the implementation of thermal projects which are likely to be commissioned in 2010 based on coal supplies from Machhakata and Mahanadi coal blocks.

These coal blocks estimated to have 700 million tonne of coal will be developed by a JV of MahaGenco and the Gujarat Electricity Board and with share of 400 million tonnes and 300 million tonnes respectively.

Baldota groups Hospet based mining and iron exporting company MSPL Limited plans to invest Rs 1,500 crore for increasing its wind energy generation capacity to 300MW from the present 160MW by 2008-09. Mr Shrenik N Baldota ED of MSPL told reporters "We will invest close to Rs 1,500 crore to increase our power generation capacity to 300 MW from current 160 MW by 2008-09."

MSPL currently has its wind farms located in Karnataka and Maharashtra and the capacities at these farms will be enhanced along with addition of new capacities in Gujarat.

Everest Kanto Cylinder Ltd on has announced the issue of 18,96,900 equity shares to Brightwill Ltd, a subsidiary of a fund managed by CLSA Pvt Equity Management Ltd on a preferential basis at a price of Rs 485 per share aggregating to a total investment value of approximately Rs 92 crore. The preferential allotment would be subject to a lock in period of one year in accordance with SEBI Guidelines.

The proceeds of the preferential issue will be used to part-fund Companys on going expansion plans in China, Dubai and India.

Everest Kanto has set up a new manufacturing facility at Dubai to cater to the demand potential from Middle East, CIS countries and South Asia. The production at the new unit is expected to commence in the third quarter of the 2006-07. On completion of the expansion plan, the total capacity in Dubai will be 0.2 million units.

Everest Kanto has also formed a separate wholly Owned subsidiary Company in China named EKC Industries (Tianjin) Co Ltd to manufacture high pressure gas cylinders and other allied products of the Company and plans to invest US $ 50 million in the China project.

Everest Kanto has recently commissioned its Greenfield plant at Gandhidham in Gujarat with a capacity of 0.34 million cylinders per annum.

French nickel producer Eramet has predicted the world supply and demand of nickel in 2006 will be almost in balance.

Mr Jean-Michel Beysserie president of Eramet while speaking at the Institute of Recycling Industries Nickel Stainless Roundtable in Pittsburgh said that world supply of nickel in 2006 would total 1.335 million tonnes and estimated demand was 1.334 million tonnes.

Mr Beysserie said that one of the biggest threats to the stainless steel industry was a collapse in nickel prices. He said that The price surges of July and especially August, which were the most violent, would not be reflected in surcharges until September and October respectively. The threat was that service centers may have ordered as much material as possible ahead of the surcharges coming into effect, even to the point of double ordering, some of which may end up getting canceled if nickel prices start falling, creating a problem for stainless steel mills.

In June, Eramet predicted a 20,000 tonnes surplus in contrast to Canadian producer Inco which had predicted a 30,000 tonnes deficit.

It is reported that Russia is interested in a more active presence in Ukraines steel, high technology and reprocessing sectors.

Mr Mikhail Fradkov Prime Minister of Russia after his meeting with Mr Viktor Yanukovich Prime Minister of Ukraine told a news conference that Russian businessmen were having problems trying to invest in several sectors of the Ukrainian economy. This situation is costs of the past two years, when coordination between the two countries in fact broke off, an intergovernmental commission did not work and there were no conditions for increasing investment and the cooperative activity.

He said We would like to be more actively present in metallurgy, in the high technology sphere and in the reprocessing industry. Ukrainian companies in turn may be interested in investment in Russia. We would like this integration to be deeper and to be on a larger spectrum of cooperation.

Worlds largest shipbuilder South Korean Hyundai Heavy Industries announced that it was in advanced talks to buy Chinese steel maker Qinhuangdao Shouqin Metal Materials Co Ltd after completing due diligence. It confirmed in a regulatory filing with stock exchange that "We are in negotiations over the terms of the stake purchase with the selling party.

Shougang Concord International Enterprises Co Ltd had announced in January 2006 that Hyundai might invest in its 96% held Shouqin, which plans to increase its production capacity for steel slabs to 2.6 million tonnes in 2007 from 470,000 tonnes in 2004 and is a long term SBQ plate supplier to Hyundai.

Hyundai plans to more than double imports of Chinese steel plates this year from 2005 due to cheaper prices and has recently announced that it would buy 180,000 tonnes of steel plates each year from China's Jiangsu Shagang Group.

The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development has released an Iron Ore Statistics 2006report. The UNCTAD report said that China's escalating economic growth had maintained its powerful influence on both steel and iron ore production.

As per the report, world produced nearly 1300 million tonnes of iron ore in 2005 as compared to 1166.6 million tonnes in 2004.

The UNCTAD Iron Ore Statistics 2006 report detailed the production of top countries as under

China remained the top iron ore importer by far, increasing its 2005 demand for the raw material by 32%. China imported 275.2 million tonnes of iron ore as compared to the 208.1 million tonnes in 2004. Japan was the 2nd biggest importer, accounting for 132 million tonnes of global iron ore import out of the world's total of 713.3 million tonne in 2005. South Korea was 3rd largest importer with 43.5 million tonnes.

According to the China's State Administration of Work Safety coal mine accidents in China killed 2,900 people during January to August 2006 down by 993 or 25.5% YoY in 1,824 accidents down by 13.6% YoY. 5,986 people were killed in 3,341 coal mine accidents in China in 2005.

However, Mr Wu Yin of National Development and Reform Commission during SAWS's meeting on coal mine gas accident prevention in the eastern city of Nanchang said that even if the number of coal mine accidents has declined, they are still the biggest threat to coal mine safety.

Mr Wu said that "China will invest 3 billion yuan ($375 million) in state bonds to improve coal mine safety by the end of 2006. The funds will focus on improving ventilation systems and coal mine gas utilization facilities at major state owned coal mines as well as strengthening safety measures at medium and small sized ones.

Russia and Ukraine are to decide on the price of gas for the fourth quarter 2006 over the coming days,

Mr Mikhail Fradkov PM of Russia after a meeting with Mr Viktor Yanukovych PM of Ukraine told journalists "We have practically agreed on the balance of gas supplies. The issue of supplies for the coming three years was discussed. Work on the price for 2006 is in the final stages. It will be continued today.

Mr Yanukovychsaid "A price of $95 per 1,000 cubic meters to the end of 2006 is a matter of principle for us, as there was no stipulation for an increase in gas prices in 2006. Possibly we will increase the period for which we agree to five years, as price stability is important for us.

Mr Yanukovych also hinted that Russia and Ukraine plan to wind up talks on the price of gas in 2007 in October.

China Metallurgical News has predicted that the landed price for Chinese coke export is expected to exceed $200 ton by the end of this year as a result of continuous tight supply.

As per reports, high grade metallurgical coke is being offered at $164 to $167 per tonne on FOB basis after a strong uptrend since August.

China's major coke producing region Shanxi province has cut coke output by 20% to 40% since Jun, which is believed to underlie the rising export price. Moreover, the strengthening coke demand from southeast China has also led to the price upturn.

Taiwan's trade bureau has announced a new policy that will control the import of HR coils from China to Taiwan market. There are a total of 15 items of China's hot rolled steels under the new control. New policy will take effect from October 1st 2006.

Accordingly, only those products which were not produced in Taiwan or special materials are allowed to be imported to Taiwan. This new policy would probably lead to the price increase in domestic market.

Bekaert has reached an agreement in order to acquire a minority shareholding of 18.85% in HK listed steel cord maker Shougang Concord Century. The subscription to 250 million new shares to be issued represents an investment of Euro 16.5 million. The agreement is, amongst others, subject to regulatory approvals, but both parties anticipate a timely closing of the transactions

Bekaert, which has gone through a major expansion of its activities in China over the recent years, is further strengthening its presence in China. Today Bekaert is a leading player in steel cord for tire reinforcement in China with production plants at Jiangyin in Jiangsu Province, Shenyang in Liaoning Province and Weihai in Shandong Province. Bekaert has increased its production capacity for steel cord products in China up to 200,000 metric tons annually. The company develops its activities in advanced materials and coatings for the Asian market out of its production facility in Suzhou.

Shougang Concord Century Holdings has been listed on The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited since April 1992. Shougang Holding (Hong Kong) Limited and Shougang Concord International Enterprises Company Limited are the substantial shareholders of Shougang Century. The Group is primarily involved in the manufacturing of steel cord as well as in the processing and trading of copper and brass products.

Outokumpu announced that it has won a tentative contract to design and supply a 5 million tonne iron ore sinter plant that Companhia Siderurgica do Atlantico plans to build in Rio de Janeiro. The plant is due for commissioning in 2009.

Outokumpu did not disclose the exact value of the deal, though it said that the project will have a similar scope and size as the pellet plant it is currently building in Brazil for Samarco Mineracao costing about $200 million

CSA is a joint venture between ThyssenKrupp's steel unit and Companhia Vale do Rio Doce.

The South African Iron and Steel Institute has reported that the domestic carbon steel sales rose by 23.9% YoY to 2 581 million tons during the first six months of 2006. SAISI reported that, during the first half of 2006, sales of carbon steel flat products increased by 24.2% YoY and sales of long products increased by 23.6% YoY.

SAISI said that imports of primary carbon and alloy steel products totaled 234,500 tonnes during the period, the equivalent of 8.3% of the total apparent domestic carbon steel consumption, up by 7.4% YoY over H1 of 2005.

On the other hand, exports of primary carbon steel products reduced by 13.3% to 1.4 million tons.

SAISI said in a statement that, while economic activity was expected to slow slightly into the second half, government's infrastructure could gain further momentum, supporting performance in the broader construction, transport and communications sectors as well as parts of the mining and manufacturing sectors.

JSC Chelyabinsk Tube Works will supply 300,000 tons of large diameter pipes for the East Siberia Pacific Ocean oil pipeline in 2007.

Mr Vitaliy Sadykov GD of CTW during a recent Conference Pipes 2006 in Chelyabinsk said Currently, we are close to completing works on bids for purchasing of pipe in 2007. It is expected to deliver pipes of large diameter in the amount of 20,000 to 25,000 tons as a monthly average, up to 300,000 tons average annually in 2007.

Mr Vitaliy Sadykov informed that to participate in the ESPO project the plant has executed reconstruction of mills for production of pipes of large diameter at an investment of $100 million. To guarantee high reliability of weld seam and high accuracy of geometry the plant has installed new welding machine and power source, the mills were equipped by the system of automatic maintenance of welding conditions.

CTW plans to supply 78,000 tons of 1067 mm pipe in K60 steel grade.

Brazil's largest pig iron exporter Cia Siderurgica do Para plans to start shipping pig iron by barge opening a new transport channel to meet planned 6 fold expansion of output by 2010 and cut the dependence on CVRD whose Carajas railway serves as the region's principal transport.

Cosipar expects to load pig iron from its 0.5 million tonnes plant at Maraba onto barges at nearby Tocantins River to move it to Barcarena on the Para River for transfer to ocean going vessels for exports.

Mr Lucia Cardoso of Cosipar during an interview said The waterway will give us more liberty to move our product. It will help develop exports and raw materials systems we need for our Barcarena complex.''

The waterway will allow Cosipar to end use of road transport, responsible for about 25% of its pig iron shipments and reduce its use of Vale's railway to half of its pig iron from 75%.

Alter Trading Corp announced that it has acquired the assets of Gopher State Scrap and Metal Inc from owner Pat Daly for an undisclosed sum.

Gopher has facilities at Mankato in Minnesota and Des Moines in Iowa where it operates both scrap metal processing and a railcar business, which includes railcar repair, demolition, parts sales and leasing.

Mr Robert Goldstein president and CEO of Alter Trading said "We are very excited about this opportunity to combine the services of Gopher, the leading processor of scrap in Mankato since 1990, with those of Alter.

St Louis headquartered Alter, with 21 processing facilities in the Midwest, acquired another Minnesota scrap metal dealer, Becker Iron & Metal, last month. The company also has six trading offices, including one in China.

Kazakhstan's Sokolovsko-Sorbaisky iron ore mining and concentrating company has 5.57 million tons of iron ore pellets during January to August 2006 up by 41.5% YoY as compared with the corresponding period last year and the export of iron ore concentrate doubled to 4.48 million tons.

The export of ore pellets to China increased 2.3 times to 2.32 million tons, while their export to Russia increased by 11.6% to 3.26 million tons. The export of iron ore concentrate to Russia increased by 95.5% to 3.89 million tons.

Sokolovsko-Sorbaisky plans to increase its iron ore concentrate output by 29.3% to 16.7 million tons and iron ore pellets output by 17.6% to 8.7 million tons during 2006.

Yieh has reported the South Korea government is discussing a way to monitor the import of steel products from China and that new monitoring measures could come into effect from November 2006.

Imports of steel products from China to South Korea have reached 6.628 million tons in 2005 as compared to 1.042 million tons in 2001. Steel imports fro China during the first seven months of the year totaled 5.476 million tons and it could rise to over 10 million tons this year. The import value was US$2.62 billion, but value of steel exported was US$2.76 billion during the first half of the year.

The South Korea government is trying to improve this deficit and hopes that the monitoring system could help improve the situation.

Mr Christophe Cornier has been appointed in Arcelor Mittals management committee board this month as CEO Flat Carbon Europe.

Mr Christophe Cornier, has been responsible for Arcelors flat products activities in Europe and for its automotive sector worldwide since December 2005, when he was appointed member of the Groups Management Committee. In June 2005, he was appointed head of Arcelors Client Value Team.

At the creation of Arcelor in 2002, he was named Executive VP of FCS Commercial Auto. Before that, he held the position of CEO of Sollac Miterran. In 1998, he was appointed CEO of La Magona, after joining Sollac Packaging as Managing Director In 1993. In 1985 he joined Usinor, where he was Business Development Director and Chief Controller of Sollac. He began his career within the French Ministry of Industry, which he left as a Deputy Director.

Mr Christophe Cornier is a graduate of the Ecole Polytechnique and the Ecole des Mines de Paris.

BNamericas has reported that Mexican steelmaker Altos Hornos de Mico plans to invest nearly $500 million in upgrades and capacity expansion within two years to increase capacity to 4.2 million tonnes from existing 3.5 million tonnes.

Mr Juan Garza Ahmsa's BOF and continuous cast maintenance supervisor told BNamericas "Investments are tagged for the plate mill and a new steel mill which will have an electric furnace, secondary metallurgy equipment and a continuous casting machine. The company is currently evaluating technical bids for machinery and once the decision is made, we estimate a period of 24 months to establish investments.

Monclova based Ahmsa is Mexico's largest integrated steelmaker.

It is reported that AK Steel has presented their final contract proposal to the union on Friday. So far there is no reaction from the striking union on the proposal.

AK Steel believes that the proposal is fair for both parties and that the union will accept it.

AK Steel and its workers at Middletown have not been able to come to any agreement for more than 6 months although company has locked out about 2700 workers.

Severstal has increased its stake in Metallurgy Commercial Bank from 49.85% to a majority stake of 53.57%.

Metallurgy Commercial Bank was founded in 1990 on the basis of a metallurgy branch of the Promstroybank of the USSR. Its main shareholders also include Severstal-Metiz and Severstal-Group.

China National Coal Group Corp had chosen China International Capital Corp, Citigroup and Morgan Stanley to arrange its planned $1 billion overseas initial public offering. China Coal's listing in Hong Kong is expected to come by the end of this year at the earliest.

China National Coal produced 71.86 million tons of coal second to Shenua Group with 120 million tonnes and ahead of Yanzhou Coal with 40 million outputs.

ThyssenKrupp Steel and Angang New Steel Cos 50:50 JV TAGAL Co Ltd at Dalian has decided to equip its new HDG line with controls from I&S Group. The line is scheduled to start operations at the beginning of 2008.

The new coating line TAGAL II, being built by a consortium consisting of the CMI, Seraing, and Drever International, is intended to double the production of high quality hot dip coated steel sheet meeting the demanding surface requirements of the automotive and household appliance industries, the main customers for these products.

The project includes the basic and process automation, the entire drive system as well as electrical infrastructure equipment. The order is worth around Euros 10 million.

TAGAL has been operating a HDG line in the north Chinese port city of Dalian, with an annual capacity of 400,000 metric tons of thin steel sheet since December 2003.

Nippon Denko Co Ltd announced that it will sell 3,500,000 shares, of its common stock from its treasury stock to Nippon Steel Corporation at the price of JPY 418 per share. The aggregate value of shares sold will be JPY 1,463,000,000.

Nippon Denko aims to strengthen the relationship with Nippon Steel Corporation through the share offering.