Mr SK Rungta chairman of Steel Authority of India Limited stated that the public sector giant is open to overseas joint ventures. Mr Rungta told BL "SAIL is always open to any proposal which makes business proposition for the company. In today's world you cannot close your eyes and don't look at other options. It's a dynamic world and SAIL has to evaluate its business options continuously."

SAIL is already in discussions with Coal India for joint ventures abroad and is ready to look forward further.

On the domestic front, SAIL has planned for several JVs including with the Indian Railway for its freight corridors, with Coal India Limiteds Bharat Coking Coal Limited for the development of coking coal mines in Kapuria and cement companies for setting up steel plant based cement units and with utilities for power plants. Mr Roongta said that apart from equity participation in the Railway's freight corridor project, SAIL's Bhilai Steel Plant is also in talks with the railways for developing extra heavy weight railway tracks for heavy goods transport at higher speeds.

TATA Steel, during the inauguration of the construction of its ferrochrome plant at Richards Bay in South Africa announced that it investigating opportunities to mine chrome, manganese, coal and iron ore in South Africa without giving details.

Mr B Muthuraman MD of TATA Steel said that the companys plans to enter the mining industry were at an exploratory stage, and that tangible proposals might emerge in the next two to three months.

Mr Muthuraman said that South Africa was poised to play an important part in assisting TATA Steels strategy to grow. He added that the company was eager to partner South Africa in beneficiating the country's minerals and would invest in Greenfield projects when appropriate.

Mr SK Roongta chairman of Steel Authority of India Limited said that for the future of the Indian steel industry iron ore exports should be curbed.

He told "We should conserve ore. The question is whether it would be an abrupt halt or to phase it out. I feel it should be phased out so that there is no pain in the process."

Indian Planning Commission has forecast demand supply gap of 41.79 million tonnes for coal in 2006-07, which will be entirely met by proposed import of 24.19 million tonnes of coking coal for steel sector and 17.60 million tonnes of thermal coal for power, cement and other sectors.

A long term document Vision Coal 2025 has been prepared by coal ministry to put in concerted approach to meet the growing coal demand and reduce this gap through indigenous services by taking up new projects, advancing production targets and increasing production from the existing mines and also by improving quality of indigenous coal. Coal India Limited is adopting latest technologies and most efficient mining practices to increase productivity to be globally competitive

India has an estimated 253 billion tonnes of coal reserves and about 75% of the coal production is being consumed by the power sector.

Steel Authority of India Limited is set to win back its Chiria iron ore deposits from Jharkhand government. Mr SK Roongta chairman of SAIL said "We welcome the initiative by the Centre to have the issue resolved. Discussions are in progress and we hope to get the matter resolved through discussions only."

Mr Rungta added that "SAIL is ready to meet all developmental aspirations of Jharkhand. We have Bokaro plant in Jharkhand for which we already have expansion plans some of which are in progress. We can actually look into even further building up capacity in the State."

Chiria mines, having an estimated reserve of 2 billion tonnes, are crucial for SAIL to meet its iron ore requirements after expansions but Jharkhand government seems to have promised them to private investors and is now entangled in legal battle, but with the intervention of Indian Prime Minister is coming around.

Indias public sector undertakings Garden Reach Shipbuilders & Engineers Ltd and Bharat Earth Movers Ltd have achieved the status of Mini Ratna Category I companies due to their tremendous performance during last 3 years and have fulfilled various norms for achieving the status.

GRSE has been in the forefront of constructing and delivering warships to the Indian Navy and Coast Guard. In addition to its shipbuilding business, the Shipyard has Engineering and Engine Divisions which manufacture Baily Bridges and Engines. With the recent takeover of Rajabagan Dockyard from the CIWTC, the ship building capacity of GRSE has doubled. GRSE has turned in an impressive financial performance during 2005-06.

BEML has a product range covering ground support equipment, aggregates and wagons for defense, earthmoving equipment and railway rolling stock. BEML has three manufacturing units at Bangalore, KGF and Mysore.

The status of Mini Ratna Category-I grants more autonomy to these companies and confers various powers to incur capital expenditure on new projects, modernization, purchase of equipment, establish joint ventures and subsidiaries, Human resource management etc without Government approvals subject to certain conditions.

Judging by reports on wagon loading of domestic coal at mines as well imported coal at various ports on the east coast, there has been a drop in coal movement during July 2006 over June 2006. The reasons attributed to the decline are bad weather in Eastern India, flooding and overflowing of rivers, as well as strained industrial relations, agitation by local villagers and equipment breakdown.

According to railway sources, a total of 3,071 wagons were deployed for loading imported coal in various ports in July as compared to 3,607 in June, and 3,350 in July 2005. The situation may no be very different in August also. The port wise details are as under

Total loading of 20,878 wagons of coal in Coal India Ltds mines in July was less than 21,590 wagons in June but more than that 18,438 wagons in July 2005. The corresponding figures for non CIL mines were 10,916 wagons in July, 11,900 in June, and 10,642 wagons in July 2005.

It is reported that the freight market for bulk carriers which was ruling very low suddenly went up by 25% to 30% in the past 6 weeks and is still going up resulting in increase of 15% to 20% in the asset valuations of marine vessels. As per reports the value of a handymax vessel worth $33 million to $34 million about two months ago is now ruling at about $40 million to $41million.

Indian shipping companies which were mostly in panamax and tanker segment with one or two handymaxes took this opportunity to move out of handymax segment to focus on tankers where the market is firm and growing.

As per reports several ship owners including Varun Shipping, Tolani Shipping, Mercator Lines, West Asia Maritime, Century and Chettinad etc have sold 8 handymax vessels totaling to about 360,000 DWT in the past few weeks to cash this opportunity.

The deadline for submission of request for qualification documents for the proposed 4000 MW ultra mega coal based project to come up at Krishnapatnam in Nellore district of Andhra Pradesh has been extended till September last.

Ministry of power had notified inviting global tenders for pre qualification of selection of developer on build, own and operate mode. The 4,000 MW project envisages establishment, operation and maintenance on imported coal including its transportation from port to the power plant

Power Finance Corporation Limited has created a subsidiary Coastal Andhra Power for setting up the Krishnapatnam plant. The successful bidder will get about nine months for financial closure after expected award of the project in April 2007 for which the Andhra Pradesh Government has set aside about 2,500 acres of land and has also agreed to provide all necessary support infrastructure.

According to a report by Shanghai Securities News citing sources from Laiwu Steel and local government of Shandong province Laiwu Steel's deal with Arcelor and the recent regrouping pact with Jinan Steel are in smooth progress.

Arcelor had signed a share purchase deal with Laiwu Steel to buy 38.41% shares in the latter's listed entity for RMB 2.085 billion yuan in February 2006 to become equal shareholder as Laiwu Steel. After approval from Shandong provincial government, the share sales deal between Laiwu Steel and Arcelor has been submitted to relevant central government authorities for final examination and approval.

Laiwu Steel said in a statement in early August 2006 that it would merge with Jinan Steel to create Shandong Iron and Steel Group the second largest steel conglomerate in China after Baosteel. As per report is undergoing regrouping and will be incorporated by the end of October.

Mr Carrabba new CEO of Cleveland-Cliffs said that the company will study international opportunities, while continuing to focus on the health of its domestic iron ore operations. Mr Carrabba's vision is to grow and train a changing work force, invest in existing operations, diversify and use the company's knowledge of low grade ore processing in other parts of the world.

He said "North America is the core of our business and we are looking to strengthen that with good capital investment. We like the business we are in. We continue to look for iron ore opportunities in different places of the world, but we are not adverse to other segments such as metallurgical-grade coal. We are looking more global."

Mr Carrabba said that China's demand for iron units is likely to be repeated in India.

Cleveland-Cliffs Inc is the North America's largest iron ore supplier and holds ownership in three Northeastern Minnesota taconite plants, Hibbing Taconite, Northshore Mining Co and United Taconite.

Mr Xu Lejiang president of Baosteel Group and chairman of the group's listed arm Baoshan Steel, while addressing a session on Baoshan's interim results, said Baosteel for the time being has no intention to acquire Handan Steel. Handan Steel, in a statement on June 1st 2006, had revealed that Baosteel Group and its two subsidiaries combined had owned more than 5% of its total shares.

Mr Xu on the issue of strong protection from local governments to small steel mills said that Baosteel is actively engaged in China's steel regrouping campaign and will not give up easily for some minor frustrations. However, he admitted that judging from the status quo in domestic capital markets it is still premature for large Chinese steelmakers to boost presence by M&As on second tier capital market.

Baosteel plans to raise its total steel capacity to 30 million tons by 2009 and 50 million tons by 2012. Mr Chen Ying CFO informed that Baosteel is capable of forging a capacity of 30 million tons merely by building new projects and acquiring the fresh capacity from its sister firm Pudong Steel.

It is reported that Bangladeshs academics, politicians and energy experts at a roundtable conference on Recent incidents in Phulbari and mineral resources of Bangladesh organized by a Bangla weekly said that they are not against extraction of coal or foreign investment in the country, but they oppose any investment or development project that goes against national interest.

Professor Anu Muhammad in his keynote presentation said "We are not in favor of keeping coal under the ground, but we are against its sale after extraction because it will not have much contribution to our economy." He said coalmines must be developed for energy security and that is why the contract with Asia Energy Corporation must be cancelled.

They have also demanded formation of an investigation committee led by a Supreme Court justice to find out the persons and organizations involved in the process of signing gas and coal mining contracts that went against national interest and the economy.

Dhaka University Professor Abu Ahmed said an African country, Chad, is demanding 60 percent royalty, while Bolivia has totally nationalized the mineral resources sector. "So, why should Bangladesh get only six percent royalty?" he questioned. He also raised a question regarding why there was not any tender for leasing out the Phulbari coalmine before any contract.

14 coal miners died at the weekend in two separate accidents, while the death toll at a third pit climbed to 9, underscoring China's reputation as the world's deadliest coal mining industry. Accordin to official figures 3,300 gas blasts, floods and other accidents killed nearly 6,000 miners across China in 2005.

A flooding happened at around 4:30 AM on Sunday in the Zhenxing Coal Mine in Daye City of central China's Hubei Province, when 10 miners were working underground. 3 miners managed to escape by themselves and another one was rescued by emergency workers but 6 others died in the accident. Investigation into the cause of the flooding is underway.

On Saturday, 8 people died and 4 were injured in a coal mine gas explosion in an illegally run mine in Nayong County in southwest China's Guizhou Province.

In neighboring Hunan Province, rescue workers recovered 4 more bodies from a mine where a gas explosion occurred on Thursday, bringing the death toll to 9.

Dawn has reported that Tuwairqi Group in the process of lodging a letter of credit to import $85 million worth of equipment and machines for its $350 million Greenfield steel project at Bin Qasim in Karachi.

Mr Zaigham Adil Rizvi project director of Tuwairqi Steel Mills told Dawn that The import and delivery of machines and equipment for the plant in Karachi will demonstrate our seriousness and stake in the project, we want our steel project to be commissioned by August 14, 2008.

He said that Our initial plan was dovetailing state of the art technology of the new plant with that of Pakistan Steel and to maximize the exploitation of infrastructure facilities. But now we are on our own and we are investing heavily in developing infrastructure facilities that include power generation, transmission and other facilities.

As per reports the steel plant in 1st phase will produce more than half a million tons of steel billets for making rebars, wire rods, heavy structures, seamless pipes and other construction materials. The production capacity of the plant will be expanded from 1 million tons to 1.5 million tons in the future. The project is based on MIDREX technology.

Brazil's civil construction sector is due to expand by 5.1% in 2006 compared to last year.

Mr Eduardo Zaidan economy director with S Paulo construction labor union Sinduscon told BNamericas "Steel is a very important item in the range of products for the civil construction segment. This increase in the civil construction sector will benefit long steel producers, there is no question about it."

However Mr Zaidan added that the forecast for 2006 could experience a downward change. He said "It will be difficult to revise the figures upward due to lower activity in the industrial segment and lower income for Brazil's population."

Inner Mongolia is sitting on enough zinc to supply China's needs for years, but the huge reserves may remain largely untapped because of the region's poor infrastructure, a shortage of mining experts and a lack of water. Mr Zhao Baosheng vice director of land and resources department in Inner Mongolia said that the region held 14 million tonnes of proven zinc reserves which would make it the second largest known deposit after Yunnan province.

With world zinc prices soaring to record levels, Inner Mongolia is trying to attract investors to explore reserves and will spend 2 billion yuan to promote nonferrous metals mining in the next five years. But industry experts are not very upbeat due to lack of infrastructure, shortage of water, trained manpower, sever winters and mini rules of the province.

China, one of the world's top owners of zinc reserves, previously was an exporter of zinc concentrate, the raw material, but it now needs to import more than 10% of the material as mine expansion had fallen behind growing consumption. China has turned to a net importer for zinc since 2004.

Zinc prices are about 75% higher as compared with the levels at the beginning of 2006due to supply shortages and buoyant demand.

Viet Nam Coal and Mineral Industrial Group TKV has said that Viet Nams mining sector must broaden its scope to meet the challenge of raising VND78 trillion ($4.88 billion) in investment capital over the next 5 years. By 2010, the group plans to focus on exporting high quality coal to Japan, Europe and the ASEAN bloc and sell up to an annual 45 million tonnes of coal on the domestic market.

Mr Doan Van Kien GD 0f TKV said "TKVs strategy is to diversify its means of mobilizing capital and consolidate its payment options to give it better access to loans from domestic and international banks. The group will organize its financial arm to provide financial services for its subsidiaries, such as insurance, re investment and buying & selling loans. The company will also issue corporate bonds for equitised enterprises and seek capital from business co-operation contracts across the economic spectrum at home and abroad."

TKV expects to raise VND74 billion ($4.6 million) when it floats 7.4 million shares of its four coal companies Coc Sau, Cao Son, Ha Tu and Deo Nai on the Ha Noi Securities Trading Centre in October.

Mr Ahmad-Ali Harati-Nik deputy minister of industries and mines during the groundbreaking ceremony of one of the plants said that a total of 8 steel plants with individual capacity of 0.8 million tonnes have just begun in Kerman, Charmahal-o Bakhtiari, Khuzestan, East Azerbaijan, Yazd, Fars, and Khorasan Razavi provinces.

Construction of a new 0.8 million tonne steel complex started at Ghayen in the northernmost city in the eastern Iranian province of Khorasan province last week. The project is estimated to cost about Rls.3.700 billion ($402.4 million) and is likely to get commissioned within 40 months. Ghayen plant would consume about 1.25 million tons of iron ore every year and would be supplied the same from Sangan Iron Ore Mine just outside the city.

Construction for another steel production plant was launched at Bafgh in Irans central province of Yazd. The Bafq steel production plant at an investment of Rls.3000 billion is expected to become operational within 36 months.

Vietnam government has forecast that the country's GDP growth rate this year would reach 8% as planned. A recently released government report on socio economic development in 2006 is optimistic about achieving major socio economic targets in 2006 with GDP growth estimated at 8% and per capita GDP at VND11.5 million ($718).

Vietnam government had targeted to obtain a GDP growth rate of between 8% to 8.2% and a per capita GDP of $820.

The report said that the economic structure continued to shift toward industrialization and modernization, while the structure of economic regions was changing so as to develop the comparison advantages of each region. The economy's major balances like State budget, monetary, and international payment balance continued to stabilize following a positive trend.

It is reported that Chinas Tianjin port has started using their newly constructed iron ore berth with unloading capacity of 200,000 tonnes last week.

Tianjin port has seen a rise in their iron ore handling over the years and has become 2nd largest iron ore port in China.

Labrador Iron Ore Royalty Income Fund announced last week that an agreement has been reached with Iron Ore Company of Canada to include the previously excluded Wabush 3 property in the Sublease Agreement between Labrador Mining Company Limited, a subsidiary of the Fund and IOC in consideration of a 7% royalty on sales of iron ore products derived from the property. Parts of the Knight deposit previously held exclusively by IOC are also to be included in the Sublease Agreement and subject to the 7% royalty.

Arrangements under the Sublease Agreement have been simplified with Labrador Mining granting IOC rights to mine 100% of the ore for the 7% royalty. IOC is proceeding with a drilling program on the Wabush 3 deposit to evaluate it for inclusion in IOC's ore reserves.

The release said that this is an important step in IOC's planning to increase production. An increase in production and sales of iron ore products from properties covered by the Sublease Agreement would increase the 7% royalty receivable by the Fund.

Shaoguan Iron and Steel Group celebrated the 40th anniversary on August 22nd 2006.

Governor of Guangdong Province pointed out in his congratulatory letter the company is an important large backbone enterprise in the province and has made great contribution to the economic development in Guangdong. He added that it has squeezed into top 100 among the global steel producers, top 500 in Chinas enterprises and top 50 in the province.

Its believed that Shaogang produced total of over 14 million tons of steel, 11 million tons of pig iron and 12 million tons of steel products during the 10th 5 Year period as well as achieved sales income of 53.658 billion yuan.

South Korean steel giant POSCO broke ground last month for a new plant yesterday at the Haeryong industrial park in South Jeolla Province to produce magnesium sheets. Slated for completion in July 2007, the facility will be capable of churning out 30 million magnesium boards annually. POSCO plans to develop wider magnesium boards for automobiles in the long term.

South Koreas demand for light weight magnesium sheets has grown rapidly to about 100 billion won per year due to the brisk market for mobile telecommunication devices.

Magnesium sheets are eight times more expensive than their steel counterparts but they weigh only about 25% of steel and 70% of aluminum. Magnesium sheets are superior to plastic in terms of recycling and electromagnetic shielding and used in cell phones, personal digital assistants, laptops and forging equipment components.

Platts has reported that the Malaysian average daily prices of tin continued its upward trend from the previous week and rose above $8,700 per tonne last week on the Kuala Lumpur Tin Market. The price gained $279 to reach $8,745 from $8,466 during the previous week.

A KLTM source attributed the firmer average price to the surge in buying interest.

Cambrian Mining PLC announced last week that has agreed for a 2 year $15 million loan facility with Coal International PLC under which Coal International is entitled draw down funds for the purchase of equipment and other project finance requirements. Cambrian said $10 million of the loan was drawn down immediately and a further $5 million is available for draw down subject to Cambrian's prior approval.

The company said the loan bears interest at LIBOR plus 2.5% but will move in line with the interest payable by Cambrian under its banking facilities from time to time.

The company said the loan facility is secured over the shares held by Coal International in King Coal Limited and Maple Coal Co Limited, its 100% owned subsidiaries.

Under a realignment announced on last Saturday by Pennsylvania based PinnOak Resources 89 people will lose their jobs at the Oak Grove Mine located at Jefferson County in Alabama. About 22 jobs at the company's Pinnacle and Green Ridge mines at Pineville in West Virginia will also be lost in the restructuring aimed at balancing production to meet market needs.

Currently, there are about 920 people working at the Green Ridge and Pinnacle mines in Pineville in West Virginia and the Oak Grove Mine in Adger Alabama

The Oak Grove Mine was shut down briefly earlier this year after the failure of a pump led to a buildup of deadly gasses underground.

Pittsburgh based PinnOak mines metallurgical and steam coal and produces coal bed methane.

Russian Railways is bidding in a tender to build a 2,000 kilometer railroad across the desert in Saudi Arabia and has set up a separate structure, Zarubezhstroi, to build railways overseas.

As per report a total of 28 consortia involving 122 companies shown interest and the list of qualified bidders stand at 18. The list includes the Saudi Arabian Binladen Group and construction companies from Malaysia, Egypt, China, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Australia, Germany and Spain. RZD and the Binladen Group are the only firms bidding that are not part of consortiums.

The cost of the project is estimated to be more than $2 billion and the bidders have to submit bids for three out of four contract packages by October 29th 2006. At least four companies will win orders for construction work on the railway, which is divided into four geographical areas.

Thailand Iron Works PCL has announced that it has sold 560 common shares of Megasteel Holdings Pte Ltd to PL International Pte Ltd at a total price of $1.00 and that after the transaction the Company is no longer a shareholder of Megasteel Holdings.