Budapest born 76 year global financier and philanthropist Mr George Soros admitted that the Indian economy was booming and everyone was looking at the country to do business with but warned that policy makers must avoid overheating.

Mr Soros during a Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry & Shri Ram Centre organized function said that Indian economy is doing very good. It is booming. Markets clearly are heated, but I cant say if its overheated or not. India is the flavor of the month, but flavors are not everlasting. The role of authorities should be to avoid any overheating of the economy.

Mr Soros is on his first visit to India to launch his new book The Age of Fallibility: Consequence of the War on Terror and is sniffing opportunities. Mr Soros declined to comment on his specific plans in Indian markets. He said I have come here just to get a better picture and understanding of the Indian market. As of now, I cannot comment on its growth prospects. My portfolio is managed by a team of professionals.

After reports of the UKs Panel on Takeovers and Mergers deciding to intervene in the matter by arranging an auction of Corus, Indian government has urged that the UK government should not get involved in the battle between TATA Steel and CSN for taking over Corus.

Mr Kamal Nath union minister for commerce & industry minister in an interview with FE said Well, I feel that the government should not get involved in business matters of these kinds. The government should let the shareholders deal with it. At the end of the day, the decision should be in the interest of the shareholders.

The Takeover Panel in the UK is an independent body whose main functions are to supervise and regulate takeovers. It intervenes in cases where it feels larger shareholder concerns need to be addressed. The panel has set a January 30 deadline for TTATA Steel and CSN to revise offers.

BNamericas has reported that negotiations between Bolivia's government and Jindal Steel and Power Limited regarding the contract to develop the El Mutn iron deposit are expected to wrap up by year end. As per reports representatives of Bolivia's five ministries are meeting with company technicians to discuss technical/legal issues and set a date to sign the contract.

A press official from Bolivia's hydrocarbons ministry told BNamericas "Right now, they are negotiating a date to sign the contract and that is something they must decide this month. However, the official did not confirm that the contract will actually be signed before year end. He said "The government itself should announce that.

JSPL was awarded the El Mutn development contract in June 2006, which stipulates that the company will control 50% of the deposit for 40 years and invest about $2.3bn in related steel projects within eight years.

El Mutn, in Bolivia's Santa Cruz, is one of the world's largest iron ore deposits, with a surface area of 60 square kilometers holding some 40 billion tonnes of reserves at an average grade of 50% iron.

TATA Metaliks announced that the relining work on one of its two blast furnaces at its Kharagpur plant is completed and it is ready for operation.

This blast furnace was shut down for relining work for more than a month and the cost of relining is estimated at around INR 17 crore. The relining has increased the capacity of the furnace to around 185,000 tonnes of hot metal per annum and would also help in reducing cost in the near future.

It is reported that state owned MSTC is looking for JVs with coal and iron ore mining specialists to complement its skill in matching sellers with buyers and is open to investing in merchant coke ovens, sinter plants or pelletization plants.

Mr Malay Sengupta CMD of MSTC said We have already advertised for applications from people who would like to set up a joint venture with us in mining coal and iron ore. The JV could be anywhere in the world, but primarily in India. We want a partner with competence in mining while we will do the marketing.

MSTC has diversified its product mix off late and has entered into the field of e-commerce. Its total business volume in 2005-06 was INR 7,714 crore and has reserves of over INR 150 crore.

Economic Times has reported that US based private equity group Blackstone Group is close to investing $60 million to $65 million in Gupta Coal although both companies declined to comment, with Mr Akhil Gupta chairman of Blackstone terming the report as media speculation.

As per reports, Gupta Coal plans to expand the capacity of its coal washeries to 200 million tonnes from the present 27 million over the next 6 years and is also ramping up its mining business. It is reported to be close to acquiring an Australian coal mine for $45 million to $55 million.

TATA Power on said that it is likely to tie up funds for the 4000MW ultra mega power plant at Mundra by August 2007 and generation is expected to start by 2011.

Mr Prasad Menon MD of TATA Power told FE We now await the evaluation committee to revert with a formal verdict. As you know, there is a formal process to follow and the evaluation committee will revert with final decision on December 29th 2006.

AS per reports, TATA Power is also talks for importing coal for power project from various countries as the project require 12 million tonne of coal.

TATA Power had emerged as the lowest bidder for the Mundra Project with a tariff of Rs 2.26 per unit in a bid invited by Power Finance Corporation earlier this week.

Coordination Committee of Officers Association of central public sector undertakings after a meeting announced that they would go on nation wide strike from December 22nd if their demands for higher salaries and more autonomy for the public sectors are not met by December 21t.

As per reports, around 160,000 officers of various units including BSNL, MTNL, NTPC, HPCL, BPCL, BHEL, OIL, ONGC, IOC, GAIL, SAIL and CIL etc would go on strike and the strike will affect the country's economy adversely as around Rs 750 crore of revenue will be lost per day on account of duties and taxes etc.

The officers are demanding merger of 50% DA with basic pay with effect from January 1st 2005, removal of monetary ceiling on payment of gratuity, release of lump sum ad hoc payment pending discussion with next pay panel for salary revision and removal of 50% ceiling on allowances. The officers are also asking for greater amount of flexibility and autonomy in the public sector units.

It is reported that the coal ministry has sanctioned 15 coal blocks to the state of Orissa to meet the increasing demands from consumers.

As per reports, Orissa government has now directed the Orissa Mining Corporations, Orissa Grid Corporation, Orissa Power Transmission Corporation Ltd and the Orissa Hydro Power Corporation (OHPC) to apply for allotment of coal blocks by amending their memorandum of articles.

FE has reported that Lanco Infratech has urged the central government to expedite the process of coal block allocation to private power producers to facilitate competitive tariffs for future power projects.

Mr L Madhusudhan Rao chairman of Lanco told FE We are very happy that Sasan is going to decide future trend in the power sector. What Sasan tells us is that the coal blocks allocation process needs to be expedited as this will lead to similar tariffs for upcoming power projects.

Lanco Infratech has emerged as the lowest bidder for the Sasan ultra mega power project with a per unit tariff of Rs 1.19. Lanco group is currently operating 2 gas based power projects with the total capacity of 487.8MW in Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu and is implementation several power projects aggregating to 3,275 MW capacities.

It is reported that Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limiteds Vizag Steel Plants CITU affiliated employees union has called for setting up of ancillary units in the surrounding districts of Vizag supported by steel supplies by VSP at competitive rate and discouraging private investments in the ongoing modernization plans.

The union submitted a petition to Mr RS Pandey secretary steel which said that that not many ancillary units and small units were coming up in the vicinity of the Vizag steel plant due to the lack of encouragement. Mr N Rama Rao secretary of union pointed out that VSP could afford to reduce the price to the local units, as there would be saving in transport costs and this would result in setting up of many steel rerolling mills and mini steel plants in the surrounding areas.

The union also urged the Steel Secretary to prevent the entry of the private sector in the expansion works of the steel plant. It said "There are plans to bring in private investment in the construction of the thermal power plant and the air separation plant. There is no need for it and it should be stopped.

The board of Chennai based steel manufacturer Surana Industries Limited has approved a proposal to raise up to $50 million through placement of foreign currency convertible bonds as well as equity by way of qualified institutional placements. The board has also approved to raise the foreign shareholding limit up to 75% of the paid up capital of the company.

As per report the 5 year tenure FCCB will be due in June 2012 and will be listed on the Luxembourg Stock Exchange. Funds generated from this offering will be utilized towards implementation of their proposed integrated steel plant at Raichur.

Britain's takeover regulator has put the battle for control of Corus on the fast track by setting January 30th 2007 as the deadline for both TATA Steel and CSN to come forward with new offers and said that if a competitive situation continues to exist shortly before that date, it may require any revised offers to be published in accordance with an auction procedure.

The intervention in an acquisition war by UK Takeover Panel is one of the only three instances in the history and is due to the fear of loss to shareholders due to a long drawn takeover battle.

The panel also said that if it decides to move to an auction procedure, an announcement would be made at the appropriate time.

The watchdog said that both Tata and Companhia Siderurgica Nacional SA had accepted its rarely invoked ruling.

Corus in a separate statement said that it was postponing an extraordinary shareholder meeting planned for 20th December to provide maximum flexibility as and when the competitive situation resolves itself. Corus said that it will announce a proposed date for those adjourned meetings in due course.

The International Stainless Steel Forum has announced that world stainless crude steel production in the third quarter of 2006 rose by 30.4% to 7.1 million tonnes as compared to the third quarter of 2005.

The sharp increase in stainless steel production occurred in all stainless steel producing regions and ISSF believes the increase indicates a well performing world economy. Many northern hemisphere producers reduced their normal summer break periods in response to heavy demand. Producers and fabricators are also still refilling stocks that were depleted by the large production cuts in late 2005.

ISSF data indicate that the growth in 2006 is surging with YOY increase in Q1 of 0.5%, in Q2 of 12.6% and in Q3 of 30.4%.

(Source - International Stainless Steel Forum)

Total production for the first nine months of 2006 is 20.9 million tonnes an increase of 13% as compared to the same period of 2005.

(Source - International Stainless Steel Forum)

The largest stainless producing area is Asia with production of 10.9 million tonnes of stainless steel in the first nine months of 2006. This is 14.7% higher than for the same period of 2005. The main contributor again was China with a total increase of more than 50% compared to the first nine months of last year. China is by far the largest stainless steel producing country in the world.

Smorgon Steel Group Limited announced that it will acquire the operating assets of the US based Industrial Metal Recyclers Incorporated for an undisclosed sum. Smorgon said that the acquisition will be funded using existing debt facilities. The group said it has recruited an experienced American recycling executive who will lead the existing strong management team and expects the project to be completed in early 2007.

IMR is a privately owned operation that handles approximately 100,000 tonnes of ferrous scrap and 10,000 tonnes of non ferrous scrap per annum, representing about 50% of the Maine recycling market from four locations in the state of Maine.

Mr Ray Horsburgh CEO of Smorgon Steel said that the transaction will enable the company to efficiently build on the earlier acquisition of the ITI assets in the US states of Virginia and Florida. He said that The IMR assets are well located relative to both rail and port facilities, enabling efficient service to both domestic and export markets with processed scrap metal.

Smorgon Steel had acquired US based ITI in February, which operates a metal recycling business in the USA with collection and processing facilities at Norfolk, Virginia and Tampa, Florida, handling approximately 100,000 tonnes of ferrous scrap annually.

World DRI production for the countries reporting to the International Iron and Steel Institute is 4.127 million tons in November 2006, which is 8% higher than for the same month of 2005. The production during January to November 2006 amounted to 44.819 million tonnes an increase of 9.6% over corresponding period of 2005.

India is leading the pack with 31.4 YoY growth in November and 38.8% YoY growth during J

In 000 tonnes
Source - IISI

Indias share of 31.5% in the global DRI production during November, as against 30.3% during January to November 2006 points to the fact its share is increasing with every passing months and in future it would account for 1/3 rd of global DRI production.

In 000 tonnes
Source - IISI

Australian government granted Gindalbies $1 billion Karara iron ore project in Western Australia major project facilitation status head of its development next year. Gindalbie said that MPF status will assist it in the progress the project through the approvals process and identify any federal government programs that may assist it.

Mr George Jones executive chairman of Gindalbie said that MPF status represents a significant development in terms of facilitating the approvals process and reflected positive recognition of the significance of the project as a major future contributor to Australia's exports.

Karara project will be a long-term producer of iron products, including high grade ore, magnetite concentrate and pellets. The project will be developed in two stages with stage one shipping higher grader hematite ore directly at an initial rate of 2 million tonnes a year from early 2008. Stage two involves shipping 8 million tonnes a year of 69 pct magnetite concentrate to a new JV pellet plant in the northeastern Chinese port city of Yinkou where Ansteel is building a A$3.5 billion steel mill complex due for completion in 2008.

The project involves construction of mining facilities, a concentrator plant, a wharf and ship loader, port storage and handling facilities, a rail siding, a 220 kilometer slurry pipeline and power facilities.

NDRC has approved the purchase of 50% shares of Sinosteel Samancor Chrome Co in South Africa at $ 2 billion by Sinosteel Corporation as major investments by Chinese state owned corporations must be approved by a variety of ministries including the NDRC.

Sinosteel Samancor Chrome Co is set up in virtue of Tweefontein chrome mine and Tubatse FeCr plant under South Africa's Samancor Chrome. Tubatse FeCr plant is said to have annual capacity of 280,000 tons.

According to some analysts, the purchase will expand Sinosteel's overseas inventories and consolidate its position of raw material supplier and products agent for major steelmakers in China. Analysts also say the purchase is likely to bring a new profit growth point to Sinosteel. Due to insufficient supply, China has to import 80% of its chrome ore consumption every year.

Sinosteel's overseas assets mainly include Channar iron ore mine in Australian iron ore mines and JV with Limpopo for chrome ore mine and a smelter in South Africa.

(Sourced from Mysteel.net)

According to data provided by information center in Shanxi Province, China's steel product prices tended to go down. There are four factors as follows may affect steel market in 2007.

1. Chinese government's macro control policy
It is expected that China's demand for steel products will still keep slow growth in 2007. Chinese government's macro control policy will place a cap on the demand. Steel market prices are unlikely to show great ups and downs in 2007. At the same time, capital in steel product distribution channel will also become tighter.

2. Steel product exports
It is expected that steel product exports will keep on going up in 2007. However, changes in both steel prices in international market and China's steel product export tax rebate are possible to put some negative influence on China's steel exports.

3. Domestic steel capacity
Domestic steel capacity is one the most important factors to affect steel market. There will be no fundamental changes in a short term caused by Chinese government's obsolete capacity elimination. Besides, prices for iron ore, coal, power, oil and transportation fee drive up steel-making costs. It is expected iron ore will not show great price rise for fiscal 2007.

4. Steel product demand and modes of business operation
Chinese dealers are now strengthening customer services in terms of distribution, processing and storage. At the same time, volume of steel products directly supplied to end users climbs up gradually. However, steel product prices are still definitely decided by steel makers. Dealers begin probing into new ways.

(Sourced from Mysteel.net)

Australian BlueScope has announced that it is looking to capitalize on a recent revocation of previous steel import duties into US and to start exporting its Australian manufactured coated steel building products, such as Colorbond to the US.

BlueScope said that removal of import duties would allow it to supply coated steel products to its US based Butler pre engineered buildings business, which had been using US products till now due to import duties.

Mr Kirby Adams CEO of BlueScope said "While it is too early to say exactly what effect the tariff removal will have on our business overall, we are well placed through our geographic footprint, our product diversification and position in the premium end of the coated steel market."

US International Trade Commission last week dismissed opposition from the US steel industry and voted to eliminate duties on galvanized steel imports from Australia, Canada, France and Japan. The duty on Australian products had been as much as 39%.

BlueScope coated steel and building products business produces some 1.63 million tonnes annually, out of which about 25% is exported.

London based Clyde & Co has announced that European Commission rules banning pricing alliances between shipping companies may trigger price wars and mergers among container lines as container lines will no longer be allowed to bargain for better prices by pooling their fleets when EC antitrust laws are implemented from 2008.

Mr Philippe Ruttley partner at London based law firm Clyde & Co, which represented the Far Eastern Freight Conference, a network of 16 lines, at the EC court said The ban on these conferences, taking effect as increasing capacity, is expected to weaken freight rates and may provoke price wars in which smaller operators suffer most.

Mr Ruttley said that the prices global lines charge their customers for transporting containers have declined as the supply of vessels increases. He said that A 3% excess in ship availability over demand is enough to spur lines to aggressively undercut each others prices.

Mr Ruttley added that "Some of the weaker lines will go to the wall, and youll be left with the mega carriers. By 2030, there may be maximum 8 to 10 lines. The commission takes a Darwinian view of this".

Brazilian MMX Mineracao e Metalicos SA I reported to be in negotiations with Sumitomo Metal Mining Co for selling a 30% stake in MMX's Sistema Minas-Rio. Mr Rodolfo Landim president of MMX said that the deal would be structured similarly to an accord with Cleveland-Cliffs earlier this year.

MMX's Sistema Minas-Rio is the company's most ambitious mining project, with total investments of more than $2.4 billion. The investments include development of the Minas mine in Brazil's Minas Gerais state, as well as a slurry pipeline, port facilities and pellet plant. Some $2 billion will be invested in the Minas mine, which is expected to produce 26.6 million metric tons of iron ore by April 2009. In addition, the company will build a 550 kilometer slurry pipeline to transport iron ore pulp, or sinter feed, to a pellet plant at the Acu port in Rio de Janeiro state. Port facilities are expected to be finished by May 2009, while the pipeline will be completed by July 2009.

Cleveland-Cliffs acquired a 30% stake in MMX's Sistema Amapa for $133 million in September and also agreed to contribute 30% of the estimated $275 million still needed to develop the mine and associated facilities. The Amapa mine is expected to produce 6.5 million tonnes of iron ore per year starting in the fourth quarter of 2007. Bahrain based iron pellet producer Gulf Industrial Investment Co also has a 20 year supply contract with MMX for Amapa ore.

Korea Electric Power Corp has announced that it has agreed with Deutsche Bank AG and Shanxi International Electricity Group to establish a RMB 10 billion JV to develop coalmines in China. As per report KEPCO will cover 34% of the investment, while Shanxi Intl Electricity Group and Deutsche Bank will account for 47% and 19% respectively.

The JV will develop 9 coalmines in North China's Shanxi Province over the next 50 years and it also plans to buy 24 power plants in China which will have a combined capacity of 9,330MW.

KEPCO is South Korea's major power producer, supplying more than 95% of the country's electricity and it entered the Chinese market in 2004, with the construction of two power plants of 50MW each in Central China's Henan Province.

China is the largest coal producer in the world, and Shanxi's coal output accounts for about one third of its total output. Coal fired power plants now account for over 70% of Chinas total electricity output, with the authorities encouraging them to use more advanced technology in order to save energy.

Mechel has announced the commissioning of a new 1 million tonne Danieli billet caster at its subsidiary Chelyabinsk Metallurgical Plant as one of the main projects in the plant's modernization program with total cost of over $100 million. When the new caster reaches full capacity, the share of steel billets produced through the continuous casting technology will increase from 30% to 50%.

Mechel said that implementation of this project is aimed at increasing the performance of Mechel's steel segment through reducing per tonne steel, ferroalloy, and electric power consumption and significantly improving the quality of finished products.

The new caster will produce 100mm & 180mm square billets and 150mm round billets. A portion of the new unit's output will be allocated to meet the needs of Mechel's other subsidiary, Beloretsk Metallurgical Plant, in wire rod production and future hardware production. The remaining part will be allocated to manufacturing high added value products at CMP at its rolling mills. Billets produced at concaster No 4 will be used in manufacturing of rebars.

Mr Alexey Ivanushkin COO of Mechel said "Putting the steel production on the track of concasting technology is a strategic objective of the Company in improving our steel segment performance. As part of its implementation, two modern concasters were built at CMP from greenfield over the last four years with the total capacity of over 2 million tonnes of billets annually. A concaster with 500 thousand tonnes annual capacity will be commissioned following its upgrading at our Romanian enterprise, Mechel Targoviste, early next year, bringing share of concasted steel to 100%. We are planning additional projects to increase share of concasting. Further implementation of the modernization program will concentrate on upgrading rolling production capabilities."

It is reported that Liberia has postponed the signing of a deal with Arcelor Mittal for more than $1 billion investments in the country for iron ore mining and related infrastructure development.

Mr Joseph Matadly spokesman of Liberian minister said that the committee in charge of approving the deal asked for a postponement because it needed more time to look work on the document.

1. Structures & construction
In the following years, steel structure will observe increased usage in thermal power plants, transport engineering such as railroad, highway bridges, toll gates & traffic sign etc, municipal public facilities construction especially in big cities of Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, Chongqing & developed medium sized cities and residence building etc.

Amount of steel structure in Shanghai, Zhejiang and Jiangsu Province totals 3.5 million tonnes representing over one third of the nationwide processing amount, steel structure used in industrial and civilian construction takes up 60% and 40% respectively in proportion. As viewed from steel variety, medium plate including super heavy plate takes up to 50%, HR H beam takes 15%, color coated & galvanized steel takes 12%, pipe & tube 3.5% and other sections some 19%.

Meanwhile, requirements on performance of structure steel are raised as steel structural construction and building tend to be large sized and are commanded to endure trials of fire, wind, corrosion etc.

Trend for the development of structural steel used in large construction and buildings is: thickness of the plate is increasing and the strength and welding capacity need to be solidified; section specs are enriched to fit in with broader demands; cold formed pipe & tube remains unable to meet property norm; construction cast steel will further improve in performance and size precision; outer wallboard material and house surface plate are absent of supply.

2. Shipbuilding sector
The world shipbuilding industry sustains prosperous operation with oil tanker taking the forefront seat. During the first three quarters, transaction volume of new ships came close to 100 million deadweight tons, of which 60% was taken by oil tanker. Total transaction volume is expected to break through 120 million deadweight tons.

For the globe, new receipt of ship orders will top 300 million deadweight tons; completed transaction of new ships will by then reach 78 million deadweight tons. Ship price is driven up and will keep on a high level in a short term despite prediction of challenge in the future.

Newly built container ships tend to be large-sized, which means steel demand from small and medium sized ships may decline. LNG ship bears a bright future as more and more nations and regions start to import liquid natural gas. The demand will continue to grow in such old markets as US and Europe and its momentum will be driven up further when new countries begin importing LNG. Oil tanker spots enlarged percentage of transaction. During the first three quarters, transaction volume of new oil tanker posted 35 million deadweight tons, representing 60% of the total new ship transaction tonnage, far above last whole year figure of 27.8 million tonnes.

Offshore engineering ships keep a strong growing impetus this year, with 270 pieces concluded in the first half, nearly half up YoY. Fundamental factors for strongly growing new shipbuilding industry are attributed to solid demand for energy, raw material, corn etc under economic development and political reasons, and thus aroused far distance transport and huge shipping volume.

3. Real estate industry
Real estate industry of China is still in sustained demand, with picked up urbanization and reformation of old city zones. Every year, there will be 15 million people coming into the city.

In addition, small and medium sets of residence are advocated, which may speed up renewal of the building products.

4. Automotive sector
The automotive industry will stage stable development in 2007, at a pace of 15% as predicted, with total output to exceed 8mln vehicles to stand at 8.2 million tonne to 8.3 million tonnes.

Significant changes with the market will first involve product mix. The percentage of saloon car and passenger car will further rise.

Second is change of the market pattern. Large cities like Beijing and Shanghai may see stagnant growth of automotive demand while the second layer cities like Shangdong, Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Guangdong will enjoy wide growing extent. Third layer market is sprouting and needs to be exploited.

The third change is commercial vehicles shall see further expanded market at a faster pace than this year. Growth of commercial vehicle was 5% at the start of this year and climbed up to 10% by Sep.

(Sourced from Mysteel.net)

Gulfnews has reported that 3 more steel factories are in the pipeline in Oman. Mr Maqbool Bin Ali Sultan Oman's minister of commerce and industry, in reply to a question on government efforts to control rising steel prices, told Majlis As'Shura members during a session that "The ministry has plans to set up and expand steel factories.

Mr Maqbool revealed that a GCC owned major steel project will soon be set up at a cost of 250 million Omani riyals. Another two plants will be set up, one of them by a Brazilian company. Mr Maqbool also said the government was also contemplating expanding the existing steel factories in Rusayl and Raysut factories.

RBC daily has reported that Siberian Coal Energy Company and Norilsk Nickel have decided to exchange generating assets to the mutual benefit of the companies. Until the deals are closed legally the parties prefer to abstain from disclosing information about the sums of the deals or their details.

As per report SUEK is purchasing the blocking interest of Krasnoyarsk Generatsiya from Nornickel in exchange to its shareholding in TGK-14. Krasnoyarsk Krai and Khakassiya are in the area of SUEK interest while the Chita region is the area of interest for Nornickel.

Chaparral Steel Company reported a record net income of $67.5 million for its second quarter ended November 30th 2006. This represents a 98% increase in net income over the $34.0 million earned in the second quarter of fiscal 2006. This is $8.4 million better than the previous record of $59.1 million earned the first quarter of this fiscal year.

Record operating profit of $108.8 million increased 83% compared to the second quarter of fiscal 2006 and exceeded the previous record set in the first quarter of this fiscal year by almost 13%.

Shipments of approximately 541,000 tons were seasonally lower than the first quarter of this fiscal year but were comparable to the second quarter of fiscal year 2006. Average selling prices for this quarter of $682 per ton increased 4% from the first quarter of this fiscal year and nearly 18% from the comparable quarter in fiscal year 2006.

Mr Tommy A Valenta president and CEO said "This is our fifth straight record quarter and our seventh consecutive quarter of earnings growth. We are constantly monitoring domestic and international markets and both continue to be strong. Based on global dynamics, we remain optimistic for the structural steel market and our financial performance in calendar year 2007."

European Nickel has announced that a delay in getting its forestry license may have an impact on the construction timetable at its Caldag nickel project in western Turkey.

Enickel said Site clearance in preparation for physical construction on the mine site has not yet commenced as the forestry license required to harvest approximately 100,000 pine trees at the site has not yet been issued. Enickel believes that Construction activity can be partly accommodated within the overall schedule however there may be some impact on the final completion date.

As per report, the Caldag nickel project, capable of producing 20,400 tonnes per year of nickel in hydroxide, is scheduled to come into operation in early 2008 with full production seen in 2009.

Western Australian iron ore miner Mount Gibson has announced that it needs only another 5% shareholding to complete its takeover of rival miner Aztec.

As per report Mount Gibson currently has an 85% stake in Aztec. Once it gains 90% stake Mount Gibson will be able to obtain the remaining 10% under the Corporations Act.

Mount Gibson is offering 1 of its shares for every 3 Aztec shares. The offer period for the sale of Aztec shares closes at the end of this week. Aztec directors had initially advised shareholders to reject the offer, but in November reversed their recommendation.

Canadian First Nickel has announced that it will produce around 2,132 tonnes of contained nickel in ore next year after falling short of its production target in 2006.

As per report First Nickel began production at the reopened Lockerby mine in Ontario in 2005 and was hoping to produce around 2,300 tonnes of contained nickel this year but due to a series of operational issues, not least a forced change in mining plan due to ground stability problems, meant production was just over 900 tonnes in the January to September 2006.

Mr William Anderson president and CEO of First Nickel said After a year of working through and correcting some difficult operating issues at Lockerby we can look forward in 2007 to steady production, solid cash flow, and most importantly we can begin to focus on the upside opportunities on the property, which was the original reason for purchasing the mine.

United Minerals, formerly United Kimberly Diamonds, has released the preliminary results for its Pilbara Iron Project. United Minerals said that an initial field mapping and grab sampling program at its Pilbara Iron Project had revealed high grade surface mineralization of up to 65% iron and that it has identified three initial drill targets.

Mr Mike Munro of DJ Carmichael & Co said that the results were a positive step for the group. He said "Anything above 60% is generally good grade.

Australian largest zinc miner producer Perilya has announced that it has approved development of the Beltana zinc mine as the first phase of its Flinders project in South Australia.

As per report Beltana zinc first stage development will see production capacity of 150,000 tonnes of high grade direct shipping ore with the company looking at the marketing opportunities for another 242,000 tonnes of lower grade material that is included in the mine design.

This material, grading between 14% and 26% zinc, will be stockpiled separately on site. Ore will be shipped directly to Asian customers with the first shipment seen early 2008.

Mr Duishenbek Kamchibekov Kyrgyzstan state secretary of the Geology and Mineral Resources Agency has announced that kyrgzstan mines coal output fall by 5% during January to November 2006 period. Mr Kamchibekov said that coal production dropped by 91.5% YoY at the Ak-Ulak strip mine, by 2.6% at the Besh Burkhankomur mine, by 35.5% at Sharbon and 48.6% at Tash Kumyr.

As per Intefax report, kyrgzstan produced 272,700 tonnes of coal during January to November 2006 down by 4.8% YoY and just 66.5% of the 410,000 tonne target for the period. Output value in the coal industry totaled KGS 138.9 million in the period, 27.4% less than the planned KGS 191.1 million but up by 8.6% YoY over KGS 127.9 million in January to November 2005.

Vietnam national coal minerals industries group Vinacomin has announced it will equitise 7 subsidiaries in the pit mining, electricity generating and engineering industries. Vinacomin said it will continue to build and eventually hand over facilities to the subsidiaries as part of the equitisation plan. As per report Vinacomin plans to begin the equitisation process in 2007 and hopes to be done by 2010.

Vinacomin is also in the process of creating overseas subsidiaries in a bid to expand into new markets and exploit coal deposits. By the end of 2010, Vinacomin hopes the equitisation of 15 subsidiaries, which are currently undergoing expansion, investment and factory relocation procedures, will be completed.

Vinacomin is constructing several large thermo electronic power plants, which will have a combined capacity of 1,100 MW to 1,400 MW, and bauxite aluminum factories, which will produce about 1 million tonnes of aluminum annually. In addition, it also plans to establish new thermo electronic power generating and mining companies. The mining businesses will focus on bauxite, alumina and other minerals and will be based in the Central Highlands.

In 2006 Vinacomin's open cast mine exploration companies have been equitised. State run companies that have already undergone the process are reaping the benefits with sustainable earnings growth and rising turnover.

Vinacomin, which mines coal and bauxite and provides power, transport, property and other services, is the parent of around 30 coal companies, operating in both open cast and pit mining.