Bloomberg reported that Mr Sanjay Choudhry a TATA spokesman denied the report of Economic Times on its plans for revising bid for Corus saying that it is baseless.

Reports in ET, citing unnamed sources, had reported that TATA Steel may revise its takeover offer up to 600 pence a share, starting with 530 pence per share

Shares of Corus Group PLC, surged by 1.12%in trading on reports that Tata Steel may revise its takeover offer, but stocks of the Indian company fell 1.67% on the bourses.

Steel Authority of India Limited has decided to adopt four underdeveloped villages around its mining hubs in West Singhbhum as a commitment to develop infrastructure under its corporate social responsibilities.

The infrastructure building of the villages would by done by four iron ore mines of SAIL namely, Kiriburu, Megahataburu, Gua and Chiria. Each mining hub of the company will be assigned the task of adopting one village this year.

Mr AK Singh chief of communication of RMD of SAIL said The Company has been working towards improving quality of life of villagers. The raw material division of SAIL would build roads, hospitals and other infrastructure needed around the villages to be identified shortly. They will be developed as model villages of Saranda forest. The company will provide all the basic facilities including drinking water.

Mr Singh added that SAIL has also decided to hand over a mobile medical van worth INR 0.29 million to the government and distribute around 100 solar lights among villagers in West Singhbhum this month.

JSW Steel Ltd has awarded SMS Demag a contract for the supply of a melt shop dedusting plant including gas scrubber and BOF gas recovery unit for its two 175 ton BOFs at Toranagallu works. Commissioning is scheduled to take place in March 2008.

The scope of supply further includes the engineering and fabrication of special components, plus the engineering of the secondary dedusting unit.

This process provides for the primary gas to be cleaned in a two stage high efficiency Venturi scrubber. The CO gas is obtained with suppressed combustion of the primary gas. Recovery takes place with the help of a special gas change over station arranged past the high efficiency scrubber. From the gas change over station the cleaned gas is routed into a 50,000 meter cube gas holder during operating phases which are rich in energy.

The gas recovery plant involves considerable energy cost savings, as the cleaned gas is used in the works instead of fossil fuels.

Exim News Service has reported that the Inland Waterways Authority of India along with National Thermal Power Corporation is planning to form 3 JV, which will acquire 16 vessels with a total of 2,000 million tonne capacity at a cost of INR 60 crore this year.

NTPC needs 3 million tonnes to 4 million tonnes of coal every year for its plant at Farakka. It requires 30 vessels exclusively for ferrying coal between Haldia and Farakka on NW-1.

IWAI has also received the governments nod to set up 3 JVs for the construction of three jetties at Bandel, Kolaghat and Budge-Budge on National Waterways 1, one with Vivada water transport company, and two with the Mumbai based SKS (Ship) Ltd. The project is expected to be completed by 2007-08.

The government has identified IWT as one of the priority sectors in infrastructure and the National Maritime Development Program envisages an investment of Rs 10,500 crore for the development of the inland waterways. The Shipping Ministry has put forward a budgetary allocation proposal of INR 600 crore for 2007-08 as against INR 150 crore in 2005-06.

TATA Steel and INSDAG have jointly organized a one day workshop Steel in Construction at Kolkata as a forum for interaction of all stakeholders in the field of construction. More than 100 delegates attended the workshop.

The main aim of the workshop was to bring together a diverse cross section of stakeholders of steel supply chain and helping showcase the steel intensive construction practices in India and abroad.

The scope of this workshop was to highlight primarily the benefits of steel intensive construction on various projects, which is now the best practice adopted across the world due to its faster speed, better durability, economy and environment friendliness.

8 more workshops have been planned across the country out of which workshops have already taken place at Chennai, Banglore, New Delhi, Mumbai and Hyderabad.

It is reported that two days national seminar on Challenges and opportunities in the secondary steel sector is being jointly organized by the National Institute of Secondary Steel Technology and the Steel Manufacturers Association of Kerala.

The seminar will cover various aspects and facets of manufacturing and rolling of steels and special emphasis will be placed on areas like technological developments, value addition, conservation of energy, pollution control and products that meet global quality standards.

Mr P. Pankajakshan president of Steel Manufacturers Association of Kerala has said the seminar offers both refreshing and learning opportunities in practical as well as theoretical aspects and is designed to meet the requirements of practicing supervisors, engineers and technical staff working in the secondary steel sector.

Mr Sushilkumar Shinde union power minister while addressing in inauguration conference on 16th January 2007 at New Delhi said that merchant power plants are a product of the restructuring of the electricity industry, which can provide the additional generating reserves that India needs now and will need in the future.

Mr Shinde said that the success achieved so far in development of ultra mega power projects that give the confidence to offer another route of power generation capacity addition through merchant power plants. He added that India is fast emerging as the economic powerhouse of Asia and the present growth will be sustainable only if supported by requisite infrastructure and his ministry is fully committed towards achieving the commensurate growth of the sector.

The conference was organized to discuss various issues related to development of merchant power plants including criteria for selection of developers, earmarking of coal blocks to the identified projects, evacuation of power from proposed plants, inputs and logistic support required by way of availability of land, water and other infrastructure facilities, facilitating environment clearance and R&R Plan etc for these plants.

Indian government has envisaged capacity addition of 100,000 MW by the year 2012 to meet its Mission of Power to All and it is estimated that a capacity addition of 70,000 MW is required during 11th Plan to meet the targeted economic growth rate of 9%. Merchant Power Plants are identified as one of the routes for achieving the targeted capacity addition and offer an investment opportunity for potential investors. It is expected that a capacity of 12,000 MW be developed through Merchant Power Plants.

15 coal blocks with estimated aggregate reserves of about 3.6 million tonnes have been identified for allocation to merchant power plants and captive power plants. The identified blocks are in Rajmahal, Raniganj, Birbhum, North Karanpura, South Karanpura, Wardha valley, Mand Raigarh, IB River and Talcher Coal fields.

KROMAG Metal industries GmbH of Austria has awarded Steel Strips Wheels Ltd a repeat export order for the supply of 20,160 car wheel rims.

Mittal Steel USA confirmed that it has entered into a non binding MoU with Esmark for the sale of the tin mill products business of Mittal Steel USA in Weirton in West Virginia. As per release, the MOU contemplates execution of definitive transaction agreements by February 2nd 2007 when the MoU terminates and that while the parties hope to complete a transaction in the coming months, there can be no assurance as to whether or when all contingencies will be satisfied.

The release said that the transaction is subject to several contingencies, including the satisfactory completion of due diligence by Esmark, the completion of a mutually agreeable definitive purchase agreement, and mutually satisfactory arrangements with the Independent Steel Workers Union. The transaction is also subject to approval by the US Department of Justice.

Mr Lou Schorsch CEO of Flat Americas of Arcelor Mittal said "The negotiated non binding memorandum of understanding allows us to prepare for a swift execution of the disposal of the Weirton assets in case Dofasco cannot be sold and the Department of Justice asks us to sell these operations.

Germany's largest steelmaker ThyssenKrupp AG announced that its first quarter pretax profit more than doubled. Its earnings rose to EUR 1 billion in the three months ended December 31st 2006 up by 135.2% as compared to EUR 425.1 million in October to December 2005 and up by 61.6% as compared to EUR 618.6 million in July to September 2005.

ThyssenKrupps order intake during October to December 2006 rose to EUR 13 billion as compared to EUR 11.6 billion in October to December 2005 and sales increased to EUR 12.2 billion as compared to EUR 10.9 billion in October to December 2005 .

Dr Ekkehard Schulz executive board chairman said Maintaining the high current quality of earnings is a key priority. ThyssenKrupps target for earnings before taxes is EUR 2.5 billion. Having exceeded this figure in 2005-2006, we are confident of doing the same in the current fiscal year. This assumes that the world economy remains stable and energy prices stay within manageable limits. Our good performance with first-quarter earnings of 1 billion confirms our forecast for the current fiscal year.

ThyssenKrupp is pursuing a forward strategy with sustainable high earnings with all segments contributing to the further growth. It aims is to take the first step to sales of EUR 50 billion as quickly as possible, 60% from production of materials and capital goods and 40% from service oriented businesses. In a second step the aim is to achieve Group sales of EUR 55 to EUR 60 billion euros in the next five years.

ThyssenKrupp with sales of 47.1 billion euros and 188,000 employees in over 70 countries, has organized its 3 main business areas of steel, capital goods and services, organized in 5 segments
1. Steel
2. Stainless
3. Technologies
4. Elevator
5. Services

Arcelor Mittals Mittal Steel Kryviy Rih has launched a new battery of coke ovens and announced that an additional coke battery would probably be launched in the second half of 2007. The company said it also planned to stop two old coke batteries and replace them with new facilities within three years.

Mittal Steel Kryviy Rih said the plant started construction of the new coke facilities in 2004 and that two new batteries would cost about USD 198 million. The batteries are able to produce a total of 1.1 million tonnes of coke per year.

The company said in a statement "The new batteries will allow the mill to receive an additional 800,000 tonnes of coke in 2007 and to cut coke purchases by more than two thirds."

Mittal Steel Kryviy Rih said that it planned to produce a total of 3.470 million tonnes of coke in 2007 compared with 2.696 million in 2006. It noted imports of coke, a raw material for steelmaking, were likely to fall to 340,000 tonnes in 2007 from 963,000 tonnes in 2006.

It is reported that Bolivia's government will move ahead with plans to nationalize the mining industry in the latest move toward more state control of key sectors, after nationalizing Mr Morales nationalized Bolivia's energy industry in May 2006.

Mr Evo Morales president of Bolivia while speaking to reporters at a summit of presidents of the Mercosur trade bloc in the Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro said that it would not be a full nationalization and his government is still studying the details.

Mr Morales said "We are discussing some deep reforms that will allow investors to recover their investments but they are also going to have to make an economic contribution to the state. I have said it before, we need partners not masters."

Bolivia, which has the second biggest natural gas reserves in South America, has significant deposits of tin, zinc, lead, silver and gold. It also has the El Mutun iron ore deposit, believed to contain one of the world's biggest reserves of iron ore.

MI has reported that a container ship which was carrying nickel, chemicals and other goods almost sank yesterday in the English Channel after the crew was forced to abandon it in heavy storms and that salvage specialists are still trying to re-gain control over the drifting vessel.

The MSC Napoli was carrying 2,400 containers. There has been no independent confirmation of the tonnage involved but the market scuttlebutt is that it could have been as much as 1,000 tonnes.

The ship was traveling between Antwerp and Portugal and the cargo may have been destined for Spanish stainless steel market Acerinox, given that sort of tonnage.

This story created quite a stir on the LME as the tonnage involved, if confirmed, would be equivalent to around a fifth of that in the LME warehouse system.

Territory Iron Ltd has increased the reserves and mine life by 950,000 tonnes to 4.81 million tonnes, adding to the operations mine life at its Frances Creek project near Pine Creek in the Northern Territory's north ahead of a planned start up in May. The company has also increased total resources to 9.73 million tonnes of iron ore, up from 9.41 million tonnes.

Territory Iron is looking to establish a one million tonnes per annum operation from Frances Creek, with mining scheduled to commence in May. Territory Iron said that its hoping to make the first shipments of ore from its Frances Creek Mine by August. The operation is expected to ramp up to a 1.5 million tonne per annum operation from 2008.

Mr Doug Stewart of Territory Iron said that the mine should be up and running in the second half of the year. He said "It's going to take some time from when we start digging and stripping off waste to and start hauling stuff on the railway, and training it into Darwin before we can get a ship load in Darwin. So if we start digging and clearing and building offices and things at the mine around about March-April, we should be looking at shipping towards the end of August."

Frances Creek is being reopened after a 33 year closure after damages caused by cyclone Tracy.

Salzgitter Flachstahl GmbH of Germany has awarded SMS Demag a contract for the modernization of converter B at its Salzgitter LD meltshop. The revamp will raise the converter volume by 35 cubic meters, which is expected to extend the service life of the wear lining. Commissioning is scheduled to take place in April 2007.

The scope of supply includes the converter vessel with trunnion ring and slag skirt. The converter will feature the lamella suspension system. Existing components such as the converter tilt drive, bearings and bearing supports as well as the converter doghouse will be reused.

Anshan Iron & Steel Group Corporation announced that Mr Zhang Xiaogang the former deputy general manager of Anshan Steel would become the president after Mr Liu Jie retires.

But it remains unclear who will take the place of Mr Liu as the limited company's chairperson and moreover whether Mr Zhang will replace Mr Liu as the chairman of Anben Promotion Council, which was founded to take charge of consolidating the assets of Anshan Steel and Benxi Steel when they merged in 2005.

Mr Liu was president from 1994 to 2007, during which Anshan and Benxi merged giving the group a combined capacity of around 17 million tonnes, although critics point out that the two companies are still operated separately by two teams.

Anben Steel Group ranked as China's second largest steel producer from January to November in 2006, with a crude output of 20.55 million tonnes. It also has plans to increase its capacity, with Anshan's 5 million tonnes integrated plate project at Bayuquan in Liaoning province expected to start to produce steel by end of 2007. Anshan also has ambitions to expand its market presence in southern China, and has been in talks with the Fujian government and Sangang Group regarding a possible merger.

(Sourced from MySteel.net)

Australian nickel junior Tectonic Resources NL announced plans to restart its mothballed RAV8 nickel mine near Ravensthorpe in Western Australia, to take advantage of a high price for the metal. The company said it has identified some ore close to the existing mine infrastructure which is now economic to extract given the higher price. The initial mine plan is limited to just three months, although the company said it continues to evaluate the resource with one eye no doubt on the price.

Mr Andy Czerw operations director said that Tectonic plans to mine ore containing about 150 metric tons of the metal from the underground mine during an initial three month campaign, during which it will evaluate a possible extension of operations. He said Even with the cost of the ore being toll treated by BHPB, it is definitely worthwhile.

Mining at RAV8 was suspended in September 2005, when the nickel price then dictated that all viable ore had been exhausted. Rav8 produced 1,309 tonnes of contained nickel in ore last year prior to the suspension of mining activity. It sent the ore to BHP Billitons Kambalda plant for treatment.

It is reported that top executives from Citic Group, attracted by the superb performance of Chonggang's share in HK stock market and the idle land left behind after its relocation to a new site, have recently paid a visit to Chongqing Steel in southwest China's Chongqing municipality.

As per reports, Citic is said to be looking at taking a majority stake in Chonggang, with an initial investment of RMB 6 billion.

Chonggang has a crude steel capacity of 3 million tonnes per year and is planning to expand its capacity to 5 million tonnes per year to million tonnes per year and to target 8 million tonnes per year after 2010 and may set up a 3 million tonnes per year steel mill. Chonggang is due to start to relocate from its present city area of Dadukou in 2007 by 2010, which would vacate an area of 7000 mu in the city.

(Sourced from MySteel.net)

The World Bureau of Metal Statistics said that the global nickel market recorded a deficit of 80,000 metric tons during the first 11 months of 2006, with reported stocks some 33,000 tons lower.

WBMS said that the mine production was up 5.1% higher YoY at 1.281 million tons, while refined production was 2% up on the same period of 2005 with output increases in Russia and Canada more than compensating for losses in Oceania.

WBSM added that the world nickel demand was 72,000 tons higher than in the first 11 months of last year.

According to a report released by the National Development and Reform Commission, China will see a balance of supply and demand for steel in 2007 with the steel price remaining close to last year's level.

The report said that the average steel price in 2007 is expected to be around CNY 3800 per tonne (USD 507) as against last year's CNY 3737 per tonne (USD 498).

In the report, Chinese raw steel output in 2007 is projected to be 462 million tons up by10 % YoY 8% points lower than the growth in 2006 and that the domestic steel demand will also grow by about 10% indicating equilibrium of supply and demand.

(Sourced from MySteel.net)

Xinhua reported that at least 5 of the 29 miners remaining trapped in a flooded mine near Baotou in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region are still alive.

Rescuers said "We have made contact with the five through a ventilation pipe. We believe they are squatting above a head frame structure at the end of a 150 meter long tunnel.

About 100 rescue workers and 150 policemen are taking shifts to dig out silt with spades. Water pumps have been trucked in from neighboring Shanxi province and are being installed to pump out the silt. So far, rescuers had advanced a third of the way long the tunnel and pumped out some 60 tons of water.

The flood occurred in the early hours of Wednesday at Haolaigou Iron Ore Mine in Donghe District of Baotou, when 46 miners were changing shifts and only 11 miners escaped.

Interfax, citing a source at the association of Ukrainian mining enterprises Ukrrudprom, reported that Ukraine raised iron ore exports tentatively by 2.1% YoY in 2006 to 19.88 million tonnes.

Iron ore concentrate exports jumped by 13.4% to 3.995 million tonnes and sintering ore exports rose by 9.1% to 7.32 million tonnes, however pellet exports fell by 10.1% to 8.6 million tonnes.

Japanese Nippon Steel & Sumikin Stainless Corp. announced that it has raised cold rolled stainless sheet prices for the thirteenth straight month because of higher nickel costs.

NSSSCs January contract price for March delivery of its Ni based 304 series CR STS increased by JPY 10,000 per tonne to JPY 545,000 per tonne due to an increase in its alloy surcharge although base prices remain unchanged.

NSSSC left January contract prices for Cr based 430 series CR sheet unchanged, following a JPY 10,000 per tonne hike last month.

Chung Hung Steel Co, formerly known as Yieh Loong Enterprise, has awarded LOI Thermprocess a contract to modernize its coil cooling and storage unit, used to cool steel strip coils in a dehumidified atmosphere following annealing, with a total of 48 final cooling stations.

The scope of contract includes replacement of the entire air treatment system of the existing plant operated by Chung Hung, by a closed loop air system with compact dehumidifiers for air drying and a cooling system equipped with heat exchangers for ensuring defined cooling gradients and a constant air humidity in the cooling stations in the future.

Chung Hung Corp Ltd was established in 1983 and anneals coils of cold rolled steel strip in bell type annealing plants with a hydrogen atmosphere. The maximum stack weight is 95 tonnes, the maximum coil diameter 1850 mm and the maximum stack height 5300 mm.

FIS reported that sales of Russian scrap supplier Vtorchermet totaled 1.06 million tons of ferrous metal scrap in 2006, 332,000 tonnes more than in 2005.

As per customs statistics, Vtorchermet accounts for 16.5% of scrap supplies from the port of Saint Petersburg or 10% of Russia's total scrap exports.

Malaysia Steel Works (KL) Bhd expects earnings to grow by 10% to 15% this year on firmer steel prices.

Mr Tai Hean Leng MD & CEO of Masteel told StarBiz that steel prices have surged by 10% in the past one month to RM 430 per tonne from RM 390 and that international steel prices were likely to continue to strengthen for the rest of the year.

Mr Leng said Masteels revenue has grown on an average of 17% yearly for the past five years. Barring unforeseen circumstances, we are targeting our turnover to breach the RM 400 million marks by the end of this year. He added that Masteel will reduce costs further with new technologies coming on stream by the third quarter of this year.

For the nine months to September 30th 2006, Masteel made a net profit of RM 21.3million on revenue of RM 264.9million.

Mitsubishi Corporation and Fuji Electric Systems have secured order for 2 continuous galvanizing lines with related equipments for appliances and high valued construction materials from Jiuquan Iron & Steel group in China.

They will provide the 2 lines with 400,000 tonnes and 350,000 tonnes of annual output capacity for around YEN 8 billion.

The American Iron and Steel Institute has joined ProtectingAmerica.org and teamed up with first responders, disaster recovery experts, insurers and small and large businesses in calling for better ways to prepare and protect American families from natural catastrophes.

AISI contributes more than 100 years of expertise in safer, stronger building. The organization's priorities include implementing state of the-art design and construction practices for catastrophe prone areas; developing educational programs for building inspectors and urging the introduction of insurance and lending programs that promote the use of durable materials.

Mr Andrew G Sharkey III president and CEO of AISI said "The importance of modernized structures, especially homes, can not be understated. Hurricane Katrina left behind 140,000 uninhabitable housing units, a number that could have been greatly reduced with strict building codes and advanced building practices. Our goal is to ensure that homes, offices, bridges, utility poles and other structures are not only rebuilt, but rebuilt stronger. With enough effort and the help of organizations like ProtectingAmerica.org, we can ensure that unsafe bridges and blue tarp communities are images of the past."

ProtectingAmerica.org was formed in 2005 to lead a concentrated effort to improve the way America prepares for and protects its families, communities, consumers and economy from catastrophe. ProtectingAmerica.org is working to increase public awareness and consumer education, improve building codes, advocate for better land use planning and strengthen first responders.

Siemens Power Generation has been awarded a contract by Shenhua Ningxia Coal Industry Group Co Ltd of China to supply two entrained flow gasifiers with a thermal capacity of 500 MW each and further key equipment for a coal gasification plant Shenhua Ningmei DME project in Ningxia Province in northwestern China for approximately EUR30 million.

When the plant is ready to operate in early 2009, Shenhua Ningmei DME will produce 830,000 tons per year of the clean, environmentally friendly synthetic fuel di methyl ether.

SNCG is a subsidiary of the Shenhua Group, the largest Chinese coal producer.