Steel Authority of India Limited is expanding its dealer network in South India with the appointment of 92 district dealers in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Pondicherry, Andaman & Nicobar Islands and Lakshadweep.

The main objective of expansion is to increase steel consumption by making it available in rural areas at competitive prices. The dealers would work as partners and supplement marketing efforts to reach SAIL steel to rural areas of South India.

Mr Ram Vilas Paswan union minister of Chemicals & Fertilizers and Steel has urged the ministry of mines to allot the mining lease of Khandadhar Mine in Orissa to Kudremukh Iron Ore Company Ltd. The mines ministry is studying a proposal sent by the Orissa government seeking to reserve prospecting license of these mines for POSCO.

Mr Paswan in a communication addressed to Mr Sis Ram Ola the minister of mines has drawn his attention to the Orissa Governments reported decision to forward the application of POSCO for a prospecting license to the central government. Mr Paswan pointed out that KIOCL has already done the prospecting work in Khandadhar mining area and under Section 11(1) of the Mines and Mineral (Development and Regulation) Act, 1957 has a preferential right for allotment of the Mining Lease.

Mr Paswan has expressed hope that legitimate interests of KIOCL to be considered for the greater interest of the workers.

JSW Steel Ltd plans to expand its manufacturing capacity to 31 million tonnes over the next decade with an overall investment of INR 85,000 crore. Mr Sajjan Jindal vice CMD of JSW while speaking in the sidelines of an ASSOCHAM conference said that by 2020 we are expecting to have a total capacity of 31 million tonnes from our plants in Karnataka, West Bengal and another in Jharkhand.

Mr Sajjan Jindal said that 10 million tonne would be produced from the proposed plant in Jharkhand, to be set up with an investment of INR 35,000 crore for which the company is looking for locations in the State.

He added that another 10 million tonne would come from JSW's plant in Midnapur in West Bengal for which MoU has bee signed earlier with the West Bengal Government for an investment of INR 35,000 crore with INR 10,000 crore in the first phase of the project.

JSW would also expand the capacity at its plants in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka with the combined capacity at the two plants to 11 million tonne by 2010 from the existing capacity of 5 million tonne.with total investment in the two existing plants would be INR 16,000 crore.

The company will make the investments through a mix of debt, internal accruals and equity partnerships

PTI reported that the steel ministry, in a cabinet note, has favored earmarking certain iron ore mines in mineral rich states for steel makers out of these states.

The ministry pointed out that the Hoda Committees suggestion to grant captive mines to those steel producers, who do not have mines in the mineral rich states, will leave out even major plants located outside these states both in government and private sector and asked for amending of the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act 1957 accordingly. As per reports, the note said that One way can be to enable the central government through the amended Act to have powers to reserve certain areas within each mineral producing state to save existing capacities outside the state.

The Ministry also opposed the Hoda Committees suggestion on doing away with the powers of the Centre in reserving mines for central and state PSUs. It said This provision needs to stay in view of the fact that public sector units in mining and steel sectors have a substantial presence in the country and this is likely to continue even in future.

The Workers Federation of the National Mineral Development Corporation Ltd has opposed the Chhattisgarh Government's move of taking away NMDCs lease for Bailadila Deposit No 3 and allots to Essar Steel and said that the workers will oppose the entry of Essar or any private party in Bailadila complex to weaken NMDC.

The workers federation in a press release said "While the lease of the deposit 3 is still with NMDC, the state government, on an unfortunate pretext to favor Essar, declared arbitrarily that the lease as lapsed category discarding all the arguments put forth by NMDC.

The release adds that "The unfortunate part is that even while the issue was adjudicated at the Mines Tribunal, for which notices have been issued, even the Ministry of Mines succumbed to the pressure of Chhattisgarh Government without holding even a single hearing by the Tribunal to deny NMDC the opportunity of presenting its views.

Earlier attempts to sell 11B deposit of Bailadila to private companies was resisted and fought by the workers. The NMDC has been operating mines at Bailadila complex over the last three decades, the release added.

The investment requirements of the Indias power sector or creation of a fresh generation capacity of 68,000 MW, grid network for transmission and distribution during the Eleventh Plan are estimated at USD 100 billion.

Mr RV Shahi power secretary said "Of the total amount, USD 50 billion will alone be needed for raising the generation capacity, while about USD 30 billion would be necessary for expanding the transmission network and another USD 20 billion will have to be invested in the rural electrification programme and distribution.

He said, a major portion of the 68,000 MW additional generation capacities would be from thermal power plants based on coal while non conventional energy sources would account for about 10,000 MW and the capacity of captive power plants would be about 6,000 to 7,000 MW.

ET has reported that Man Industries is examining feasibility for setting up a USD 50 million saw pipe manufacturing and coating units with a capacity of about 300,000 tonne per annum on the south coast of the US to target targeting the US market including Latin America.

Mr Somnath Roy chief executive project of Man Industries told ET that India has emerged as one of the four global hubs for pipe production along with Japan, China and Europe. We want to leverage on our cost and logistics advantage and see opportunities in the US, West Asia and East Europe.

As per reports, Man Industries expects to increase revenues by about 50% to INR 1,250 crore in 2006-07 from its production units at Anjar in Gujarat and Pithampur in Madhya Pradesh. Man Industries is investing INR 80 crore to increase the capacity of its helical SAW pipes by about 600 kilometers at Anjar plant to take total capacity, including that of the longitudinal saw pipes to 2,600 kilometers per year.

As per media report, Indian government is considering a proposal according to which a private investor requiring more than 100 acres of land for an enterprise will have to provide for an equity stake to the respective state government considering the value of the land to be the equity contribution by the state.

This move would ensure that the ownership of land remains with states and could lead to more sustainable economic reforms in rural areas as almost all state governments are planning usage change of rural land for industrial purposes.

The move has been prompted by the recent controversies over acquisition of agricultural land for special economic zones.

It is reported that Indian government has identified 14 transmission projects, worth between Rs 200 crore to Rs 4,000 crore, amounting to Rs 20,000 crore of investment for development by private transmission developers. Till now, private involvement in the transmission segment has been through joint ventures with Power Grid Corporation India Limited, which will also have to bid for these projects now.

The projects are to be awarded to developers on a build own operate basis. The ministry of power has appointed Power Finance Corporation and Rural Electrification Corporation as nodal agencies for doing the initial groundwork for these projects.

PFC and REC will set up special purpose vehicles for each of the transmission projects, which will publish detailed project reports for each of these lines. The SPV will also help with the land acquisition, forest clearance and may initiate other clearances that will be required. The shell company will also initiate process for the right of way clearances. It will also help in the evaluation of bids and the award process. The SPV will be transferred to the developer with the lowest tariff based bids. All costs incurred by the SPV will then be borne by the selected developer.

The first of the projects to go on the block will be the INR 4000 crore evacuation lines for north Karanpura and INR 1000 crore Talcher-Kolar augmentation project with REC being the nodal agency for these projects.

The union commerce & industry minister has estimated that FDI inflows during 2006-07 could reach USD 12 billion considering only the equity route and if retained earnings were considered, this figure could go up to USD 15 billion.

During April to November period of 2006-07, FDI inflows through the equity route alone reached USD 7.3 billion, a 117 % increase over the USD 3.5 billion in the like period of 2005-06.

It would be the first time when FDI inflow would surpass investment through the foreign institutional investor route.

It is reported that India Power Fund, a venture capital fund of Power Finance Corporation, will be operational before the end of the current fiscal year.

Mr VK Garg CMD of PFC said, India Power Fund will be operational this fiscal waiting for the partners to agree. We are waiting for the partners to agree. LIC is already participating.

India Power Fund was announced in February 2004 by the government to meet the shortfall in equity needs for the power sector. The power sector will need an investment of more than USD 100 billion to add 68,000 MW of additional generation capacity by 2012 besides investments for transmission and distribution network.

The power ministry has sought an income tax exemption of 20% of the total contribution for five years to the fund as it feels that tax break will help mop up resources.

PSL Ltd announced a 54.5 % rise in net profit during October to December quarter. PSL reported a net profit of INR 208 million on net sales of INR 4.99 billion in the October to December quarter.

Mr Ashok Punj MD of PSL attributed the surge in profits to a buoyant market and soft steel prices. He said that "We are hopeful that the upcoming financial year will see a boom in the pipeline industry,"

Mr Ashok Punj said that PSL has bid for several projects in India and abroad in the USD 300 to USD 400 million ranges and some of these would be awarded in the next 2 to 3 months. He added that "If we are able to secure 50 % of the bids we have made, we will see a quantum jump in our topline

TATA Metaliks has posted a net loss of INR 1.12 crore for October to December 2006 period as compared to a net profit of INR 7.2 crore in October to December 2005 period. Its net sales for the quarter increased by 59.71% YoY to INR 147.9 crore and total income increased 62.13% YoY to INR 151.6 crore.

TATA Metaliks has attributed the loss to the shutdown of its main blast furnace at Kharagpur in October 2006.

It is reported that Mundra Port and SEZ Ltd has registered an all time high throughput of 4.245 million tonnes during October to December 2006 up by 89.22 % YoY over the corresponding period of 2005

Mundra Port s cumulative handling during April to December 2006 has been an all time high of 9.233 million tonnes as compared to 3.057 million tonnes over the corresponding period in 2005.

It is reported that National Highways Authority of India has issued letters recently to Essar consortium canceling two national highways projects in Karnataka.

Essar along with Malaysian firm UEM had bagged two national highways projects in Karnataka in 2002 for completion by December 2004 but even 30% of the project was not completed.

The projects involved four laning of 77 kilometer long Chitradurga to Harihar section and the 56 Kilometer long Harihar to Haveri section in National Highways IV. The projects, funded by Asian Development Bank were valued at INR 466 crore spending INR 265 crore for Chitradurgato Harihar section and INR 201 crore for Harihar to Haveri section.

Reliance Petroleum has confirmed a major order for a Sandvik steel belt based Rotoform pastillation plant for its Jamnagar refinery complex in Gujarat, which is scheduled for commissioning by February 2008.

The order includes 8 Sandvik Rotoform HS, pastillation systems, complete conveying, storage and loading facilities as well as the control system.

TATA Steel and Companhia Siderurgica Nacional shall be gearing up for the start of bidding war for Corus as UKs Takeover Panel has ruled the two companies have until January 30th 2007 to make revised offers and lot of action is likely to be seen in next 10 days.

The Sunday Telegraph reported that CSN has secured further funding for increasing its 515 pence a share offer for Corus from Goldman Sachs and Citigroup. Whereas, reports in Indias Economic Times had suggested last week that TATA steel is preparing to lift its bid in two stages to as high as 600 pence a share.

Both TATA Steel and CSN would like to wait till the last minute to cut the reaction time for the rival bidder but might not like to delay any hike in the bid to a point when the regulators step in with their auction process as the UK Takeover Panel could ask for a minimum increase of anything between 25 pence and 50 pence between each offer if the battle is resolved under the hammer.

Corus, which was formed when British Steel merged with Dutch Hoogovens in 1999, became the subject of a bidding war when it backed 455 pence a share offer from TATA Steel in October 2006, followed by last offer of 515 pence per share from CSN.

Grange Resources Ltd announced that it has been granted a manufacturing license and environmental approval by the Malaysian government for its USD 550 million 6.8 million tonnes per year iron ore pellet plant at Kemaman in Malaysia.
Grange Resourcess project will process ore from the company's Southdown iron ore project in southern Western Australia, which contains 76 million tonnes of magnetite ore grading 37.4% magnetite.

It is reported that Arcelor Mittal and Laiwu Steel have extended their deadline for the stalled purchase to take place until June 30th 2007 as their share transfer agreement is still being reviewed by the relevant government departments.

Laiwu said in a brief statement to the Shanghai Stock Exchange on Saturday that If on that date there is a reasonable chance that the deal will go through in the near future, the deadline will be extended further to September 30th 2007.

Arcelor agreed last February to buy a 38.41 % stake in Laiwu, China's eighth biggest steel firm and the acquisition was to be completed by March 31st 2007.

The deal has so far failed to win approval by the Chinese government, and it is opposed by the influential China Iron and Steel Association, which represents most of China's mills, on the grounds that it would give too much control to a foreign company.

If Beijing approves the deal, Arcelor Mittal will own stakes in two of China's leading steel firms Laiwu and Valin Steel Tube and Wire, which has been bought by Mittal. In each case it would have just short of a controlling stake.

The World Bureau of Metal Statistics reported last week that the global tin market was in a deficit of 7,600 tonnes during January to November 2006 after allowing for deliveries from US stockpiles.

WBMS said that global demand rose by 38,000 tonnes, with increases recorded in China of 18%, Japan of 17% and the US of 9%. Tin mine production was just over 314,600 tonnes up almost by 4% above the total for the previous year, but the Global tin demand totaled 356,600 tons.

In November, world refined tin production was 31,900 tonnes and demand was 31,500 tonnes.

It is reported that European Bank for Reconstruction and Development is lending EUR 10 million to Tenariss SC Donasid SA for completing restructuring at its plant at Calarasi in South East of Romania.

Initial investments by Tenaris helped restart the plant in 2006 to produce its current quantity of steel billets. The loan will finance mainly technological upgrades that will help increase production of steel billets from a current 300,000 tonnes per year to its full potential of 450,000 tonnes. The steel billets produced by Donasid will be mostly delivered to Tenaris Silcotub located in Zalau and will be used in the production of its high quality seamless steel pipes.

Mr Hildegard Gacek director of EBRD for Romania said that the loan would help restructure Donasid to turn it into a successful industrial enterprise. He said With a number of industrial restructurings and privatizations remaining in the country and the loan should demonstrate to other investors the successful role the EBRD can play as a partner.

Mr Paolo Bassetti executive VP of Tenaris operations in Romania said that the EBRD loan is important in helping Tenaris realize its strategy to increase production of steel billets that will in turn help produce more seamless steel pipes at Silcotub.

Donasid was acquired in 2005 by Tenaris, which is world's leading manufacturer of seamless tubular products and services for the oil & gas industry, power plants, specialized industrial and automotive applications.

Ukraine's biggest steel mill Mittal Steel Kriviy Rih announced that it has increased its steel output by 8.8% YoY to 7.6 million tonnes in 2006.

Mittal Steel Kriviy Rih also increased rolled steel output by 12.3% YoY to 6.9 million tonnes and boosted pig iron production by 10.5% YoY to 6.8 million tonnes.

Mittal Steel Kriviy Rihs iron ore output also increased by 14.2% YoY to 20.2 million tonnes.

China has become the world's largest stainless steel producer with its output exceeding 5 millions tons in 2006 for the first time up by 60 % over 2005 as against the world average of 14%. China's stainless steel production capacity reached 12 million tons by December 2006 with no less than 20 new plants to commence production this year.

China's National Development and Reform Commission attributed the production boom to a projects approved in 2005 involving Taiyuan Steel, Baosteel and Jiuquan Iron and Steel Group.

The world's total stainless steel output is expected to hit 27.8 million tonnes in 2006 about 3.4 million tons more than in 2005.

Akron Recycling, which has operations in Akron and Barberton, has been acquired by PSC Metals Inc. of Cleveland. PSC said the acquisition will combine with a new Canton unit to buy, sell and process products to scrap metal consumers. The sale price was not disclosed and the deal should close in the near future

Mr Joseph King VP and general counsel for PSC Metals said that two yards are now owned by Ravenna Salvage Inc, which does business as Akron Recycling. The sale price was not disclosed. About 45 Akron Recycling employees will stay on their jobs with PSC Metals.

Mr Don Schnackel owner of Akron Recycling will keep his iron processing business and operate it under the name Akron Iron & Metal LLC.

It is reported that Indonesias Department of Industry is supporting PT Cakra Steel to establish a special steel factory in partnership with Nippon Steel Co.

Mr Ansari Bukhari DG of metal, machineries, textile and multifarious industries at the department of industry said that One of the conditions is the availability of iron ore raw materials in Indonesia and in order to smoothen the investment plan, Cakra Steel must fully comprehend the terms and conditions that Nippon Steel has proposed. However, Mr Ansari clarified that the government was only acting as the facilitator.

The partnership is intended to reduce import dependency on special steel by the automotive and electronic sectors. Each year, these sectors import special steel valued to USD 1 billion or USD 1.5 million tons in volume.

RIA Novosti recently reported a state commission investigating fire which broke out in a rolling section at the Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Works causing part of the roof to collapse killing 8 people and injuring 10 has so far failed to determine the cause of the fire and has not discovered any violations of the standard technological cycle.

The commission has established that polypropylene used in the plant's pickling section caught fire and a short circuit has also not been ruled out.

The watchdog also said the collapse of the roof was caused by the deformation of the building's load bearing frames due to the extremely high temperatures caused by the fire.

Earlier it was reported that human error might be to blame for the accident, as technical reasons had been ruled out.

TMKs Severskij Tube has awarded SMS Demag a contract for the supply of 1 million tonne per year capacity electric arc furnace meltshop to replace the present Siemens-Martin steelworks completely. The commissioning is scheduled to take place at the end of 2007.

Scope of supply includes a 135 tonne electric arc furnace of the newly developed ARCCESS type, scrap yard equipment, a dedusting plant, additives supply system, filter dust injection equipment, complete electrical equipments including process control system and the technological process model for the furnace process.

Severskij Tube has already successfully commissioned ladle furnace and a bloom caster which is currently under erection.

The TMK Group is one of the largest producers of pipe steel grades for Russias oil, gas and building industry, with production concentrated in the Volsky, Taganrog and Severskij works.

It is reported that Jinan Steel produced 11.24 million tons of steel, 9.52 million tons of iron and 10.92 million tons of steel products in 2006, increasing 7.86%, 13.1% and 35.41% respectively YoY. Jinan exported 1.58 million tons of steel products valued at USD 660 million.

Jinan realized sales revenue of RMB 43 billion, pretax profit of RMB 4 billion and profit of RMB 2 billion up by 11.4%, 17.4% and 4.7% respectively YoY and its total cost of comparable products was lowered by 3.7%.

(Source from Mysteel.net)

It is reported that Romanian seamless stainless tube maker Tubinox has returned to the market under new ownership after being closed for several years.

Tubinoxs cold finishing operations resumed at the end of 2006 and the hot extrusion is expected to start in the second quarter of 2007.

Following full resumption of operations, Tubinox's production range will be bright annealed and heat resistant tube, tube for machining, and cold finished, polished, annealed and pickled tube in diameters of 8mm to 144mm with wall thicknesses range of 1mm to 12mm.

Mr Felipe Calderon president of Mexico has promised to recover the remains of 63 coal miners killed nearly a year ago in a northern Mexico mine blast and to find who was responsible for the tragedy. Mr Calderon told a group of the miners' relatives I have given orders for the Labor Department to continue the investigation and fix responsibility for the disaster.

Last month, Coahuila state prosecutors said they would seek to charge 10 mine managers and federal government inspectors with homicide, after investigators allegedly found they did not correct unsafe conditions detected eight months before the blast.

An underground explosion at the Grupo Mexico coal mine on February 19th 2006 in northern Coahuila killed 65 miners and rescuers have recovered the remains of only 2 miners so far due to difficult conditions in the underground mine.

It is reported that Morgan Construction Co will build and install a new wire rolling line to an existing bar and wire rod mill for CMC Zawiercie.

The line will consist of a 4 stand reducing sizing mill and 10 stand wire rod block capable of producing product from 5mm to 25mm in diameter. The new wire rod block and reducing sizing mill will increase the CMC Zawiercies production of wire rods to 150 tonnes per hour or 110 meters per second.

The new line should increase rolling capacity by approximately 100,000 tonnes per year and produce coil sizes up to 3 tonnes.

MNA reported that exports from the Mobarakeh Steel Complex are expected to hit around one million tons by the time Irans calendar year ends on March 20th 2007.

Mr Mohammad Rajaii MD of MSC said that given the domestic demands for the commodity and foreign markets situation, the amount of the exports from the company has not changed in comparison with the last year.

Interfax reported that China Shenhua Energy Co Ltd announced recently that its raw coal output in 2006 rose by 12.5 % YoY to 136.6 million tons as compared to the previous year while its electricity output leapt by 41.3 % to 55.36 million MW hours.

The Vietnam Steel Association and relevant agencies are considering a proposal for a lawsuit against a Philippine exporter of cold rolled steel to Vietnam for fraudulent trade activities.

As per VSA, more than 41,000 tonnes of CRC steel worth nearly USD 24 million was imported into Vietnam by Globe Steel Company during January to August 2006 with the common effective preferential tariff rate of 0% applicable for CRC of ASEAN origin while the FMN preferential import tax on this produce was 7%.

A CRC product is recognized of ASEAN origin provided it has 40% content from ASEAN source or manufactured from HRC produced in the same country. If the producers just make CRC from HRC, the product just has the ASEAN made content of less than 20%.

As per reports, Global Steel, which was the provider of the CRC consignments, must not have the ASEAN made content of more than 40%, because it just began making HRC in April 2006 in a trial basis.

Vietnams General Department of Customs had a meeting with representatives from the Ministries of Trade, Finance, VSA and local steel producers last week to consult on how to deal with the CRC imports from the Philippines. GDC has asked for the help from the Philippines customs.

LOI Thermprocess GmbH is to modernize a total of 10 annealing bases and 5 heating hoods for Arcelor Eisenhttenstadt GmbH. It is and expected to complete by the end of 2007.

Arcelor Eisenhttenstadts BAFs are to be equipped with new hydraulic clamping systems to improve safety and oxygen sensors to monitor the furnace atmosphere. In addition a decentralized combustion air supply system is to be installed to enhance energy efficiency.

The plant was supplied 20 years ago by LOIs then subsidiary Nassheuer LOI and is designed for a maximum stack weight of 125 tons per base.

Arcelor Eisenhttenstadt is a company of the Arcelor Mittal Group and supplies steel to automobile, domestic appliance and construction segments.

Peru's fourth largest zinc producer Compania Minera Milpo will start producing at its USD 65 million Cerro Lindo poly metallic project in May 2007, as 60% of the construction is complete on the mine.

Cerro Lindo, will process 5,000 million tonne of ore per day. The deposit is expected to produce 110,000 million tonne of zinc concentrates, 12,500 million tonne of lead concentrates and 8,500 million tonne of copper concentrates annually. The deposit's proven reserves are 5 million million tonne grading 6.7% zinc and 2.16% lead.

With Cerro Lindo on stream, Milpo will process around 20,000 of ore per day,. Milpo also operates the El Porvenir mine in the central Andes, the Chapi mine in southern Peru and the Ivan mine in Chile.

According to figures from the Energy and Mines Ministry, Milpo produced 84,241 tonnes of zinc in the first 11 months of 2006 down by 13.7% YoY. It also produced 19,926 tonnes of fine lead and 6,507 tonnes of fine copper.

Interfax reported that NPRO Urals Bakalskoye an iron ore mining company in the Chelyabinsk region plans to increase output of commercial product by 8.2% YoY to 1.35 million tonnes in 2007.

As per report, Bakalskoye plans to increase production of roasted siderite concentrate by 9.8% to 860,000 tonnes and output of sintered siderite by 14.8% to 490,000 tonnes. Iron content in roasted siderite and sintered siderite amounted to respectively 46.57% and 30.27%.

Bakalskoye mined 1.788 million tonnes of ore in 2006 24.1% YoY more than in 2005. Its commercial output in 2006 increased by 10.3% YoY to 1.248 million tonnes.

Bakalskoye Mining operates 7 mines, as well as the Sideritovaya mine. NPRO Ural became Bakalskoye's principal shareholder in 2001.

Mr Jerry Moyes, who founded Swift Transportation Co more than 40 years ago with his father and brother, plans to buy the company for USD 2.74 billion for regaining control of the 3rd largest trucking company in US. Swift's board of directors unanimously approved the transaction. Pending shareholder approval, the deal is set to be finalized in the second quarter of 2007.

Mr Moyes reached a deal on Friday to pay USD 31.55 per share in cash to take the company private. His group, which includes family members, also will assume USD 332 million in debt. Through various trusts, the Moyes family still controls about 40 percent of Swift.

Mr Moyes said that he had considered regaining control of Swift since being forced out as chief executive officer in October 2005 after an SEC investigation into insider trading. He paid a $1.26 million settlement without admitting or denying wrongdoing and was removed from his post two months before he planned to retire. The board had rejected Mr Moyes' cash offer of USD 29 a share in November but left the door open for a higher bid.

Swift Transportation began with one truck in 1966, transporting steel through the port of Los Angeles to Arizona and exporting cotton from Arizona to Los Angeles. By 1990, the company had annual revenue of USD 125 million and 800 trucks. It now counts 17,900 trucks and nearly USD 3.2 billion in revenues.

Interfax has reported that SUEKs Vostsibugol mined 10.076 million tonnes of coal in 2006 which is 10%less than in the previous year. As per report production fell because Power Company Irkutskenergo the biggest customer in the region bought less coal than expected in the 3rd quarter and stripping operations declined by 0.9% to 36.241 million tonnes in2006.

Vostsibugols Buryatia mine increased production by 9.8% YoY to 5.265 million tonnes and those in the Chita region boosted output by 24.6% YoY to 4.490 million tonnes. Stripping operations increased by 30.6% and 81.3% respectively to 17.031 million tonnes and 7.850 million tonnes.