TATA Steel announced that its wholly owned subsidiary NatSteel Asia Pte Ltd of Singapore has acquired equity shares in the following companies from Southern Steel Berhad of Malaysia.

1. 40% equity interest in NatSteel Trade International Pte Ltd for a cash consideration of SGD 6.538 million (present holding 60%).

2. 50% equity interest in NatSteel (Xiamen) Ltd, formerly known as Southern NatSteel (Xiamen) Ltd for a cash consideration of SGD 19.357 million (present holding 50%).

3. 22.6% equity interest in NatSteel Vina Co Ltd for a cash consideration of SGD 3.105 million (present holding 33.9%).

On completion of the above acquisitions, NatSteel Trade International Pte Ltd and Southern NatSteel (Xiamen) Ltd have become wholly owned subsidiaries of NatSteel Asia Pte Ltd and NatSteel Vina Co Ltd has become its subsidiary with equity holding of 56.5%.

Jindal Stainless Ltd has announced the following unaudited results for the quarter ended December 31st 2006. JSL posted a profit after tax of INR 1130.5 million October to December 2006 as compared to INR 209.4 million during October to December 2005. Its total Income net of excise is INR 14513.8 million as against INR 7116.3 million in October to December 2005.

During the quarter Gross sales in domestic market stood at INR 7441.5 million up by 35.38% YoY as against INR 5496.5 million in Q3 of 2005-06. Exports stood at INR 8007.6 million as compared to INR 2359.9 million in Q3 of 2005-06.

However JSL has said that the results for the corresponding period are not comparable as Orissa plant was not in operation during the corresponding period of the previous year.

Mr VS Jain MD & CEO of JSL told media that "Our Hisar plant operated at 18% higher capacity in the quarter and there was strong demand from both overseas and domestic market in the period, helping the company post good growth in the quarter. We have been able to post a healthy growth despite escalating nickel and scrap costs which are key raw materials in manufacturing stainless steel.

Mr Jain added that Jindal Stainless is exporting to over 30 countries worldwide and we are looking at opportunities across Europe, US, China, South East Asia & CIS countries. The reason of this compounded growth has been our ability to develop grades, which are cost effective and add to margins.

Mr Naveen Patnaik chief minister of Orissa has agreed to talk to agitating tribals at Kalinga Nagar of Jajpur district of Orissa on January 31st 2007 at Bhubaneswar.

Mr Bijay Kumar Patnaik principal secretary in a letter addressed to the district collector of Jajpur said that "The Visthapan Virodhi Janmanch was welcome to have discussion on any of the issues without any pre-condition."

Mr Rabindra Jarika secretary of the Visthapan Virodhi Janmanch had written to Mr Patnaik on January 13 that their organization was ready to hold talks with the government at the highest political level.

Visthapan Virodhi Janmanch has been spearheading the anti displacement agitation at Kalinga Nagar since 13 tribal men and women were killed in police firing on January 2nd 200,when they were opposing against construction of boundary wall of TATA Steels 6 million tonne capacity steel mill project. Total blockade of the area has been enforced by the agitators since the incident, thus stopping any development and construction.

The TATA Power Company Ltd has signed an MoU with the government of Chhattisgarh for the setting up a 1000 MW coal based power plant in the state's coal rich Raigarh district at an investment of INR 5000 crore.

TPC is now in the process of carrying out a detailed feasibility study for the project after a suitable site in the Raigarh has been identified on the basis of preliminary feasibility study.

Mr Prasad Menon MD of TPC said We are happy to make our maiden foray into Chhattisgarh. We believe this will be the beginning of a long and mutually beneficial relationship. With this MoU, TATA Power has taken another step towards its growth plans and increasing its national footprint.

TATA group is planning to set up the power plant in order to feed power to its proposed 5 million tonnes per annum Greenfield integrated steel plant in the Bastar region of the Chattisgarh.

Jindal Stainless Ltd has informed that its board of directors at its meeting held on January 24th 2007 has reappointed Mr Ratan Jindal as vice chairman & MD for a period of 5 years from April 1st 2007 to March 31st 2012, subject to approval of shareho1ders and central government.

It is reported that the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development has extended invitation to some Indian companies for developing coal mines and gas fields in Eastern Europe, Russia and Mongolia.

Mr Jean Lemierre president of EBRD said We have spoken to some of the top companies in India and would like them to invest in East Europe, Russia and Mongolia. Mr Lemierre said that EBRD was willing to partner Indian investment in the coal and gas sectors in East European countries such as the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Romania.

Mr Lemierre said that EBRD has proposed that both the coal and gas sectors could be developed as backward linkages for fueling India's large coastal coal based power projects. He added that We are ready to help Indian investors in developing these interests.

Monnet Ispat and Energy Ltd has recorded a 43.7% increase in its net profit for October to December 2006 quarter by posting INR 43.17 crore as against INR 30.04 crore profit in October to December 2005. MIELs turnover for the quarter at INR 180.24 crore also registered a YoY growth of 49%.

According to an official release by the company work on the power plant of additional 15 MW for taking the total capacity to 60 MW, structural mill of 0.2 million tonnes per annum and 0.5 million tonne sponge iron plant at Raipur is nearing completion and operations are expected to commence during January to March 2006 quarter.

It is reported that the state government of Orissa is contemplating to file a caveat in the Supreme Court on Khandadhar iron ore mining lease issue, so that it gets an opportunity to explain its side of the story, if a case is filed, before court gives a ruling.

Mr Bijay Mohapatra president of OGP recently threatened to move the apex court if the state government pursued the case for POSCO.

State government sent a recommendation fro prospecting license to POSCO, overriding earlier applications from as many 131 companies including public sector Kudremukh Iron Ore Company Limited and Orissa Mining Corporation, which was returned by the central government. In addition 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 to KIOCL few days ago.

Steel Strips Wheels Ltd announced that it has commenced the dispatch against the export order of General Motors at Holden in Australia.

Larsen & Toubro Ltd announced that its construction division ECC has bagged three orders amounting to INR 355 crores from Delhi Metro Rail Corporation for the second phase of the Delhi Metro project. All the 3 contracts will be executed in a stringent time frame of 38 months.

2 of these orders for the Company are direct contracts pertaining to construction of underground stations at Udyog Bhavan and Green Park. In addition to these stations, tunnels of approximately 1 kilometer will be built by the L&T using cut and cover technology.

L&T will execute a third order in association with DYWIDAG, Samsung, Shimizu and IRCON, which involves construction of two underground stations at Hauz Khas and Malviya Nagar. The total length of this tunnel will be 3.10 kilometer and construction will be done by tunnel boring machines. L&T's share of this order is INR 127 crores.

With the successful commissioning of Phase-I of Delhi Metro, DMRC has taken up implementation of Phase-II with 2010 as completion target in time for the Commonwealth Games to be held in New Delhi.

L&T executed the following projects worth INR 700 crores under Phase-I of DMRC
1. Underground Mandi House Station, executed by cut and cover tunnelling method
2. The Yamuna Bridge constructed using the incremental launching technique
3. The elevated rail corridor of 1.65 kilometer between Yamuna Bridge and Tis Hazari including 3.5 kilometer of embankment works
4. Construction of six underground stations and twin tunnel system 6569 meter long under MC-1B in JV with five international contractors
5. Construction of embankment including major and minor bridges in Shahdara-Tis Hazari section.

Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd announced that it has won a turnkey contract from Damodar Valley Corporation to set up two 500MW units at Mejia thermal power station in West Bengal. The project is to be commissioned during the Eleventh Plan period of 2007-2012.

The scope of work includes manufacture, supply, erection, testing and commissioning of steam turbines, generators, boilers, associated auxiliaries, electrical, controls, instrumentations, switchyard and civil works.

Bharat Earth Movers Ltd has announced the following Unaudited results for the quarter ended December 31st 2006:

BEML has posted a net profit of INR 529.7 million for the quarter ended December 31st 2006 as compared to INR 557.8 million for the quarter ended December 31st 2005. Total Income has increased from INR 5289.4 million for the quarter ended December 31st 2005 to INR 5591.1 million for the quarter ended December 31st 2006.

World's biggest mining company BHP Billiton Ltd has announced the production update for October to December quarter of 2006-07, when its iron ore, manganese, alumina and aluminum output rose to records.

BHPBs Iron ore output increased by 11% YoY to 25.4 million tonnes during October to December 2006 period as compared to 22.9 million tonnes in October to December 2006. BHPB said The record results reflect the increased production from the recently expanded Western Australia iron ore operations in response to continuing strong customer demand.'

Production of manganese ore rose by 20% YOY to a record 1.5 million tons and coking coal was little changed at 8.97 million tonnes. Copper output was little changed at 300,700 tons and nickel output fell by 1% YOY.

However BHPB warned about cost pressures on upcoming projects by saying that "While the majority of BHP Billiton's projects remain broadly on schedule, tight labor markets and shortages of equipment and supplies continue to be evident across the resources industry globally and will continue to impact project costs and schedules.

The tax rebate on steel exports by the Chinese government may be further lowered in near future in response to increasing anti dumping charges on flooding Chinese steel exports from both European Union and US.

Mr Luo Bingsheng deputy director of China Iron & Steel Association at a recent ore import conference in Kunming cautioned that China's ballooning steel export has catalyzed a spate of trade frictions from its major destinations including South Korea, EU and U.S. As a result, we have to hold discussions for heading off problems and make efforts to rein in the steel export."

Mr Luo Bingsheng told later to CBN The authority might further cut the tax rebate or abolish it if the steel export in the first two months of this month keeps in line with that of fourth quarter of last year.

The European mills are gearing up for anti dumping actions against steep rise of three Chinese steel imports after US steel producers kept on pressing the administration to restrict influx of Chinese steel imports.

(Sourced from Mysteel.net)

Standard & Poor's Equity Research Services in its semi annual report on the metals industry Metals: Industrials Industry Survey does not see similar growth prospects for the US steel industry in 2007 as strong as in 2006.

S& P sees a number of factors contributing to a decline in demand in US for steel in 2007, including a slower growing US economy, a 2% to 3% decrease in demand from the US auto industry as against an estimated 9% gain in 2006 and a decline in shipments to distributors and OEMs as compared to a projected 4% gain in 2006.

Mr Leo Larkin senior analyst with S&P said "Many of the steel industry's clients are sitting on excess inventory that will take a good portion of the first half of the year to work through. Additionally, the industry is highly leveraged to the US automotive manufacturers, several of which may cut production. When you factor all of this together, it adds up to our negative outlook on the industry.

Mr Larkin added that "The lone bright spot for the industry is non residential construction, but that one market won't be able to offset weakness in other markets in 2007."

World's 2nd biggest zinc producer Zinifex Ltd has signed agreements to explore for the metal in Sweden, Mexico and Tunisia as it seeks to offset falling supplies from its main Australian mine.

Zinifex has concluded agreements with privately owned Mexican company Minera Mariposa to explore in Mexico, with Australian explorer Albidon Ltd to search in Tunisia and Australian Drake Resources Ltd to explore in Sweden.

Mr Greig Gailey CEO of Zinifex said "These exploration agreements are consistent with Zinifex's strategy to vigorously grow our mining business. We anticipate that more will be forthcoming as we seek to build our portfolio of exploration and development projects.'' He said Zinifex was targeting selected regions that were known for hosting economic zinc or poly metallic deposits.

It is reported that the term price for ferrochrome to Japan for January to March quarter has been set at 83 cents a pound, unchanged from the previous quarter after it saw 3 consecutive QoQ increases.

An official of Nippon Steel & Sumikin Stainless Steel Corp said that the price was agreed between several South African miners including Samancor Chrome after protracted price talks between suppliers and buyers started in late December and concluded late last week.

China Metallurgical Group Corp has signed an engineering contract to construct a USD 1.98 billion iron ore project partly owned by Citic Pacific in the Pilbara region of Western Australia. It is expected to be completed within 3 years.

The project includes a 12 million tonne a year iron ore concentrator, a 6 million tonne per year iron ore pellet plant, a desalination plant, thermal power plant and port facilities.

BNamericas reported that Brazilian iron ore miner Mhag is in talks with international investors regarding a 3 million tonnes per annum pellet project and a pellet feed processing plant in Brazil's Rio Grande do Norte state although a specific location is still under study.

Mr Pio Sacchi president of Mhag told BNamericas that investments in the two plants would amount to some USD 200 million and the Mhag would have the majority stake in both projects. He said "We expect to define one partner in about 90 days, who will carry out the project with us.

Mhag operates an iron ore mine in Rio Grande do Norte.

Kobe Steel Ltd plans to invest a total of JPY 5 billion in four projects to upgrade and expand its titanium production facilities as under

1. Construction of additional titanium melt shop at Takasago Works in Hyogo Prefecture with start up in January 2008. The new melt shop will be built adjacent to the current melt shops to stabilize production and improve operational efficiency. Production capacity is anticipated to increase 30% to 40%.

2. Up gradation of the counterblow hammer for closed die forging at Takasago Works in Hyogo Prefecture with start up in May 2007.

3. Higher production capacity of continuous annealing-pickling line at Kakogawa Works in Hyogo Prefecture already in operation since December 2006. Throughput capacity has increased roughly by 30%.

4. Construction of new titanium welded tube line at Kobe Special Tube at Shimonoseki in Yamaguchi Prefecture with start up in May 2007. The new dedicated line will increase production capacity by 30%.

Kobe Steel is one of Japan's top manufacturers of aluminum and copper products and a leading steelmaker in Japan. Other businesses include welding consumables, industrial machinery, engineering, construction equipment and electronic materials. Kobe Steel pioneered Japan's titanium industry when in 1949 it became the first company to begin research and development of this material. With over a half century of experience, Kobe Steel is Japan's only integrated producer of titanium mill products with operations ranging from melting to mill product manufacturing.

SteelBenchmarker reported that the US hot rolled band spot price for January 22nd 2007 fell for the 12th tine in row. The four benchmark prices for hot band included in the January 22nd 2007 report are

1. US
USD 571 per metric ton
Down by USD 7 per ton or 1.2% from USD 578 two weeks ago
Down by USD 127 per ton or 18.1% from the peak of USD 698 on July 24th 2006

2. World Export Price
USD 505 per metric ton FOB the port of export
Up by USD 2 per ton or 0.3% from USD 503 two weeks ago
Down by USD 105 per ton or 17.2% from the peak of USD 610 on June 12th 2006

3. Western Europe
USD 593 per metric ton EXW
Up by USD 12 per ton or 2% from USD 581 two weeks ago
Down by USD 38 per ton or 6% from the peak of USD 631 on July 24th 2006

4. China
USD 423 per metric ton EXW
Up by USD 6 per ton or 1.4% from USD 417 two weeks ago
Down by USD 41 per ton from the peak of USD 464 on June 12th 2006

Twice each month, SteelBenchmarker publishes steel benchmark prices for hot rolled band, cold-rolled coil, rebar, and standard plate in the US, Western Europe, mainland China, and the world export market.

In million tonnes
(Sourced from Mysteel.net)

Reuter has reported that POSCO will raise the prices of 300 grade hot rolled stainless steel products by KRW 200,000 per tonne to KRW 3.71 million per tonne for February shipments.

This move reflects the higher cost of nickel as its prices are soaring.

It is reported that 2 miners are killed and 10 miners trapped for 13 hours were rescued after a flood swept through the tunnel caused it to collapse in a coal mine in Quang Ninh province of Vietnam.

Rescue workers spent 13 hours Tuesday digging out the 10 survivors, who were uninjured.

Dong Bac Coal Mine Corp owns the mine in the country's main coal producing province, which is about 120 miles east of the Vietnams capital Hanoi.

AK Steel Holding Corp posted a wider 4th quarter loss as higher average selling prices failed to offset weaker steel shipments and higher costs. Its losses in October to December 2006 quarter totaled USD 49.3 million as against USD 41.5 million in Q4 of 2005.

As per report its sales in October to December 2006 grew to USD 1.58 billion from USD 1.38 billion in October to December 2005 although shipments fell by 5 % YoY to 1.5 million tons from 1.6 million tons as the average selling prices jumped by 21 %.

BNamericas reported that Arcelor Brazil expects to kick off pig iron production at its Juiz de Fora mini mill during the 1st quarter of 2007 which is undergoing tests now.

As per reports, investment in the project to install two 180,000 tonnes per year blast furnaces amounted to USD 56million. These blast furnaces will reduce the company's dependency on pig iron purchase from the market.

Pakistans Daily Times reported that Pakistans import of iron and steel decreased during the first half of the current financial year. The total import of iron and steel stood at USD 570.52 million in July to December 2006 as compared to USD 685.52 million in July to December 2005 and quantity of imports dipped by 36% YoY.

The reasons attributed to this decrease include decline in the construction activities particularly in the upper parts of Pakistan because of the winter season and enhanced production capacity of Pakistan Steel Mill.

However, the steel importers expect that import would pick up again following the end of the winter season and that the recent governments decision to allow the import of iron and steel from India for construction activities in the earthquake stricken areas would also contribute towards the increased import of the item in the coming days.

Pakistans steel consumption stood at about 4.2 million tonnes last year, out of which Pakistan Steel Mills accounted for about 25% and the rest was imported.

Xinhua News Agency reported that rescue workers have abandoned efforts to find 29 miners trapped for a week in a flooded mine in northern China because of safety concerns and as the water level in the mine has risen despite efforts to pump it out and experts believe there is little chance that any of the trapped miners are still alive.

The flood occurred on January 17th at the Haolaigou Iron Ore Mine near Baotou, when 46 miners were changing shifts. 11 miners escaped right away and 6 more were rescued the next day. The water level has continued to rise since then and the cause of the flood is not known.

Inventory restocking and seasonal supply constraints have increase export price of Chinese coke recently. In December 2006, 12.5% ash content coke increased by USD 10 to USD 13 tonne to stand at USD 173 to USD 178 per tonne FOB, 10.5% ash content coke to USD 195 per tonne FOB and 12.5% ash content small size coke climbed to USD 170 to USD 175 per tonne FOB.

With USD 60 per tonne freight rates for China-Rotterdam route, the coke price reaches USD 240 per tonne C&F. Chinese coke to Brazil posts some USD 200 to USD 210 per tonne C&F.

From a short term perspective, seasonal factors and transportation strains keep Chinese coke export tight, Escalating freight rates add to the transportation cost for China's export while in North America and Europe, the downcast steel market has to some degree curtailed coke demand.

(Sourced from Mysteel.net)

MI reported that Canadas Strategic Resource Acquisition Corporation plans to re-open the cluster of five mines at Gordonsville in Tennessee later this year.

SRA said it will take around 12 months to reactive them and that the mining activity is scheduled to re start in the third quarter of this year with milling at the Gordonsville concentrator scheduled to re start in the first quarter of 2008.

The Gordonsville complex was once owned by Australias Pasminco but shuttered in 2003 when mines were flooded. The mines had produced at a historic rate of around 45,000 tonnes per year of contained zinc in concentrates.

Australian junior Allegiance Mining NL announced that mine operations have started at its Avebury nickel mine in Tasmania ahead of a planned start up to the treatment plant later this year.

Allegiance said contractor Barminco Ltd had started mine development and extracted ore from the main North Avebury deposit. The company is expected to start commissioning the mill in the second half of 2007.

Company noted that it has tried to mitigate the squeeze on Australian mine construction projects by pre ordering key equipment and using local contractors because Tasmania has been less affected by the cost inflation and delays elsewhere in Australia.

Avebury once fully on stream will produce around 8,500 tonne per year of nickel in concentrate and an off take deal has been agreed with Chinas Jinchuan.