Bangladesh media has reported that TATA Group is considering resumption of talks with Bangladesh about its USD 3 billion investment plan in the country with the current caretaker government.

Mr S Manzer Husain resident director Bangladesh of TATA Group after a meeting with Mr Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury foreign affairs adviser of Bangladesh told UBN that "We are exploring the possibility of seeing if we can start off again from where we left last time and come to a good conclusion.

TATA's investment proposals include setting up a 2.4 million tonne steel plant, a fertilizer plant, a 475 MW gas fired power plant and development of Barapukuria coal mine through opencast methodology. The project has remained suspended since last July 2006.

Indian Railway Ministry is reported to have asked for fiscal incentives in the union budget for 2007-08 on rolling stock and other critical equipment as it intends to float a special purpose vehicle for setting up units to manufacture the equipments by formalizing JVs with the private sector.

Indian Railways will be setting up JVs with international original equipment manufacturers for bringing in international technology and expertise while easing the financial burden on the Railways. SPV will be incorporated under the Companies Act and hence attract all the taxes applicable to corporate while products would attract excise duty. The net impact of 33.66 % corporate tax, central sales tax of 4 % and 16.32 % excise would push up the cost of the equipment significantly.

Till now, these products were exempt from all taxes as they were exclusively manufactured by the Indian Railways

Mr Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee CM of West Bengal while inaugurating a mines festival jointly organized by Coal India Limiteds Eastern Coalfields Ltd and Asansol Durgapur Development Association said that the proposed core sector projects in the state need absolute backing from the coal sector and Coal India Limiteds mines need to optimize production without any interruption.

Mr Bhattacharjee said Three major iron and steel projects are expected to come under private participation at Salboni in West Midnapore, Salanpur in Asansol and Purulia. Those projects would require banking upon the CIL mines. Besides the number of sponge iron units operating across the region requires sufficient coal to run their production.

He said that The power sector needs to get expanded at Sagardighi with Chinese collaboration and the NTPC thermal power plant at Farakka is also expanding with Japanese collaboration. The Bakreswar thermal power is likely to come up with yet another unit. These would increase bulk demand of coal at once and the CIL mines would be the lone resort to meet the added demand.

Times News network reported that TATA Power Company is preparing to bid at about USD 1.6 billion for acquiring 30% of Indonesias largest coal firm PT Bumi Resources as a counter Mitsubishis bid of USD 1.32 billion. The report cites a senior official of TPC s saying that We have been asked to submit a binding bid by February end.

Bumi had put a reserve price at USD 1 billion and 5 bidders were short listed including the Reliance Energy and a South Korean power major Kepco.

Sources said the Mumbai based power major may also look at hiking the bid if found necessary.

Acquiring coal mines would help in assured fuel supplies. TATA Power which won the 4,000 MW Mundra ultra mega power project has been scouting for imported coal at cheaper rates as it would need to import around 12 million tonnes of coal annually starting 2012 for the project.

Spanish Gestamp Servicios SL will acquire a 37.5% stake in TATA Auto Comp Systems Ltds subsidiary Automotive Stampings & Assemblies Ltd from Tata Auto Comp Systems Ltd and through an open offer made to ASAL shareholders. An agreement is expected to be signed shortly.

ASAL said that the number of equity shares that Gestamp would acquire from TACO would depend on how much equity shares are tendered by public shareholders in response to the open offer.

TACO holds over 81% in ASAL and the rest is held by institutions, corporate bodies and individuals. Gestamp and TACO will eventually have 50:50 equity stakes in the company.

ASAL provides sheet metal components and welded assemblies to automotive companies from its three manufacturing facilities in India. Its products include inner doors, inner bonnets and cabin parts for three wheelers.

TACO oversees the Tata groups presence in the auto component sector and offers a range of products to automotive vehicle manufacturers. It has 24 manufacturing plants, 5 engineering centers and 3 export oriented units. The group designs and manufactures various components, including seating systems, aluminum radiators, lighting systems, brake discs and braking systems, rear view mirrors and automotive batteries.

Ms Sonia Gandhi Chairperson of National Advisory Council of ruling UPA government laid the foundation stone for a new integrated terminal building and runway at Delhi airport on February 17th 2007. Phase I of the master plan includes construction of a new passenger terminal No 3 which will cater to both domestic and international passengers.

Indira Gandhi International Airport will have 130 check in counters, 74 aerobridges, automated passenger movers, restaurants, shopping joints and a high speed train connection to the city.

Larsen & Toubro has earlier bagged an order worth INR 5,400 crore from the GMR led Delhi International Airport for the expansion and modernization of the Delhi International Airport. The scope of work involves design and construction of a state of the art passenger terminal and one of Asia's longest runways of 4.43 kilometers equipped with CAT III B to be operational in 2008. The contract also involves connecting taxiways, satellite fire lighting facilities, etc.

Business Line reported that Indian Railways has selected Price Waterhouse Coopers to advise it on the process it should prefer for setting up its proposed locomotive, coach and wheel manufacturing factories. The report cites an Indian railway official as saying that "PWC is required to submit an inception report within a fortnight. And the final advisory report has to be submitted within another two and a half months.

On behalf of the Railway Ministry, RITES had invited competitive bids from consulting firms to provide advisory services on development strategy and bid process management for selection of developers for new factories.

Indian Railways has announced plans to set up four new factories to meet its rolling stock requirements. As per reports the plan includes a manufacturing unit for 150 diesel locomotives per year, a manufacturing unit for 120 electric locomotives per year, a factory to manufacture 1,100 passenger coaches per year and a unit to manufacture 100,000 wheel discs per year.

Apart from the above new factories, the Indian Railways plans to increase the production capacities of its coach manufacturing units at Kapurthala and Chennai and also increase production capacities of Diesel Locomotive Works and Chittaranjan Locomotive Works.

The need to have these additional units is driven by the gap between demand for rolling stock and lower production capacity in the country.

Hyderabad based Srinivasa Constructions has been appointed as a contractor for executing the INR 170 crore 24 MW Bhilangana-III hydroelectric power project in Tehri Garhwal district of Uttaranchal by Bhilangana Hydro Power. The project is scheduled for completion by 2008 end.

Bids were invited for civil electro mechanical, hydro mechanical work and procurement packages in September 2006. The agreement is likely to be signed by March 2007 and LOI is likely to be issued soon.

It is reported that Chinas ferroalloy output was 14.33 million tons in 2006 up by 30.9% YoY.

The ferroalloy export volume was 2.359 million tons in 2006 up by 35.9% YoY

China's ferroalloy output has soared sharply due to strong domestic and export demand.

Turkish steel iron and steel products maker Kardemir said it awarded a EUR 25.72 million contract to Chinese QMMC to build and modernize its furnaces in a bid to raise capacity. Kardemir expects the investment to help it double liquid crude iron capacity to 2 million tonnes a year.

The contract envisages the installation of a 450 cubic meter furnace and the upgrade of its existing furnace 1 to be completed in five months.

Kumba announced that it has re commenced drilling on the disputed Faleme iron ore deposit in Senegal with permission from that country's minister of mines. It has also increased its presence in the country by appointing a country manager and opened a branch office.

Mr Ras Myburgh CEO of Kumba said that "We have not progressed on any specific legal impediments or reached conclusions on any discussions."

Faleme is a greenfields project with potential for 12 million tonnes per annum of iron ore production. The country's government and Mittal Steel announced a deal over the same project last year which is where the dispute arose.

It is reported that Interpipes EBITDA during 2006 for pipe production segment is expected to amount to USD 260 million, USD 13 million for wheels and USD 8 million for special steels.

Mr Ihor Yaroslavtsev chairman of the company's consultative council & former CEO during an investment conference in Kiev organized by Renaissance Capital Ukraine said that the corporation increased steel pipe production by 9.4% YoY to 1.236 million tonnes, wheels by 2.6% YoY to 200,000 tons and special steels by 1.3% YoY to 312,000 tons.

Interfax reported that Kemerovo based Stroiservis plans to invest RUB 796 million in 2007 on new machinery and construction of two concentrating facilities with capacity of 1 million tonnes of coal Each. The concentrating facilities at the Shestaki and Barzasskoye strip mines, costing a combined RUB 600 million, are expected to come on stream in September 2007.

Mr Dmitry Nikolayev GD of Stroiservis after signing a socioeconomic cooperation agreement with the Kemerovo regional administration told reporters that the agreement with the regional calls for the company to continue to participate in the implementation of national projects in the region, raise wages and carry out a number of other social obligations.

Stroiservis expects its Kemerovo Region mines to increase coal production by 700,000 tonnes in 2007 to 3.6 million tonnes. Stroiservis' other two strip mines in the region are Permyakovsky and Berezovsky.

The Stroiservis group is controlled by Mr Nikolayev and other executives. Besides coal mines, the Stroiservis group also includes service and engineering businesses including metals trade and it also acts as a management company.

It is reported that Taiwans bureau of foreign trade is thinking to extend the open policy of import of wire rods from China, which expired at the end of last September.

Taiwanese wire rod producers hold the different opinions and express their strong objection to the bureau of foreign trades move saying that their production already decreased after implementation of the open policy in last 3 years.

Philippines second largest miner Atlas Consolidated Mining & Development Corp has announced that it is planning to ship 45,000 metric tons of low grade nickel ore from the Philippines to China this month.

Mr Martin Buckingham executive VP of Atlas said that the company exported 19,000 tons of the ore to China from its Berong mine in January 2007. He said "China is where most of the demand is."

Laterite ores, containing nickel and cobalt, are processed using blast furnaces into nickel pig iron, containing about one to three percent nickel that can be used by stainless steel makers to produce goods such as sinks, cutlery, pots, pans and appliances.

China increased production of nickel from low cost laterite ores last year as the price of the refined metal surged. China's imports of low grade nickel ores from the Philippines may reduce pressure on global stockpiles of the refined metal, which fell to the lowest in 15 years on February 6th 2007.

Platts has reported that Chinese zinc and lead producer Hechi Nanfang Nonferrous Metal Smelt Co Ltd is not expected to see its production much affected by the explosion at one of its zinc furnaces at southwest China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region in which 2 people were killed and 4 injured.

An official of Hechi Nanfang said that only one furnace was damaged so production will not be much affected. He said We still have other furnaces working and operation is as per normal. We continued operations even on the day itself, soon after the blast happened. Our lead production is located at another plant, so that was not affected at all. There will be slight impact on zinc, but we are still reviewing the issue now and cannot say for certain how much output may be impacted. We can only say it will be minimal."

Hechi Nanfang Nonferrous Metal Smelt's production capacity includes 80,000 million tonnes per year of refined lead, 80,000 million tonnes per year of zinc ingot, 10,000 million tonnes per year of antimony, and 120 to 150 million tonnes per year of silver. The company was in the process of expanding zinc capacity by another 80,000 million tonnes per year in 2006.

It is reported that 3 official of PT koba were charged by the police for illegal mining and Indonesian police has remanded the 3 officials and sealed the company's warehouses and an accounting section in Bangka Belitung, on suspicions that the company collected tin ore from small scale miners operating outside its contract work area.

Indonesian police said that they have sufficient evidence to file charges against them and also detained about 700 tonnes of tin worth about USD 8.9 million at current prices suspected to have been refined from illegally sourced ore.

In the meantime, the PT Koba will be allowed to continue mining and smelting tin concentrates from its own dredging and gravel pump operations and export tin. Koba produces around 24,000 tons of tin a year.

As a result of the investigations, parent company Malaysia Smelting Corp Bhd announced that PT Koba Tin would claim force majeure on its tin shipments to customers.

Centennial Coal has rejected claims by environmentalists that its proposed Anvil Hill open cut mine in the New South Wales upper Hunter Valley may not be viable.

Ms Katie Brassil spokeswoman of Centennial Coal said that the costs will have no real impact on the economic viability of the mine. She said "It's a hypothetical value. That cost is not attributed to the producer.

As part of the proposal's environmental assessment, the company has included a cost analysis on the value of carbon dioxide emissions at AUD 10 per tonne but the planning department has received public submissions supporting moves to increase that value to AUD 109 per tonne.

Greenpeace said that Centennial should be forced to bear the extra cost because the estimate is higher than its prediction.

Australian Aviva Corporation Ltd has signed a letter of agreement with Mawana Minerals Ltd of Botswana to enter into a JV over the Mmamantswe Coal Project located 70 kilometer north of the capital Gaborone.

As per the agreement Aviva will spend USD 0.5 million over 18 months upon which Mawana will grant it an option to earn a 90% JV interest in the project after payment of USD 0.5 million and the completion of a bankable feasibility study. In addition Mawana will be free carried to production on its 10% interest and will have the right to take up a further 15% on a fully funded basis.

Mr Lindsay Reed CEO of Aviva said that "We have established a team of energy experts to develop the Central West Coal project in Western Australia and have access to this team to advance the Mmamantswe Project. A 12 month exploration and development plan for the Mmamantswe Project are currently being formulated with a drilling and quality testing program scheduled for the second quarter of 2007.

The Mmamantswe Coal Project tenement area is positioned between the major infrastructure corridor of Botswana and the South African border. Rail, power and highway links to Gaborone and South Africa pass within 30 kilometer of the coal deposit. The Botswana Department of Geological Survey has published an inventory of 598 million tonnes of coal within the tenement area and puts the potential of the area at over 2 billion tonnes.

YIEH reported that a new steel processing facility at Hong Kong is underway at USD 40 million investments by YUSCO, Yieh Phui, Yieh Mau of E-United Group and Rising Metals. The construction is expected to be finished by the end of 2007.

Initially the facility will focus on plate cutting for stainless steel and galvanized steel. Later it plans to enlarge the capacity of this factory by adding a cold rolling production line.

Russian telecom company Summa announced that it is planning to spend USD 250 million to develop zinc and lead deposit and build an ore concentrator in the far eastern Yakutia region to produce around 300,000 tonne per year of zinc and 100,000 tonne per year of lead concentrate.

Siberian Non Ferrous Metals a unit of privately owned Summa won an auction on January 31st 2007 to develop the Sardana deposit with a bid of RUB 159.6 million and hopes to complete prospecting work at the deposit within 5 years and start producing concentrates in 2014.The deposit is estimated to contain 1.9 million tonne of zinc and 0.6 million tonne of lead, although reserves could contain up to 2.2 million tonne of zinc and 0.8 million tonne of lead.

As per report construction of an ore enrichment plant will require USD150 million and the remainder will be invested in the infrastructure necessary to transport concentrates

Summa plans to sell the concentrates to consumers in Russia, Kazakhstan, Japan, China and South Korea.

If domestic demand for zinc and lead rises significantly it may consider building a lead and zinc smelter in the south of Yakutia.

FIS reported that Russia's first electric furnace with the conveyor feeding of metal charge will be installed at Asha metallurgical plant.

This decision was made by AMZs board after the visit of the plant's representatives to one of US metallurgical enterprises operating a similar system.

Outokumpu has opened a wholly owned dedicated stainless steel sales office at Istanbul in Turkey as its latest addition to Outokumpus worldwide sales network. Mr Ugur Arpaci is heading the new Turkish sales office.

Outokumpu said The new sales company will continue to maintain excellent relationships with current customers coordinate sales from all Outokumpu business units and also provide technical expertise to support market development and help in material selection for major projects. Outokumpu has always provided this service, but now it will be supported locally with responses given more quickly and in the clients own language.

US Environmental Protection Agency and US Department of Justice have reached an agreement with WCI Steel Inc on measures to protect migratory birds and other wildlife from oily waste found in impoundments on its property. As per report WCI steel will also pay a USD 620,000 penalty through a related bankruptcy proceeding.

The order was based in part on inspections by the US Fish and Wildlife Service and the EPA. The inspectors found 34 dead birds and bats at the site. The consent decree resolves a 2002 order that required WCI to remove oily waste from 11 impoundments.

Wildlife protection measures of the agreement include installing netting over two impoundments, implementing fire risk and oil management plans, removing sludge and adding to the existing wildlife deterrent system at the facility. WCI has completely removed eight of the 11 impoundments subject to the original 2002 order.

WCI Steel is a manufacturer of custom flat rolled steel products and occupies 1,100 acres in Ohio. The company recently reorganized under bankruptcy laws.