It is reported that a cabinet note, prepared by the mines ministry, titled National Mineral Policy 2007, on the lines of recommendations of the Hoda Committee with some modifications, has been submitted to the union cabinet and is likely to be examined after the union budget.

As per reports, the proposal excludes almost 15 million tonne of steel capacity in India from the access to captive mining of iron ore as it recommends that captive capacity should be allotted to steel makers who have their steel making facilities in the states that have ore reserves. The policy mandates that steel makers who are based in states that do not have iron ore should depend on independent mining companies for the supply of ore.

Essar Steel, Ispat Industries Limited and Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Ltd are situated in states that do not have iron ore reserves and Jindal have around 30% of their capacities in states that do not have iron ore. SAILs plants in Durgapur and Burnpur are in West Bengal which does not have any iron ore. These capacities add up to about 15 million tonnes.

The Hoda Committee had recommended a large scale opening up of the mining sector and had urged for creating global norms for mining in India.

It is reported that Mr Alan Carpenter the premier of Western Australia met Mr B Muthuraman MD of TATA Steel last week and discussed possibilities of participation of TATA Steel in developing the considerable iron ore reserves of Western Australia and that a team from TATA Steel is expected to visit Western Australia soon to look for possible opportunities.

Mr Carpenter said We are talking to TATA Steel. One of our ambitions is to set up a steel mill in the state and more facilities to process iron ore and add value to it.

Western Australia exports about 200 million tonne of iron ore every year and plans to double it within a few years. It is known for its iron ore, gold and alumina reserves and hosts global mining majors like Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton.

It is reported that Orissa government's move to grant prospecting license of Khandadhar iron ore mines in the state to POSCO for its proposed 12 million tonne steel plant has hit another roadblock as Kudremukh Iron Ore Company has filed a case in the Orissa High Court opposing the move.

KIOCL was among about 130 applicants for the Khandadhar mines, which were overlooked by the Orissa government while recommending prospecting license of Khandadhar iron ore mines to the central government although KIOCL has incurred huge expenses in the initial survey of the deposit.

The Orissa government had recommended to the central government for grant of license to prospect 6,200 hectare iron ore bearing area at Khandadhar in Sundergarh district in favor of POSCO for assessing the actual reserves citing some reasons. Union ministry of mines did not approve the recommendations and has sought certain clarifications on the proposal.

Mr Ram Vilas Paswan steel minister has also written to Mr Sisram Ola union mines minister and the Orissa government for grant of the Khandadhar iron ore mining lease to KIOCL.

Indian government is aiming at achieving a manufacturing growth rate of 13% in 2007-08 with the estimated growth rate of 11% in 2006-07.

Mr Kamal Nath union minister of commerce and industry while meeting a delegation of the Japanese Machinery Federation said that the highest priority was being accorded to the manufacturing sector as job creation was of utmost importance.

At present, the share of manufacturing sector in the gross domestic product is 17% and Mr Nath said that "We are hoping to increase it to 25%."

Mr Ntah informed that the infrastructural development was being addressed on a priority basis so that the high manufacturing growth rate could be sustained and accelerated.

Jindal Stainless Ltd announced last week that it has allotted 6.8 million equity shares upon conversion of equal number of convertible warrants to Jindal Overseas Holding, a company forming part of the promoters group.

It said that equity shares of Rs 2 each representing 4.92%t of its paid up share capital were allotted at the company's February 16th 2007 meeting.

Consequent upon the above allotment, the paid up equity share capital of the company increased to INR 27,64,42,412 divided into 13,82,21,206 equity shares from the existing INR 26,28,42,412 and the shareholding of promoter group has also increased to 43.25% from 40.31%.

Business Standard reported that Sterlite Industries has lined up investments of INR 20,000 crore in 3 years to establish itself as the Indias largest aluminum producer and the worlds second largest zinc maker and grab a to a place among the worlds top five metals companies.

The investment will largely be funded by internal accruals and debt and is a sequel to recently completed investment of INR 10,000 crore in the last three years by Sterlite.

As per reports, about INR 9,345 crore has been earmarked for an aluminum smelter with an annual capacity of 500,000 tonnes, to be built in two phases and a 1,215Mw captive power plant in Orissa by Sterlite Industrys subsidiary Vedanta Alumina Resources. The first phase is expected to be complete by 2009 and the second by 2010.

The second portion of the investment of INR 8,455 crore will be on a 2400 Mw integrated power plant in Orissa by Sterlite Energy. The first unit is expected to be commissioned by December 2009 and another three in the three subsequent quarters.

Other investment plans include a INR 1335 crore expansion of Sterlites zinc smelter by 170,000 tonnes a year which is expected to be complete by March 2008. The company also plans to increase the capacity of its Chanderiya smelter in Rajasthan by 88,000 tonnes a year at an investment of INR 756.5 crore to be complete by June 2008 and will increase Sterlites zinc smelting capacity to 658,000 tonnes a year making it the second largest in the world after Korean Zinc.

Indias largest power producer National Thermal Power Corporation plans to raise INR 112,000 crore in debt to finance its plans to increase its power generation capacity from 27,000MW to 51,000 MW over the next five years. The total capital expenditure on these projects is estimated at INR 160,000 crore out of which 30% will be equity and the remaining debt.

Mr AK Kundu ED of NTPC while speaking at a conference on power sector financing organized by Bombay Chamber of Commerce and Industry said that all options would be open for raising the funds, which could include US pension funds under the US Private Placement Program. He said "We will be raising money based on our balance sheet and not seeking government guarantee.

Currently NTPC has 14 coal fired power plants and 7 gas fired plants located across the country. NTPC, which currently accounts for 20 per cent of the country's power generation, has already started work on capacity expansion.

The World Bank recently published a report ranking 12 Indian cities in terms of business environment after conducting a survey titled Doing Business in South Asia last year for 12 Indian cities.

Hyderabad topped the list followed by Bangalore, Jaipur, Bhubaneswar, Chandigarh, Chennai, Lucknow, New Delhi, Patna, Ranchi, Mumbai and Kolkata .

The survey was conducted taking 11 aspects into consideration. They included license procurement, property registration and the ease with which a new business can be started. The report has a detailed take on local level regulatory requirements and differences in the implementation of national level regulations. It points out how these factors make substantial difference in the ease of doing business among Indian cities.

Ms Caralee McLeish co author of the report said that India has made significant improvements in reducing the amount of red tape entrepreneurs face daily but believes that India can do much better to be more business friendly.

Indian government is planning to expand the list of navratnas and announce the new names during the forthcoming budget. It is reported that an inter ministerial committee has identified six state owned companies as eligible for the navratna status.
1. Power Finance Corporation
2. Power Grid Corporation India Limited
3. Rural Electrification Corporation
4. National Hydroelectric Power Corporation
5. Bharat Electronics Limited
6. Hindustan Aeronautics Limited

A PSU is benchmarked against 6 parameters set by the department of public enterprises including the ratio of manpower cost to cost of production; ratio of net profit to net worth; ratio of profit before interest and tax to turnover; earnings per share; and the performance of the PSU vis a vis others in its sector to become a navratna. A PSU needs to score at least 60 out of 100 and the highest weight of 25 is given to the net profit to net worth ratio followed by the performance of the PSU in its sector. The parameters will be checked for three consecutive years.

Navratna status gives public sector companies more financial power and their boards can clear investment proposals of up to INR 500 crore without the approval of the finance ministry or the cabinet. Navratna companies also have more flexibility in floating subsidiaries, forming joint ventures and recruiting staff than other public sector firms.

There are nine navratna public undertakings including Oil & Natural Gas Corporation, Indian Oil Limited, Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited, Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited, Gas Authority of India Limited, Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited, Steel Authority of India Limited, National Thermal Power Corporation and Mahanagar Telephones Nagar Limited.

Some of the other companies in the race included National Aluminim Corporation, Container Corporation of India Limited, BSNL, SCI and Hudco.

It is reported that the Russian Railways is ready to collaborate with the Indian Railways to offer latest technologies in railway automation, safety system and collision repair. The Russian officials are in talks with the railway ministry.

Mr Krylov Anatoly VP of Russian Railways JSC ELTEZA in a statement said that the Indian Railways could leverage on technological expertise of Russia in view of the similarities in terms of large network of operations in India and Russia.

It is expected that lowering of prices of petrol and diesel may result in reduction in lower freight haulage rates for essential commodities including grain as well as industrial goods like steel and coal. However the impact on road transport sector, which accounts for almost 80% of freight movement in India, is expected to be minimal.

Union government lowered the prices of petrol by INR 2 per liter and diesel by a INR 1 per liter to control inflation on the backdrop of softening of international levels recently.

China's iron & steel industry will go ahead smoothly in 2007 although transportation bottleneck, increasing trade friction and rising raw material prices will still be major obstacles to the healthy development of the industry.

Chinas National Development & Regulation Commission in a recently release circular said that China's GDP will report a growth of some 10% in 2007, fixed asset investment over 20% and imports & exports some 20%. It said that steels apparent consumption is likely to go up by some 10% YoY in 2007.

According to the circular, demand for steel products from construction industry, automobile industry, shipbuilding industry, petroleum & chemical industry, electric power industry, coal & coke industry, transportation industry, railway, environment protection, light industry, home appliance industry and metal fittings industry will keep on climbing up paving a way for further development of iron & steel industry.

NDRC also suggested that steel enterprises should further stabilize and improve raw material purchase and finished steel product sales. Steel mills should also organize production according to actual demand.

South Africas biggest iron ore producer Kumba Iron Ore lifted its earnings before interest and tax to ZAR 5.4 billion in 2006 up by 38.4% YoY from ZAR 3.9 billion in 2005 and posted headline earnings of ZAR 262 million. Its revenue for 2006 grew from ZAR 6.6 billion in 2006 to ZAR 8.7 billion.

KIOs export volumes fell by 3% YoY to 21.5 million tonnes mainly due to a breakdown of loading equipment at the Saldanha port in September although tonnage railed from Sishen mine to the port of Saldanha increased by 1% YoY to 24.3 million tonnes as production volumes increased by 1% YoY to 28.7 million tonnes. Its domestic sales volumes decreased by 9% YoY to 8.3 million tons due to lower demand from Mittal Steel South Africa.

Mr Ras Myburgh CEO of Kumba told analysts that Inflationary pressure had a negative impact on profit but was partially offset by continued operating cost savings from improvement initiatives. The costs were higher primarily due to higher fuel, human resource and project linked operating costs as well as an increase in stripping and maintenance related activities.

Kumba said it remained positive on the outlook for 2007 with the upward trend in global iron ore demand expected to continue, with the strongest growth again expected to come from China with an anticipated increase of 8% to 10% in steel consumption.

Kumba, which is majority owned by mining giant Anglo American Plc, emerged after a black empowerment transaction that saw Kumba Resources Ltd split into pure iron player, Kumba Iron Ore and coal and heavy minerals miner Exxaro Resources Ltd. KIO was registered as a legal entity in May 2005, but no trading took place until November, following the unbundling from Kumba Resources in terms of an empowerment transaction.

China's total steel products export shot up to 43 million tonnes up by 109.6% YoY in 2006 with shipments to 25 EU countries soaring by 443% YoY to 7.38 million tonnes valued at USD 4.953 billion overtaking that of steel exports to South Korea and USA making EU as the largest recipient of Chinese steel exports. China became a net exporter of 6 million tonnes of steel products to EU in 2006 as a result of soaring export and declining import.

Booming Chinese steel exports to EU has come against the backdrop of strong economic recovery in the region and reduced competition from traditional steel exporters like Russia and Turkey, which shipped out less material for satisfying domestic demand boom.

China's steel export to major EU countries in 2006 is as under

In million tonnes

China's steel export to EU countries in 2006 by product on approximate basis is as under

In million tonnes
These are tentative figures

EU market is poised to be one of the most important destinations for Chinese steel exports on account of its premium price, robust demand and positive economy outlook. Some Chinese steelmakers are keen to explore opportunity for export and cooperation in EU.

However Chinese steel exports to EU are still in chaos with existence of numerous steel mills and traders. All the exporters would pile into EU market as long as the gap between export and domestic price opens up. Flourishing Chinese steel imports have fuelled great concerns from EU steel producers. In order to safeguard China's healthy steel market, domestic mills should put more efforts in developing high value added products and diversify the destinations.

(Sourced from Mysteel.net)

Reuter, citing Automotive News, has reported that General Motors Corp it is in preliminary talks to buy or strike a strategic alliance with DaimlerChrysler AGs struggling US arm Chrysler. The journal, citing unnamed sources in Germany and the United States, said the companies were engaged in high level talks about the possible acquisition.

However there is deep skepticism on Wall Street about whether such a merger made sense for GM and whether it could ever happen. An analysts said that an outright takeover of the Chrysler Group by GM would risk turnaround efforts of both the companies even as it created an industry giant with a nearly 40% share of the US market.

Chicago based Ryerson Inc vowed on to battle its largest shareholder hedge fund Harbinger Capital Partners which accused it of mismanagement and has launched a boardroom attack to take control of the company management.

Ryerson in a statement said that its board evaluated a recent analysis and plan by Harbinger to elect seven nominees to the company's board to gain a majority. It said that Ryerson's board disagrees with Harbinger's analysis and will oppose its efforts to obtain control of Ryerson's board and consequently the company.

Ryerson has retained UBS Investment Bank as a financial adviser to assist in comparing the company's current plan with other strategic alternatives.

New York based Harbinger owns a 9.7% stake in Ryerson. It launched its proxy campaign last month after disclosing it was considering a range of actions to pressure Ryerson to improve its performance, which has consistently underperformed its industry peers.

After Ryerson reported a Q4 net loss Mr Larry Clark MD of Harbinger said the results make the case for change in the company's board even more compelling. He said "There has also been no improvement to the company's dismal execution of steel service center basics buying and selling steel profitably. Mr Clark said that "Considering this team's long history of substantial underperformance we harbor substantial doubts that they will deliver on this or any of their other stated initiatives to turn this business around." Harbinger also accused Ryerson of poor inventory management and said over the past 10 years, Ryerson has delivered an average return on invested capital of approximately 4.5% while the metals service center and processor index has achieved an average ROIC of 10%.

Ryerson Inc reported net loss of USD 4.4 million in Q4 of 2006 as compared with a net profit of USD 6.3 million in Q4 of 2005. Its Q4 sale increased by 8.5% YoY to USD 1.4 billion as the average selling price per ton increased by 21.2% YoY but partially offset by a 10.5% YoY decline in tons shipped.

Chinese National Development and Reform Commission reported that the overall energy consumption of China's major iron and steel enterprises fell by 8.8% YoY in 2006 from the previous year and the unit energy consumption for producing each ton of steel was down by 7.1% YoY.

NDRC also said that the water consumption for each ton of steel was 6.56 tonnes down by 14.9% YoY.

NDRCs report said that in 2006 the overall energy consumption of China's large and mid sized iron and steel enterprises totaled 198 million tonnes of coal equivalent or 645.12 kilograms of coal equivalent for producing each tonne of steel.

The iron and steel industry has been China's top energy consumer accounting for one tenth of the country's total energy consumption.

BHP Billiton Energy Coal South Africa announced that it is planning to sale of its 13 million tonnes a year Optimum coal mine and the associated Richards Bay Coal Terminal entitlement by the end of the second quarter to a black economic empowerment group. The announcement did not give details of the price of the deal.

As per report, a consortium led by Mr Eliphus Monkoe former COO of BHP's South African coal operations, would be majority black owned and controlled. It would include a significant stake to be set aside for employees of Optimum Colliery and the surrounding community.

Optimum Colliery was founded in 1968 as a single product mine and underground mining started in 1971. At that time it was supplying only Hendrina power station with 6.5 million tons of raw coal. Underground mining operations were ceased in 1982. In 1983 a coarse coal plant was commissioned and three years later a fine coal plant was commissioned. Through the commissioning of these two plants Optimum was able to create an export quality product whilst still meeting the Eskom contractual requirements. This export product is exported through the Richards Bay Coal Terminal.

The Indian steel industry is poised for massive expansion. Dramatic consumption growth over the last few years has stimulated enormous expansion plan, facilitated by unexploited iron ore raw material base. India is now being hailed as the new China, where crude steel production soared from less than 100 million tones in 1995 to over 400 million tones in 2006.

Indian crude steel output at just 38million tonnes in 2005 is starting from a much lower base, and the economic steel- consuming structure of China is substantially different from India. Nevertheless, India has recently established a long-term goal of raising crude steel production to 100 million tonnes per annum by 2020.

UK based GFMS Metals Consulting in an innovative way and value for money report on Indian steel industry includes complete statistical coverage of the industry, an unbiased and frank assessment of growth expectations, a base case outlook for each steel product & the industry as a whole with a clear view of potential risks, an assessment of raw material availability and trends and production, trade and consumption forecasts out to 2011.

The report coverage includes historic production, trade & apparent consumption of carbon steel both long and flat products, raw materials, producers, economic environment, political and other risk factors.

If you are interested to know more about it please visit
http://www.steelguru.com/GFMS_MC/indian_steel_report.php

AK Steel and the United Auto Workers have reached a 3 year tentative agreement on a new labor contract covering about 380 hourly production and maintenance employees of Local 3462 at the company's Coshocton Works.

The tentative agreement is subject to ratification by Local 3462 members in a vote expected to take place on February 23rd and the existing contract is set to expire April 1st but if ratified, the new contract would be in effect until March 31st 2010.

Mr James L Wainscott chairman, president & CEO of AK Steel said that "We are pleased that we have reached a tentative agreement that serves the interests of the company and Local 3462 members in our increasingly competitive industry."

AK Steel locked out its 2,500 productions and maintenance workers in Middletown nearly a year ago when their contract expired. The company has been operating the mill with replacement workers and salaried personnel.

It is reported that Mr German Gref economy minister of Russia said that the merger of gas monopoly Gazprom and coal company SUEK is bad for competition echoing criticism of the deal by power monopoly chief Mr Anatoly Chubais.

Mr Gref while addressing on the sidelines of an economic forum in the Siberian town of Krasnoyarsk told reporters that "Gazprom's purchase of SUEK's coal assets is a dangerous extreme in economic policies. We should preserve competition in our country." Mr Gref said that if Gazprom continued its expansion into various industries, the national economy would turn into 19th century style monopolistic state capitalism. Leaving Russia far behind in economic development.

However analysts fear Gazproms acquisition of power and coal assets will undermine Russia's power sector liberalization as Gazprom would control top utilities as well as their supply chains. Russia's anti monopoly watchdog has yet to approve the deal but its officials have said they were unlikely to block the purchase as SUEK was responsible for only a third of Russian coal production.

Worlds largest mining company BHP Billiton announced today that it has priced EUR600 million of 4.375% Euro Bonds due February 2014 and EUR600 million of 18 month Floating Rate Notes due August 2008.

The proceeds will be used to refinance short term debt.

Xinhua has reported that at least 3,550 illegal coal mines were shut down in Chinas largest coal producer Shanxi Province in 2006.

Mr Zhang Huaiwen director of the Shanxi Provincial Department of Land and Resources said that the province also closed 2,517 illegal mines of other natural resources in 2006 and 196 people were punished for violating party and government disciplines and 198 others were punished on criminal charges.

Mr Zhang pledged a more severe crackdown on illegal mining activities in 2007.

According to the provincial coal industry bureau a total of 476 people died in 149 fatal coal mine accidents in the province last year.

China is the world's largest coal producer and consumer with 2.1 billion tonnes of coal.

Interfax reported that Magnezit Refractories groups Kombinat Magnezit in Satka Chelyabinsk region has raised output of hard magnesite refractories by 12.9% YoY in January to 34,000 tonnes and of refractory powders by 17% YoY to 75,000 tonnes. Its ales of hard refractories grew by 9.8% YoY to 32,700 tonnes and powder sales rose by 17% YoY to 75,000 tonnes.

Its hard refractory sales to Russian consumers grew 10.7% YoY to 27,000 tonnes and powder sales to Russian consumers rose by 20.7% YoY to 56,000 tonnes.

The Magnezit Group is an integrated company with a complete production cycle for refractory products It includes the Magnezit works the Kyshtym Refractory Plant Sibirsky Magnezit, the Yingkou Dalmond and Nanfang Dalmond in China, Magnezit Intocast Satka and Feuerfest Siegburg. It controls 60% of the CIS and 69% of the Russian magnesite refractory market.

Russian Federal State Statistics Service Rosstat said Russian industrial output jumped by 8.4% YoY in January 2007 although it fell by 11.7% MoM as compared to December 2006. Rosstat also said there were more working days in January 2007 than in January 2006.and growth in the extractive sector was a more modest 4.2% as output by the utilities sector plummeted 10.5% YoY.

Rosstat said that Growth in January 2007 is mainly driven by a 17.3% YoY jump in manufacturing sector output particularly food. Production of steel is up by 34.5%, production of cement up by 49%, oil and gas condensate by 3.9%, iron ore by 6.1% and coal production up by 7.3%. Russias gas production fell by 0.1% YoY to 60.7 billion cubic meters.

Russias Economic Development and Trade Ministry is forecasting industrial growth of 4.2% for 2007.

China Steel Corporation in Taiwan announced that it has ordered SMS Demag for supply of a two strand continuous slab caster for its Kaohsiung location for producing 2.9 million tonnes of steel slabs annually in the thickness of 230mm and 250 mm with a maximum casting speed of 2.2 meters per minute.

The scope of supplies comprises of the basic and detailed engineering as well as the supply of all mechanical core components and the entire electrical and automation systems including the technological control systems.

The spring guided, hydraulically driven mold with resonance oscillation is equipped with remote adjustment for the narrow faces. This allows the casting width to be adjusted between 900mm and 1,680 mm while operation is taking place.

Reuters reported that Mexico's IMSA posted a 37 % drop in Q4 net profit on weak operating results as sales volumes slumped.

IMSA said that its October to December net profit was MXN 500 million down from MXN 798 million in the same period a year earlier and its operating profit dropped by 47% YoY. The company's Q4 sales volumes in the quarter fell by 12% YoY from a year earlier.

TIEH reported that Japanese Nippon Steel and Toyo Kohan plans to raise USD 30 per tonne to USD 40 per tonne in tinplate exports to Asia for the second quarter due to strong demand from that region especially in China and Indonesia.

In China, tinplate consumption is about 1.9 million tons per year out of which almost 20% will be imported. The import of tinplate in Russia is also expected to increase by 20% this year as demand is expected to continue growing.

The supply is tighter as POSCO and Blue Scope have shut down some of their tinning facilities recently.

Pakistan's The Nation reported that Pakistan government has finally decided not to sell unused land of Pakistan Steel Mills and rather allot it on 66 year lease for establishment of new industrial units. Pakistans Economic Coordination Committee had recently approved the allotment of 1,423 acres of land out of 4,000 acres of unused land of Pakistan Steel Mills.

Major General (Retired) Muhammad Javed chairman of PSM while giving an interview with The Nation disclosed that the government had authorized Pakistan Steel Mills to allot 423 acres of land to different industries out of which 120 acres had been allotted to Pak Suzuki Company, 50 acres to Ayesha Steel Mills while the remaining land would be given to other applicants. He added that the PSM would only act as a facilitator regarding the allocation and development of land for new industries.

As per report, more than 900 acres of unused land has been given to the ministry of industries and production for establishing the National Industrial Park.

Grande Cache Coal Corporation announced that its total sales volume of 0.3 million tonnes during the Q3 of 2006-7 generated revenue of CADD 28.7 million with an average sales price of USD 95 per tonne and price for coking coal was CAD 102. Grande Cache Coal's income from operations was CAD 0.6 million in the Q3 and the cost of coal produced in the Q3 was CAD 63 per tonne. EBITDA was CAD 1.1 million and net loss amounted to 2.2 million.

GCCCs income from operation during April to December 2006 was CAD 1.8 million and the sales price for metallurgical coal sales CAD 109. EBITDA was CAD 5.1 million.

GCC anticipates that coal sales volumes for fiscal 2007 will be approximately 1 million tonnes, due to certain fourth quarter shipments slipping into the first quarter of fiscal 2008. This slippage is anticipated to occur due to severe weather conditions that have limited the amount of coal that Grande Cache Coal's rail provider has been able to move to Westshore Terminals. In addition, poor weather conditions have slowed vessel loading resulting in a vessel backlog.

Grande Cache Coal is an Alberta based metallurgical coal mining company which produces metallurgical coal for the steel industry and holds coal leases covering over 22,000 hectares in the Smoky River Coalfield located in west central Alberta.

It is reported that the Indiana Occupational Safety and Health Administration has completed its investigation January 22nd 2007 and has published a 138 page report.

The state cited Steel Dynamics for a 'serious' violation, indicating unstable loads were handled, caution was not exercised in handling the beams and a fork truck was used to load unsecured beams. SDI was fined USD 2,625 for the violation.

The state investigation concluded that Steel Dynamics Inc employee killed in December did not follow standard procedure when loading steel beams onto a rail car on December 14th at its Structural and Rail Division in Columbia City. He died after two 3 tonne steel beams fell on his chest causing asphyxiation.

Fort Wayne based Steel Dynamics said that Mr James K Hall's death was the first workplace death in the 14 years since it began construction and steel making.

Ukraines pipe industry association Ukrtruboprom told Interfax that Ukrainian pipe companies increased their production of steel pipes by 30.5% YoY to 200,900 tons in January 2007.

Ukraine produced 204,400 tons of pipes in December 2006.

United States Steel Corp has agreed to pay USD 350,000 in civil fines and costs in a deal with the state of Michigan aimed at stopping zinc and ammonia pollution of the Detroit River from a company mill.

The state Department of Environmental Quality said that The agreement resolves more than 170 violations of wastewater discharge permits since the company took over the Wayne County operations from bankrupt National Steel in 2003.

Mr Robert McCann an agency spokesman said that three separate facilities that comprise the company's Great Lakes Works have a history of environmental damage. He said the violations covered by the settlement are in addition to longtime discoloration of the river, which the DEQ had tried to resolve with the previous owners.

Mr John Armstrong a spokesman of US Steel said that it started working on the mill's environmental problems immediately after taking over the facilities at Zug Island, Ecorse and River Rouge. It has spent tens of millions on cleanup and improvement projects. He said that "We inherited these issues. They had been ignored while National Steel was in bankruptcy."

Al Jazeera Steel Products announced that it has appointed Alpen Capital, to study the additional fund requirements to meet the working capital needs for the merchant bar mill that will go into production later this year and recommend various options of raising this requirement.