DNA reported that one day after winning the bid for Corus Group, TATA Steel started talking about restructuring Coruss UK operations to make them competitive.

Mr B Muthuraman MD of TATA Steel during a conference call said that Corus is not a competitive steel company as it stands and needed restructuring. He said that There are operating improvements to be made in the UK. The Netherlands is a good operation with all the assets in one location. In the UK, the plants are far apart and there are logistical costs. We dont want to close but there has to be some restructuring.

Corus has 47,000 employees worldwide of which 26,000 are in plants across the UK. Its main operations are spread out in South Yorkshire, Humberside and South Wales with smaller units all over the country.

Steel Authority of India Limiteds Salem Steel Plant has bagged an order for supply of 11,300 tonnes of ferritic stainless steel strips in grade 430 in two widths and thicknesses to the Government of India Mint at Kolkata. SSP will supply the first lot of the INR 117 crore orders within this month

The strip will be used for minting coins. SSP, in collaboration with the Government of India Mints, pioneered the use of stainless steel coinage in the country.

Usha Martin Limited has posted standalone profit before tax of INR 39.11 crores during October to December 2006 quarter up by 57% YoY as compared to INR 24.86 crores in Q3 of 2005-06 and profit after tax of INR 28.41 crores up by 72% YoY as compared to INR 16.50 crores in Q3 of 2005-06. Its sales, net of inter segment adjustment, increased to INR 351.39 crores up by 11% as compared to INR 315.80 in Q3 of 2005-06.

Usha Martin posted consolidated profit before tax for April to December 2006 INR 95.81 crores up by 39% YoY as compared to INR 68.85 crores, profit after tax of INR 72.46 crores up by 62% YoY and sales, net of inter segment adjustment, of INR 1006.74 crores up by 15% YoY as compared to April to December 2005-06 period.

Usha Martin, in a release highlighted following achievements during October to December 2006 quarter.
a) Improvement in operating margins by over 2.51% over previous quarter due to iron ore integration.
b) Sales of value added product segment WWR grew by about 17% with improvement in income of over 27%.
c) Special steel production grew by 18% compared to corresponding period of previous year.
d) Global Wire Ropes production grew by 12% compared to corresponding period of previous year.

Usha Martin is a leading producer of special steels in India and one of the largest wire rope manufacturers globally with manufacturing facilities in Ranchi, Jamshedpur, Hoshiarpur, UK, Thailand and UAE.

BS reported that Indian government is finalizing a plan to set up a special purpose vehicle, compromising of National Thermal Power Corporation, Steel Authority of India Ltd, Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Ltd, Coal India Ltd and the National Mineral Development Corporation, to acquire coal mines abroad. The SPV is likely to be granted Navratna status for giving it greater autonomy in decision making.

As per report, the proposal, anchored by the steel ministry, has been broadly approved by the boards of the participating companies and will shortly be put up for the cabinets approval.

As per report, the shareholding pattern will be in proportion to the coal requirements of each company and private participation may also be considered.

Reuters reported that iron ore miner MSPL Ltd is planning an initial public offering to fund iron ore mine takeovers and buyouts of iron ore mining companies in India and abroad and a decision by MSPL in this respect shall be taken soon.

Mr NK Baldota CMD of MSPL, without giving details of IPO, told Reuters that "We are interested in buyouts of good firms in India and abroad. For big takeovers, we will need the money. But for small ones we have cash."

MSPL, which exports 95% of its iron ore to China, expects to produce 6 million tonnes in 2006-07. MSPL has bid for lease rights of five iron ore mining sites in Karnataka.

Ramsarup Industries Limited has posted net sales of INR 302.06 crores for October to December 2006 quarter up by 22.15% YoY as compared to INR 247.28 crores in Q3 of 2005-06, with exports increasing by 640% YoY to INR 20.05 crores. Its profit after tax for the quarter increased by 9.15% YoY to INR 13.87crores as compared to INR 8.2 crores in Q3 of 2005-06.

Ramsarups profit after tax during April to December 2006 increased by 52% YoY to INR 32.25 crores and net sales increased by 27.05% YoY to INR 886.4 crores, with export sales surging by 304.29% to INR 36.75 crores.

SNS reported that Steel Authority of India Limiteds Rourkela Steel Plant, under its resolve to improve the quality of life in villages around the steel plant, has inaugurated a weekly free medical aid centre at Chikatmati village near Rourkela to provide better health care facilities to the people living in the periphery. Mr Satya Sundar Mohanty ED personnel and administration of RSP inaugurated the facility on January 29th 2007.

The medical centre will conduct check ups and advise the patients as well as give free medicines to them for common ailments.

RSP has adopted Chikatmati village comprising of 1183 families in Lathikata block on state highway No 10 as Steel Village. Various activities will be carried out in this village to improve the quality of life of the people, apart from providing them with better income generation opportunities. The construction and renovation of the village community centre, roads, drains, ponds, school building, playgrounds etc are on the cards. Besides, sanitation other facilities for instance washing platforms with drainage facility will be developed and tube wells will be fixed. Skill development training will also be provided to the villagers.

Indias largest zinc producer, Hindustan Zinc Ltd announced that it had cut zinc prices by INR 10,500 per tonne (USD238) or by 5.6% to INR 176,500 effective immediately.

HZL in a statement said that it has kept lead prices unchanged at INR 85,900.

YIEH reported that Ambica Steels has expanded its business into the UK market through its first and sole sales agent Anglo International Metals.

AIM, who was established four years ago and its original sales ranges are regarding nickel, chrome, molydenum alloys, titanium, cobalt alloys and copper nickel alloys for the recycling industry scope, will handle 304, 316, 400 series and duplex material on stainless steel bar, billets and blooms.

Ambica Steels is a producer of stainless steel ingot, billet and finished bar form with grades austenitic, ferritic and martensitic. This mills capacity is around 70,000 tons annual.

Taiwanese Continental Engineering Corporation and Soma Enterprises 70:30 JV has bagged a contract worth INR 813.51 crore from the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation for the construction and designing of tunnel and stations under the second phase metro project.

The contract includes design and construction of 4,014 meters of tunnel and four stations each 318 meter long within a 40 month period.

Mr PC Tseng assistant VP overseas department of Continental Engineering said that "We would import four tunnel boring machines from Germany and Japan for the project.

CEC is the technical leader in the partnership. The JV has appointed China Engineering Consultants from Taiwan and Tandon Consultants from India as design consultants for the project.

GMR Energy signed a MoU with the Arunachal Pradesh government for setting up INR 900 crore hydroelectric power project of 160 MW in the state by the end of 2011.

The agreement entails implementation, operation and maintenance of Talong power project in Seppa district on River Kemeng. This project was awarded on competitive bidding basis.

Under the MoU, GMR has offered 14% of free power to Arunachal Pradesh and 2 paisa per KW as additional benefit to the state besides 12 % of equity to the state in the hydropower company. Arunachal Pradesh has the right to purchase power from the project over and above the free power availed by it. The tariff shall be fixed by CERC.

GMR in a statement said that the project is in an advanced stage of development and subject to clearances from the appropriate authorities and the construction work is expected to commence in a year's time.

World's second largest mining group, Rio Tinto, posted a 43% YoY hike in full year net profits to USD 7.4 billion. It said it that reached record production of iron ore, alumina, US coal and molybdenum.

Rio warned that it expected some moderation of global economic growth in 2007. Mr Paul Skinner chairman of Rio Tinto said "Looking to 2007, there are a number of uncertainties in the global economy, not least the direction of inflation and interest rates in major economies. But growth in China, which is critical to the demand outlook for many of our products, remains strong and well balanced."

Rio Tinto summarized the highlights of 2006 as under
1. Underlying earnings of USD 7.338 billion were 48% above 2005.
2. Net earnings were USD 7.438 billion up by 43% above 2005.
3. Cashflow from operations rose by 36% to USD 11.196 billion.
4. The full year ordinary dividend increased by 30% to 104 US cents.
5. Record production volumes in several product groups, including iron ore, alumina, US coal and molybdenum.
6. Capital expenditure was USD 3.9 billion, reflecting continuing investment in growth based on a quality portfolio of assets.
7. Capital projects continued to progress well, with the major expansion of the Group's iron ore business on schedule and on budget.
8. The return of USD 4 billion cash to shareholders over 2006 and 2007 was completed almost a year ahead of schedule. In October 2006, an additional USD 3 billion share buy back was announced.
9. Rio Tinto's pipeline of growth opportunities was enhanced during the year through targeted investment, including a joint venture for exploration in Russia and investment in a copper-gold project in Mongolia.
10. Mr Tom Albanese appointed as new CEO to succeed Mr Leigh Clifford in May 2007.

MEPS forecast that the price boom in the global stainless steel sector is now under serious threat as several factors are coming together to indicate price weakness in the future.

MEPS said that Asian transaction prices are extremely low compared to those in Western Europe and North America and Chinese customers are not able to pay the current inflated prices being charged elsewhere in the world. MEPS added that in other countries of Asia, the mills do not have established alloy surcharge mechanisms and have difficulties in recovering the escalating input costs of nickel and chromium consequently we can now see a large disparity between prices in different parts of the world.

MEPS said that Asian stainless steels, particularly Chinese, is being exported at competitive prices to all the major consuming countries. In the EU and US, distributors have built up their inventories of competitively priced material and are now off loading material into the market and as a result, orders on local mills are starting to dry up as customers can obtain cheaper products on short delivery times.

MEPS concluded that the substantial price discrepancy between Asian and EU supplies cannot be ignored. It said We detect a high degree of uncertainty in Western stainless markets. Both distributors and end users are reluctant to build up stocks of locally produced material particularly in standard grades and sizes.

It is reported that Brazilian steel maker CSN still stands to gain over USD 520 million despite losing the bidding war for Corus to TATA Steel. CSN would pocket over USD 402.65 million by selling 34,072,613 shares of Corus in its possession while it is also entitled to receive about USD 120 million from the Corus on the basis of its offer having being once approved by the target company's board corresponding to 1% of the reviewed final price proposed by CSN.

Mr Benjamin Steinbruch CEO of CSN in the statement said "Concerning Corus auction obviously we would have preferred a different outcome. However, we decided not to exceed our pre established limits of investment and indebtedness. Beyond such limits, we would not be assuring the adequate return rates to our shareholders."

He added, "We congratulate the TATA Group for its acquisition and we are confident that the steel industry's consolidation process is just starting. Therefore, there will be new and better growth opportunities for CSN in the future, to which we will always be prepared."

The Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Works have commissioned SMS Demag to supply a continuous caster and a heavy plate mill with the pertaining electrical and automation systems. Commissioning of the plants is scheduled for mid 2009.

The continuous caster would be designed for the production of slabs with a thickness of to 300mm and attains a casting speed of 2 meters per minute. The maximum casting width would be 2,700 mm and can be varied during the course of operation.

The new heavy plate mill will produce plates in widths of up to 4,800 mm. The planned annual capacity of the plant is around 1.5 million tonnes. The order covers the entire process line for plate production, with two walking beam furnaces, the mill stand, plate cooling, hot leveler, cooling and inspection bed, shear line, finishing line with cold leveler and heat treatment facilities. The plate mill stand will be one the world's most powerful mill stands with a rolling force of 120 MN. The crop shear and the dividing shear are of closed design in order to ensure a clean cutting edge even in the case of extremely high strength plates.

Plate production will focus on pipe grades up to API X120 as the raw material for large diameter pipes in the gas and oil sector. Other areas of application are, for example, bridge construction and ship building as well as heavy mechanical engineering.

The supply scope of both plants includes the entire electrical equipment, drive technology and all automation systems.

In Jan 2007, the billet & slab prices presented continual upward movements on Chinese market, under joint effect of the surging steel prices and strong exports. Analysts say, the price would fluctuate along the present track before spring festival and is unlikely to drop after that.

In January 2007, common carbon billet rose by CNY 50 to CNY 70 per tonne on average to stand at some CNY 2900 per tonnes and low alloy billet up by CNY 80 to CNY 120 per tonne to around CNY 3000 per tonne.

Some of the factors pointing towards this analysis are

1. Firm domestic demand
The steel market is expected of upbeat stance in the first half of 2007, buoyed by various positive fundamentals. Since late December 2006, the rising steel market has pushed up billet & slab purchasing and restocking of steel producers specially the small and medium mills that make section or construction steels with bought raw materials. Till now, demand for billet & slab still posts strong and a majority of the steel mills have already arranged February billet & slab production.

2. Exports
China exported 9.04 million tonnes of billet & slab in 2006 and imported 370,000 tonnes up by 28% YoY and down by 72% YoY respectively. This January, Chinese steelmakers were still motivated by the price gap between on the international market and at home. In late January, Chinese Q235 billet were quoted at USD 440 CFR basis up by USD 10 per tonne from early the same month. It is expected that billet & slab export in January 2007 will overtake last December 2006.

3. Higher costs
9.5% iron ore price hike, higher water, electricity, coal price, as well as costlier metallurgical coke and scrap combined to affect billet & slab price. Some experts forecast that billet & slab price may increase some 12% this year for cost reasons. The steel makers have raised February prices recently.

4. Supply constraint
With constant growing steel product export and having a part of facilities under maintenance, the steelmakers have limited billet & slab stocks and very few to sell while keeping normal operation at factories of their own.

Holding bullish on the steel market after spring festival, the producers and traders appear grudging to billet & slab sales, while the increased price is basically accepted. In East China, the price stands especially high due to blocked transportation.

(Source from MySteel.net)

The worlds 4th largest nickel producer Xstrata Nickel and the Canadian Auto Workers union have reached a tentative agreement on a new contract moments before a strike was scheduled to begin at midnight, which would have impacted 4% of global nickel production.

Mrs Richard Paquin CAW spokesman told Reuters that The strike has been revoked. The bargaining committee is recommending that members vote for the tentative collective agreement. The union hopes to put it to a ratification vote as early as Friday.

Xstrata Nickel had offered a CAD 8,000 early signing bonus which the union rejected. Reuters however reported that the union wanted a pay increase of 4% or CAD 1 per hour in the first year of the contract, a 3% pay increase during the second year and a 3% hike for the third year. Reuters said other disputed issues included language regarding vacations postings and retiree benefits.

Rio Tinto announced a further expansion of its iron ore export capacity in the Pilbara region of Western Australia, under which the annual capacity at Cape Lambert port will be increased from 55 million to 80 million tonnes at an investment of USD 860 million with Rio Tinto share being USD 456 million. A further USD 130 million will be invested in sustaining and environmental capital works at the Cape Lambert port to support the increased levels of production. The Cape Lambert project is subject to relevant government approvals.

Following completion of the expansion scheduled for the fourth quarter of 2008, Rio Tinto's mine, rail and port capacity in the Pilbara will be matched and capable of exporting 220 million tonnes per year.

Mr Sam Walsh CEO of iron ore at Rio Tinto "The Cape Lambert expansion, our third recent port expansion, will allow Rio Tinto to continue to maximize its production from the Pilbara, retaining its position as Australia's leading iron ore producer and a major global player."

The port at Cape Lambert is owned by Robe River Iron Associates and is operated by Rio Tintos subsidiary Pilbara Iron. Robe River Iron Associates is owned as follows: Rio Tinto 53%, Mitsui Iron Ore Development 33%, Nippon Steel Australia 10.5% and Sumitomo Metal Australia 3.5%.

The Cape Lambert upgrade brings Rio Tinto's expenditure in the Pilbara on infrastructure projects and facilities development close to USD5 billion since 2003. Rio Tinto has completed the first stage of an upgrade to its Parker Point port in Dampier which increased annual capacity from 74 million tonnes to 116 million tonnes. Work is continuing on the second stage at Parker Point, which by late 2007 will increase capacity at Dampier to 140 million tonnes a year.

POSCO announced that its largest shareholder had changed from SK Telecom to the Korea's largest institutional investors National Pension Service. POSCO said NPS held 2.86 % of its shares exceeding SK Telecom's 2.85 % and making it the top shareholder.

NPS clarified that the move was not to defend POSCO from a merger or acquisition but was simply a profit seeking investment for the National Pension Fund.

POSCO's stock price has been hitting record highs on speculation of an M & A attempt since the recent visit of a high ranking figure from the world's largest steelmaking company Arcelor Mittal.

Mr Viktor Rashnikov chairman of Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works chairman during 75th anniversary meeting with Russian president Mr Vladimir Putin announced that MMK will complete major gas pipeline projects to produce tubes by 2009.

Mr Rashnikov said MMK would be capable of producing pipes for the Nord Stream pipeline from the Shtokman field and pipelines to carry gas to China. He said "The pipes to be produced for these projects will operate in an aggressive environment and northern temperatures."

He said that mill 5000 would produce between 1.5 million tonnes and 3 million tonnes of pipes for these pipelines depending on their needs.

It is reported that Mr Mikhail Prokhorov, ranked Russia's 10th richest man by Forbes, will sell his stake in Norilsk Nickel to business partner Mr Vladimir Potanin and quit the board of directors of Interros. Mr Prokhorov currently owns 54.89% of Norilsk.

Interros said the division of assets was designed to restructure holding's business. It said "Interros as a managing company will remain Potanin's property and Prokhorov will quit its shareholding structure and set up his own company to manage his assets.

The holding's press service declined to disclose the details of the deal, saying Prokhorov's shares would be sold at market prices.

Interros said in a statement said that Mr Prokhorov will retain shares in other Interros assets Polyus Zoloto gold producer, Rosbank, Prof-Media holding, Open Investment, and Russia's largest engineering company Power Machines and manage them through a new investment vehicle.

Vallourec announced that it achieved sales for the financial year 2006 of EUR 5.541.8 billion up by 28.7% over 2005. Vallourec attributed this performance to the impact of higher prices, continuing improvements in the product mix achieved by focusing on higher value-added products, and increased volumes.

In million EUR

The Group anticipates that demand will remain strong in 2007 despite the recent fluctuations in oil & gas prices, fundamentals in the energy market remain positive. Therefore, in the absence of exceptional circumstances, Vallourec expects to achieve a further slight increase in sales in 2007 excluding the impact of the proposed sale of VPE.

Vallourec is a world leader in the production of seamless steel tubes and tubular products for specific industrial applications.

The European Commission cleared the 3 way merger of aluminum companies OAO Rusal, Sual Group and Glencore International AG. The commission concluded that, although there was some overlap on aluminum production both worldwide and in Europe, but it wouldn't significantly hamper competition.

The new company, to be called United Company Rusal, will have a market value of about USD 30 billion and will unseat US based Alcoa Inc as the world's biggest aluminum producer. Rusal will hold a 66% stake in the new company, with Sual owning 22% and Glencore 12%.

World's 2nd largest stainless steel maker Finland based Outokumpu posted net profit of EUR 603 million (USD 781 million) for Octtober to December 2006 quarter as compared to a loss of EUR 180 million in Q4 of 2005. However, its earnings included a net gain of EUR 328 million from the sale of more than 80% of Outokumpu's technology unit Outokumpu Technology Oyj.

For the full year 2006, Outokumpu's revenue rose by 23% to EUR 6.15 billion (USD 8 billion) from EUR 5 billion in 2005 and net profit increased to EUR 963 million (USD 1.25 billion) from a loss of EUR 363 million.

Mr Juha Rantanen CEO of Outokumpu in a statement said "I am very pleased and proud of our performance last year. We made a record financial result and met our key financial goals on profitability and financial strength."

Outokumpu also gave a positive outlook for 2007, saying demand for its products would remain strong, especially in Europe. Also, the company expected slight increases in base metal prices.

Based in Espoo, near the Finnish capital Helsinki, Outokumpu has 8,200 workers in some 30 countries. In November, the Finnish government decreased its ownership in the company further to 31.1% from 38% under a parliamentary mandate to reduce the stake to 10%.

Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Works has celebrated the 75th anniversary of the start up of the enterprise as pig iron for the first time was produced at the MMK's blast furnace near Mount Magnitnaya on February 1st 1932.

Mr Vladimir Putin president of Russia congratulated the personnel of the MMK on the 75th jubilee of the enterprise. He said "I want to extend congratulations, first and foremost, to the workers and engineering personnel.

Mr Viktor Rashnikov CEO of MMK said that MMK production had doubled over the past ten years and although tax payments have grown from RUB 1,400 million to RUB 14,000 million, Atmospheric emissions did not grow as production increased.

Mr Rashnikov, while speaking of development plans, said that a mill 5 000 is already under construction at the MMK for the production of pipes that are necessary for the implementation of such large-scale projects as the North European gas pipeline, the development of the Shtokman gas field, and the construction of branches of gas pipelines running to China

It is reported that more than 10,000 German miners stopped work on Thursday in protest at government plans to shut down German coal mines by 2018 and calls by the leader of the state of North Rhine Westphalia for an even earlier phase out date. RAG's coal mining unit, Deutsche Steinkohle confirmed that 10,000 miners failed to turn up for work.

Thousands of miners and other employees of the RAG industrial conglomerate, which operates Germany's eight existing coal mines, demonstrated in front of the regional parliament of North Rhine Westphalia in Dsseldorf on Thursday.

Earlier this week, the ruling coalition of left and right parties hammered out a compromise agreement to cease all subsidies to the country's eight remaining coal mines by 2018, which would effectively mean their closure.

Interfax report that Chongqing Iron and Steel Group plans to relocate its plant from the city of Chongqing city to a suburb in the Changshou district, 70 kilometers from central Chongqing by 2012 in line with a government push to get manufacturing outside of major cities. The move is environmentally motivated because 50% of city's pollution comes from the Chongqing Steel plant.

By relocating Chongqing Steel, the company will earn an estimated CNY 10 billion from the sale of its city land against the purchase of the property in the suburbs. The profit will be used to upgrade facilities and expand production to an annual capacity of 8 million tons from the current 3 million tons.

Chongqing Steel is the second steel mill in China to relocate. Shoudu Iron and Steel Group moved from Beijing to Caofeidian Island in Hebei Province in September 2005.

The Reuters news agency reported that USs Justice Department officials have completed their review of the USD 1.07 billion deal for purchase of Harris Steel Group Inc of Canada by Nucor Corp and approved the same without taking action.

Harris Steel makes reinforced steel bar, or rebar, for the construction industry, wire mesh for the mining industry and heavy industrial steel grating sold through its Harris Rebar, Laurel Steel and Fisher & Ludlow units.

The acquisition is the largest ever for Nucor. Nucor plans to operate Harris Steel as a subsidiary to broaden the company's geographical reach and growth opportunities.

Commission of Science Technology and Industry for National Defense said announced that China has completed 14.52 million DWT of ships in 2006 up by 20% YoY and accounting for 19% of the global total outputs. COSTIND said that China State Shipbuilding Corporation finished about 6.02 million DWT; China Shipbuilding Industry Corporation about 2.67 million DWT and other shipbuilding plants about 5.83 million DWT.

COSTIND revealed that
1. China totally received 42.51 million DWT of fresh orders in 2006.
2. Total orders in hand added up to 68.72 million DWT, accounting for 24% the global total order book.
3. Chinas ship exports valued at USD 8.11 billion up by 74%.
4. China's shipbuilding industry realized CNY 172.2 billion of gross industrial production value up by 37% YoY
5. China's shipbuilding industrys profits amounted to CNY 9.6 billion increased by 102%.

Mr Zhang Guangqin president of China Association of the National Shipbuilding Industry said that China has been capable of making medium and small scale bulk cargo ship, oil tanker, super large container ship, 300,000 ton super large liquefied gas tanker, chemical tanker for stainless steel tank, FPSO and LNG. He also unveiled that China's production of large-scale oil tanker had already accounted for 51% of the nation's total ship production while that of bulk cargo ship only accounted for some 30%.

(Source from MySteel.net)

It is reported that Vietnam exported 1.8 million tons of coal worth USD 56 million in January 2006 down by 3.1 % YoY and 5% YoY respectively.

Vietnams Trade Information Center under the Trade Ministry said that Vietnam plans to export around 20 million tons of coal of different kinds this year. It said that coal items either with high export value and limited domestic demand or with abundant sources will be exported mainly to China, Japan, South Korea and Europe in 2007.

Recently, the Vietnamese Ministry of Planning and Investment had asked the government to reduce coal exports in the 2006-2010 period to ensure supplies for domestic users.

Vietnam exported roughly 29.8 million tons of coal in 2006 valued at USD 927 million up by 65.6% YoY and 38.5% YoY respectively, to over 20 countries and regions, including China, Japan, South Korea, Thailand, Malaysia, India, Brazil and the European Union.

Mechel announced the commissioning of a filter press for the treatment of neutralized pickling solution at Mechel Campia Turzy in Romania. This technology enables the plant to do without open slag accumulating tank, which produces a positive effect on ecology.

Mechel has already implemented the ecologic investment part of the privatization contract and startup of the filter-press was conducted in addition to the program.

Business daily Napi Gazdas reported that Germany's Max Aichers Hungarian steel works di Acmvek Kft plans to further increase its capacity this year to increase its profit by 50%. The output of di Acmvek in 2006 totaled 267,000 tonnes of finished products up by 2.7% on the target.

Ozdi Acmvek produces reinforcing bars, wire rods and round bars among others, has a staff of 500 and spent HUF 1.5 billion on developments last year.

It was privatized in 1997 and Max Aicher built a new electric furnace for the production of steel 1999 and also bought scrap merchant Koalf to guarantee the supply scrap at the d works, which was completed with a melting shop.

Max Aicher, a producer of steel bars and wired steel, has 1,600 employees at its works in Germany, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Romania. Max Aicher also manufactures special steel mainly used in the car industry and the technical engineering.

Caterpillar Inc agreed to acquire Franklin Power Products Inc and International Fuel Systems Inc from Remy International Inc for USD150 million in cash. The transaction is expected to close before the end of the first quarter 2007.

Franklin Power Products is a leading manufacturer of on highway light and medium duty truck diesel engines and engine components.

International Fuel Systems is a premium provider of remanufactured diesel engine components such as high pressure fuel pumps, fuel injectors and turbochargers.