Mr SK Roongta chairman of Steel Authority of India Limited, while addressing the annual business plan meeting for the three of its plants at Bhilai, Durgapur and Burnpur, outlined that SAIL is no longer in a comfort zone in compression to other domestic steel makers and called for a mindset change to remain leader in Indian steel scenario.

Mr Roongta said "Structural changes are taking place in the steel industry and private players are ready with plans to grow fast. It is imperative therefore that we shed the mindset of being comfortable and happy with incremental changes. There are no guidelines and benchmarks for the future. We have thus to determine ourselves where we stand and what are the challenges before us.

Mr Roongta added "Have faith in yourselves, think big and do not be afraid of failures. In a nutshell, we have to change the way we have been thinking."

Mr Roongta pointed out that the ultimate aim is to grow and make profits and the best way to achieve this is by containing cost.

Steel Authority of India Limiteds Bhilai Steel Plants blast furnace no 7 has been re commissioned after about 6 months of modernization drive so as to produce about4428 tonne of hot metal a day with 24 tuyeres as against previous 3300 tonne a day with 20 tuyeres .

The blowing in ceremony was performed by Mr SK Roongta chairman SAIL in the presence of other directors including Mr KK Khanna technical & commercial director, Mr G Ojha personnel & finance director and Mr R Ramaraju MD of BSP.

The SAIL board had approved the Rs 170-crore project in January 2005 and it was shutdown for the upgrade on August 22nd 2006 and around 1200 men including engieers, technicians and technology suppliers worked round the clock on the project.

In its campaign life of around 16 years from August 1991 to August 2006, BF 7 had produced over 16 million tonne of hot metal.

Indian government is considering to adopt a more efficient and transparent competitive bidding process for coal blocks as against awarding on a first come first serve basis earlier by amending Mines and Minerals Development and Regulation Act of 1957 and a legislative amendment for that is likely to be brought in the current budget session itself. Once the cabinet clears the proposal competitive bidding would start in 3 or 4 months.

The bidding process would involve an upfront payment based on the value of the reserves and other statutory mining taxes.

The move is based on the decision taken by the Prime Ministers special Energy Coordination Committee in 2005 as the current system of allotting coal blocks for captive mining done by a screening committee is subjective in nature and this move this move would bring transparency and efficiency in the entire process.

Sesa Goa Ltd announced that consequent to the acceptance of Japanese Steel Mills to increase the price of Australian Iron Ore for the year 2007-08, it has also secured a price increase of 9.5% for all its grades of Iron Ore from all the Japanese customers for the year 2007-08 over 2006-07 prices.

Indian Railways is reported to be looking at developing special wagons to move more payloads, strengthen tracks to increase the higher axle load routes, clear routes for double stack container movements, experiment with triple stack container movements and double stack container movements in electric traction to increase freight traffic. The objective: to make optimum use of the tracks and carriage capacity

As per reports, the initivates include
1. Stainless steel wagons which are lighter and have a higher payload to tare weight ratio of about 3.4 compared as against 2.7 in conventional wagons resulting of additional freight carrying capacity of about 1.8 tonnes to 2 tonnes per wagon
2. Several routes which are already moving wagons with 22.9 tonne and 22.5 tonne axle loads are likely to be upgraded to move 25 tonnes axle load. Two iron ore and steel routes Dallirajhara to Bhilai, and Daitari to Banspani are already being upgraded to move 25 tonne axle load
3. Double stack containers increase the carrying capacity of each train to 2,500 tonnes as against 1,500 tonnes besides reducing line capacity constraints by as much as 45% to 48%.
4. Indian Railway plans to usher in a paradigm shift with wagons built by the customer to suit precise need specifications.

Indian government had granted Navratna status to 9 public sector enterprises Bharat Heavy Electrical Limited, Bharat Petro Chemical Limited, Gas Authority of India Limited, Hindustan Petro Chemical Limited, Indian Oil Corporation, Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited, National Thermal Power Corporation, Oil & Natural Gas Corporation and Steel Authority of India Limited in July 1997.

Through the status of a Navratana, these public sector enterprises were given enhanced autonomy and delegation of powers to incur capital expenditure to enter into technology JV and strategic alliances to affect organizational restructuring below Board level posts to raise capital from domestic and international market. The enhanced powers presently delegated to the boards of Navratna public sector enterprises include
1) To incur capital expenditure on purchase of new items or for replacement without any monetary ceiling.
2) To enter into technology joint ventures or strategic alliances.
3) To obtain by purchase or other arrangements, technology and know how.
4) To effect organizational restructuring, opening of offices in India and abroad creating activity centers etc.
5) Creation and abolition of all posts including and up to those of non board level directors.
6) The board of directors of these public sector enterprises has the power to further delegate the powers relating to human resource management.
7) To raise debt from the domestic capital markets and for borrowings from international market, which would be subject to the approval of Reserve Bank of India and Department of Economic Affairs as may be required and should be obtained through the administrative Ministry.
8) To establish financial joint ventures and wholly owned subsidiaries in India or abroad, with certain limitations
9) Mergers and acquisitions subject to certain conditions.

The performance of all Navratana companies is reviewed by an apex committee from time to time.

Kolkata based Garden Reach Shipbuilders & Engineers Ltd, a category 1 miniratna company, has embarked upon an ambitious expansion plan and has already acquired the Rajabagan Dockyard as a first step in this direction.

Rear Admiral (Retired) TS Ganeshan CMD of GRSE recently presented a cheque for Rs 10 crore as interim dividend for 2006-07 to Mr AK Antony defence minister of India. GRSE has delivered one large landing ship tank INS Shardul and two fast attack craft INS Battimaly and INS Baratang during 2006-07.

Profit after tax, value of production as well as the number of ships launched and delivered in 2005-06 were a record in the history of GRSE.

It is reported that Singapore's Changi Airport International has signed a 49:51 JV company with TATA Groups subsidiary TATA Realty & Infrastructure to invest in, develop and manage Indian airports.

The scope of the work includes modernization and operations of the Chennai and Kolkata airports. It will also extend to investments in some of the 35 smaller airports as well as the proposed INR.4, 235 crore Navi Mumbai airport project.

Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore owned CAI had earlier teamed up with telecom giant Bharti for the Mumbai airport modernization project but later pulled out citing lack of confidence in meeting tender conditions.

The world's largest and most global steel company Arcelor Mittal announced that it has signed various agreements with the State of Senegal in West Africa to develop iron ore mining in the Faleme region of South East Senegal. It will also consider selective investments in the downstream steel facilities. The agreements will become effective upon fulfillment of certain conditions precedent by the State of Senegal.

The project is expected to entail an investment of approximately USD 2.2 billion. The total estimated reserves are approximately 750 million tonnes, located at 4 locations in the Faleme region and comprising both haemetite and magnetite deposits.

The project is an integrated mining project and will encompass the development of the mine, the building of a new port near Dakar and the development of approximately 750 kilometer of rail infrastructure to link the mine with the port.

The mine is expected to commence production in 2011. The project will be developed in phases to achieve an annual production capacity of between 15 million tonnes to 25 million tonnes per year at peak operations.

Mr LN Mittal president & CEO of Arcelor Mittal said "We are delighted at having signed the binding agreements with the State of Senegal in Dakar yesterday and are now looking forward to moving forward with this important project. Once completed, the Faleme project will prove to be an important and competitive source of iron ore supplies for our European plants. "This project is an important step in our strategy of creating West Africa as a mining hub for iron ore supplies to our steel plants around the world. We are confident Senegal will prove to be a strategic location to extend our existing footprint in the promising West African markets."

Arcelor Mittal has also pledged its support to the community and the people of Senegal as part of its commitment to Corporate Social Responsibility in the countries in which it operates.

Anglo Americans South Africa iron ore subsidiary Kumba Iron ore had recently resumed limited drilling of the Faleme iron ore deposit as talks with the government over who can access the concession continued after its agreement with state owned project development company Miferso in July 2004. However, Miferso subsequently signed a MoU with Arcelor Mittal to develop the deposit.

POSCO announced that its shareholders approved a proposal to ease rules on new share sales, a move expected to help head off hostile takeover attempts.

At their annual meeting, shareholders also approved a revision of corporate articles, under which POSCO will be able to sell new shares to strategic partners and double the ceiling on the sale of bonds convertible into stock to KRW 2 trillion (USD 2.12 billion).

Mr Lee Ku-taek CEO of POSCO said that the company needs to boost its value to avoid becoming a target. He said "In order to fend off any hostile takeover attempts, we will continue to raise the market value of POSCO. We will seek to increase the number of friendly shareholders to shake off such concern over takeover. At the same time, we will eye on foreign steelmakers for mergers and acquisitions."

POSCO's is more than 60% owned by foreign investors and its biggest shareholder is currently South Korea's National Pension Service with a 2.86% interest. This could make it a prime target for a hostile takeover attempt by a global major.

Australian ferrous minerals producer Consolidated Minerals has agreed a takeover offer from privately held Pallinghurst Resources Fund LP and AMCI Ltd.

The new company will continue to be named Consolidated Minerals Ltd. It will be headquartered at Perth in Australia and will apply to be listed on AIM in London, the Australian Stock Exchange, and the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. It will be owned 60% by the investment vehicle of Pallinghurst and AMCI and 40% by existing Consmin shareholders. The deal remains subject to shareholder, regulatory and court approval and is expected to be completed in the June quarter of 2007. Under certain conditions, Consmin has agreed to pay a break fee of AUD 5 million to Pallinghurst Consolidated and AMCI.

Consmin shareholders will receive AUD1.38 in cash and two shares in the new company for every five shares held thus valuing the company at AUD 2.28 per share or AUD 625 million (USD 493 million). Consmin said that the figure is only marginally above Consmins Thursday close of AUD 2.25 per share but 33.3% above its stock price of AUD 1.71 on October 9th 2006, the date prior to initial market speculation about a deal.

Mr Rod Baxter MD of Consmin said This transaction will help us transform Consolidated Minerals into a mid-tier resource leader and allow us to access new growth opportunities across commodities and geographic areas. The new company will be well positioned to drive further industry consolidation.

Mr Brian Gilbertson former CEO of BHPB, president of Russian aluminum group SUAL and chairman of Pallinghurst said Consolidation in the industry is creating unique opportunities for companies with vision and execution skills to deliver superior shareholder returns and that the deal with Consmin will turn it into a significant global player. History shows that mining companies enjoying strong cornerstone shareholder support often outperform their peers. We look forward to working with the team on this exciting initiative.

Tin prices hit a new record high to breach USD 14,000 per tonne on the Kuala Lumpur Tin Market on escalating fear of supply disruption from world's second largest tin producer Indonesia. Tin at KLTM closed at USD 14,070 per tonne up by USD400 from Wednesday's close, in line with the strong performance on the London Metal Exchange.

Tin price movement had been volatile over the past one month as Indonesia tightened tin export regulations and clamped down illegal mining operations mostly in the Bangka Belitung province, which account for almost half of the Indonesias refined tin exports.

Market players were now waiting to see whether the metal can touch the USD 15,000 per tonne mark next week.

A recent report by UK based ITRI Ltd and CRU International Ltd said tin supply would fall short of demand by about 30,000 tonnes in 2007 due to the reduced production by Indonesia.

It is reported that 7 Thai importers of electrical steel have agreed to pay THB 800 million out of a total of THB 3 billion baht in fines and unpaid tax claimed by the Thailands customs department for tax evasion.

Mr Katiya Greigarn chairman of the Federation of Thai Industries' Electrical Electronic and Allied Industry Club said The importers agreed to yield to the demand as they do not want to have legal disputes with the customs authorities. 'They want to end the legal dispute as quickly as possible and do not want it to harm their businesses. Mr Katiya said the importers were ready to pay only BHT 800 million of the fines.

On the other hand Mr Chavalit Sethameteekul DG of Thailands customs department said that the case had gone too far to be settled through negotiation because it had already been passed to the Department of Special Investigation.

As per reports, the dispute dates back to 2003, when the customs department charged seven companies with underpaying tariffs on imports of silicon based electrical steel between 1995 and 2003 and asked them to pay a total of BHT 2 billion fine and BHT 1 billion in unpaid tax. Under Thailands import rules, steel with more than 0.6% silicon content is charged an import duty of 1% while steel with lower content is taxed at 12%.

POSCO is considering a proposal from the Vietnamese government to construct a steel mill in Vietnam.

Mr Lee Ku-taek CEO of POSCO at a press conference after the company's shareholder and board meetings said "We are currently undertaking a feasibility study of the Vietnam project so we cannot talk about any details yet.

Worlds second largest stainless steel producer Acerinox Group has posted record figures for 2006

Volume in million tonnes
Change is with respect to 2005

The world's second largest zinc producer Teck Cominco Ltd said that global zinc deficit may widen next year as supplies lag behind demand.

Teck Cominco officials said that zinc demand exceeded output by 315,000 tonnes in 2006 and that the shortfall will narrow to 89,000 tonnes this year and widen in 2008 on supply limits.

Mittal Steel South Africa has reported headline earnings of ZAR 4.65 billion for the financial year ended December 2006 an 8% decrease YoY. It attributed the decline in earnings to a significant increase in the cost of input materials which was partially offset by an increase in domestic sales volumes and a weaker Rand US Dollar exchange rate.

Mittal's SA liquid steel output for the year was 7.055 million tonnes, down by 3% YoY as compared with last year due to several production disruptions. These included a skip hoist failure at one of the blast furnaces at its main Vanderbijlpark Steel plant, electricity and oxygen supply outages at Saldanha Steel, two fires at Vanderbijlpark Steel and a cutback in production, both at Vanderbijlpark Steel and Newcastle Steel, after iron ore supply was hit by delivery problems.

Mittal Steel SA forecast that earnings in the first quarter of 2007 would beat those of the last quarter of 2006. Mr Rick Reato CEO of Mittal Steel SA said that "Domestic demand is expected to continue increasing, and improve the first quarter earnings versus the fourth quarter of last year although a bit slower than last year."

Acerinox has also announced an investment program of EUR 437 million for years 2007 and 2008, which would result in production capacity increase as follows.

Volume in million tonnes

Acerinox said that More than a half of the investment amount will be allocated to the US works, where the a second AOD converter, the fifth cold rolling ZM mill and an annealing and pickling line of 1.126 million tonnes capacity have already been ordered. Besides, new finishing equipments for long products are being ordered. After all these investments, NAS will strengthen its leadership as one of the most modern stainless steel mills in the world.

It added that Columbus Stainless, in south Africa, has just ordered a fourth ZM cold rolling mill, which will increase its annual cold rolling production to 100,000 tonnes. This will be another step to balance the production capacities of this competitive plant, where melting capacity already amounts to 1million tonne per annum.

Acerinox also announced that In April 2007 the Campo de Gibraltar works will carry out important improvements in the hot coil annealing and pickling line, which will increase production capacity by 10% and will involve a substantial reduction of acid consumption. It will also start on a total modernization and enlargement of N 3 annealing and pickling line, which will increase its capacity by 20%. Other important investments will be carried out so as to save energy and to reduce CO2 emissions through the installation of oxygas burners for the melting shop and the most modern regenerative burners in the thermic treatment lines, a boiler which will use the hot rolling mill exit fumes, etc. Water consumption, and consequently hydric effluents, will be reduced and an underwater discharge outlet will be built. In addition, several investments will be devoted to health and safety at work, and technological updating will be carried out yearly. With all these investments, the factory will be even more balanced and much more competitive.

Lastly Acerinox s ROLDAN SA is carrying out a whole transformation of the hot rolling mills, which will allow to process billets of 2,400 kilograms to result in outstanding productivity increases, remarkable energy savings and cost reductions and a new pickling line will be constructed.

South Africas biggest coal producer Exxaro Resources Ltd posted a modest rise in full year adjusted attributable earnings following its unbundling from Kumba Resources Ltd. Exxaro said that its earnings fell by 28% YoY to ZAR 1.7 billion from ZAR 2.4 billion in 2005 while net income during the period rose to ZAR 19.2 billion from ZAR 3.2 billion.

Exxaro said earnings include all the empowerment transaction related expenses but exclude the unbundled interest in KIO at fair value.

Net operating profit which included a ZAR 17.9 billion fair adjustment valuation of its unbundling was pegged at ZAR 20.7 billion compared with ZAR 4.9 billion in the same period a year earlier. Stripping out one off costs adjusted net operating profit was ZAR 4.4 billion up from ZAR 3.7 billion a year earlier and adjusted attributable earnings were ZAR 2.8 billion from last years ZAR2.5 billion.

The unbundling of Kumba Resources Ltd into 2 news companies, Exxaro and Kumba Iron Ore Ltd was completed in December 2006.

Anglo American announced that its attributable nickel production of 26,400 tonnes in 2006 changed a little from 2005s 26,500 tonne and is expected to be little changed again this year.

Its production at the Loma de Niquel ferronickel operations in Venezuela slipped to 16,600 tonnes of contained nickel from 16,900 tonnes in 2005 but at the Codemin ferronickel operations in Brazil improved to 9,800 tonne from 9,600 tonnes.

The company approved at the end of 2006 giant USD 1.2 billion Barro Alto ferronickel project in Brazil. First production is targeted for 2010 with full capacity of 36,000 tonnes nickel in ferronickel due the following year.

According to Rosstat, Russias production of steel pipes in January 2007 totaled 673,000 tonnes up by 34.5% YoY as compared to January 2006.

Rosstat said that YoY growth of pipe production at the leading enterprises in January 2007 is as under
1 Vyksa Pipe Rolling Plant 149.3%
2 Pervouralsk New Pipe Plant 131%
3 Chelyabinsk Pipe Rolling Plant 164.4%
4 Volzhsky Pipe Plant 130.1%
5 Taganrog Metallurgical Plant 109.8%
6 Sinarsky Pipe Plant 107.9%.

Industrial services and engineering company Harsco Corporation announced that its MultiServ mill services division has been awarded three new international contracts worth more than USD 18 million over their duration.

The first agreement is a 6 year contract with a mill at Alexandria in Egypt for processing scrap steel that is to be recycled by the mill. The company also won a 3 year contract to provide packaging services to an Arcelor Mittal mill near Nantes in France. It also received a 2 year contract expanding the services it will provide to a mill in northern France owned by LME Valenciennes Beltrame Group.

Harsco Corporation is a leading diversified industrial services company serving major customers around the globe in the steel and metals, non residential construction, energy and railway industries. The Company posted revenues of USD 3.4 billion in 2006.

Thai governments department of foreign trade announced that the ongoing investigation towards anti damping of high carbon wire rods into Thailand from China, India and South Africa will be possibly continued and extended for 1 year.

This investigation mainly focuses on imports under 6 HS codes starting with 7213 and so on. The involved 3 countries as well as many Chinese manufacturers make the process complicated.

The request for filing this AD case was made major by the domestic companies Tycoons Worldwide Group and Thai Special Steel Industry.

Corus Group announced price increases of up to 10% for its long products for the second quarter of 2007 and that specific product pricing will be provided to customers in the coming weeks.

Mr Derek Randall commercial director of Corus' long products division said Favorable market conditions and strong demand in several of our sectors including construction, energy and engineering support this price increase across our product range.
Corus raised prices for its HR, CR and coated steel products in Europe by 5% to 7% recently.

Lundin Mining Corporation said its 2006 Q4 profit rose to USD 84 million up by 500% YY from USD 14 million in 2005 Q4 boosted by the consolidation of the Eurozinc acquisition in 2006 and gains on derivative contracts

Sales rose to USD 236 million from USD 63 million boosted by the Eurozinc purchase and significantly higher metal prices and were above market expectations of USD 215 million. Its gains on derivative contracts were USD 15 million in the Q4 compared with a loss of USD 6 million in the same period a year earlier.

A total of 545,535 tonnes of ore were milled in the Q4 of 2006 increasing by 7% YoY from the comparable period in 2005. Ore hoisted increased by 13% YoY as compared with the Q4 of 2005. Lundin Mining said the increased output was directly attributable to improved performance in mine development and production preparation work and to the addition of zinc ore production in 2006.

Lundin Mining said the outlook for metal prices for 2007 is mixed and low LME inventory for zinc and lead demand for these metals particularly from Asia is expected to continue and it anticipates zinc and lead prices will remain high during 2007. Lundin Mining said it expects the operational performance of all its mines to improve during 2007 from 2006.

China Petroleum Pipeline Bureau said that China plans to build another 25,000 kilometers of oil and gas pipelines by 2010 to support economic development.

Mr Su Shifeng director of China Petroleum Pipeline Bureau said that the length of the country's oil and gas pipelines totals 40,000 kilometers at present.

The CPPLB, Chinas leading enterprise in oil and gas pipeline transportation sector, undertakes the construction of more than 80 % of China's oil and gas pipelines and over 75 % of the country's crude oil storage tanks. CPPLB recorded CNY 420 million of profits in 2006 up by 82.6% YoY and raked in CNY 8.4 billion of revenues.

Two Greenpeace protesters, who were demonstrating against what they say is the NSW government's plan to expand the Hunter Valley coal industry and had chained themselves to a conveyor belt at Newcastle's biggest coal terminal were cut free by police using bolt cutting equipment

All conveyor belts at the terminal had to be turned off for just over an hour while police sought to release the pair.

Greenpeace said the protest was against plans to extend the Hunter Valley coal industry, including approval of the controversial Anvil Hill mine and a doubling in the export capacity of the Kooragang coal terminal.

Mr Ben Pearson a Spokesman of Greenpeace said that while the protest may have been costly to the coal industry, it was worth it. He said "Look, the real damage is being caused by this coal, the coal that we've stopped being loaded would cause millions of dollars worth of climate damage, that's the real issue here, not the profits of coal companies but the damage that would be cause by that coal being used and contributing to climate change."

Canadian nickel producer LionOre Mining International announced that it will delist its shares from the Australian Stock Exchange with immediate effect from June 5th 2007.

LionOre said that With a limited volume of trading on the ASX and a limited number of LionOre shares held in Australia the Company has determined that the financial, administrative and compliance obligations of maintaining the listing are no longer justified.

Interfax reported that Russia's second biggest copper producer Urals Mining and Metallurgical is thinking about an IPO but has not yet decided when this might happen.

Mr Andrei Kozitsyn GD of UMMC's at presentation for a RUB 3 billion bond issue by its flagship enterprise Uralelektromed said "We're being audited to International Financial Reporting Standards for the last 4 years, which is crucial for an IPO. We're addressing this but this does not mean it'll happen.

Mr Kozitsyn said metals company need 18 months to 2 years to prepare properly for initial public offerings He said the group was not planning to convert its enterprises to a single share.

UMMC currently combines more than 40 enterprises in 11 Russian regions that are managed by UMMC Holding. The group has about a 40% share of the domestic cathode copper market and more than half of the European market for copper powders.