The TATA group will have five nominee directors Mr B Muthuraman MD of TATA Steel, Mr Arun Gandhi ED of TATA Sons, Mr Ishaat Hussain finance director of TATA Sons, Mr NA Soonavala vice chairman of TATA Sons and Mr Ratan Tata chairman of TATA Sonsin the reconstituted board of Corus. Mr Ratan Tata will also be the chairman of the reconstituted Corus board.

At the same time, an operations committee will be formed to spearhead the process of integration between TATA Steel and Corus. The committee will be headed by Mr Ratan and will comprise senior officials from both TATA Steel and Corus to supervise operations of the newly acquired units. The committees will decide the direction of the companies and market opportunities.

The reorganization of the board is likely to take place soon after the acquisition process is over. The board of Corus is slated to hold an extraordinary general meeting on March 7th 2007 seeking shareholder approval for the TATAs offer.

JSW Steel Ltd has announced its crude steel production of 0.258 million tonnes in January 2007 is up by 25% YoY as against January 2006. JSW Steels production of HR plate and HRC in January 2007 also recorded YOY growth of 144% and 20% respectively.

JSW Steel has attributed this strong growth in production to capacity enhancement carried out by the company during the 2006 to 07.

However, the production in pellet plant and galvanizing facilities in January 2007 was lower compared to January 2006.

TATA Steel announced that it will finalise the financial structure to fund acquisition of Corus by the end of this month.

Mr B Muthuraman MD of TATA Steel said that "We would finalize our financial structure by the month end. Whereas the company is thinking on many ways of raising money and would structure the financing in a way that it did not harm the employees and shareholders."

Mr B Muthuraman said The recent acquisition of Corus will not have additional financial burden on the existing TATA Steel operations in India. The loans would be taken in the name of TATA Steel UK, a separate legal entity managing the entire Corus operations. ATA Steel and TATA Sons would bring in the equity while the debt would be serviced from the cash flows of Corus. The loans taken would be solely on Coruss balance sheet and all the existing projects of Corus would continue.

Mr Muthuraman also said the acquisition would not affect the ongoing expansion at the Jamshedpur steel plant to 10 million tonnes from the current 5 million tonnes.

Indias Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs has approved a 74:26 JV Bharatiya Rail Bijlee Company, between NTPC Ltd and the Indian Railways, for setting up a INR 5,352 crore 1000 MW thermal power plant at Nabinagar in Bihar to meet the requirements of the rail network across the country. The company will have a seed capital of INR 10 crore and an authorized capital of INR 1,605.75 crore.

The joint venture company would be headquartered in Delhi and will be managed by NTPC, whose nominee will be heading the new entity.

Mr P Chidambaram finance minister said "Since the project capacity is 1000 MW and power will be supplied to more than one state, the financial concessions and benefits available to mega projects by way of custom and excise duty exemption will be extended."

The cost of power would work out to about INR 2.51 per unit and 10% power would be given to Bihar but if the project is accorded mega status, then the cost of power would go down to INR 2.39 per unit. Indian Railways currently pays INR 4.22 per unit as an all India average for its traction needs.

Mr Madhu Koda chief minister of Jharkhand congratulated TATA Steel for its successful takeover of Corus beating Brazilian rival CSN and termed TATA Steel as the pride of Jharkhand.

Mr Koda said "It is our most precious asset. The company has made both Jharkhand and the country proud."

Mr Koda said that both the management and the union of the company need to be commended for the incredible achievement. He said "I wish the company all success in its zeal to become a global leader in steel sector. I am confident Tata Steel would leave all its rivals behind in the race.

SNS reported that Orissa government has sought time to clear the road at Kalinga Nagar blocked by agitating tribal for more than a year now and the High Court directed it to take steps by 9th March 2007.

The government informed the court of the various measures taken to lift the road blockade including instructions given to the district authorities and the latest negotiation between the CM and leaders of the Visthapan Birodhi Janamanch which is leading the tribal agitation.

The court had earlier asked the government to provide information of steps taken to remove obstructions following a petition, which claimed that due to the road blockade timely medical treatment could not be provided and a child had died.

Adhunik Metaliks Ltd has reported a 110% YoY increase in net profit at INR 20.15 crore in October to December 2006 quarter as against a net profit of INR 9.56 crore in Q3 of 2005-06. Its net sale has also increased by 44% YoY to INR 200.56 crore as against INR 138.49 crore in Q3 of 2005-06.

Adhuniks net sales for April to December 2006 stood at INR 547.72 crore up by 129% YoY as against INR 239.15 crore in April to December 2005 and net profit amounted to INR 55.89 crore up 232% YoY as against INR 16.81 crore in April to December 2005.

NTPC has announced that it is planning to invest INR 1,365 crore to renovate 3 power plants with a total capacity of more than 6,500 MW to enhance their lifespan by up to 25 years. The 3 projects include 2,000MW Singrauli, 2,760MW Vindhyachal and 2,000MW Rihand plants in the coal belt of eastern Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh.

Singrauli plant will be celebrating its 25th anniversary later this month and has already begun renovation and will be completing the first phase by March 2007 at a cost of INR 50 crore. The second phase, costing INR135 crore will be finished by 2009. Thereafter mega renovation will be undertaken to extend the plant life by 25 years.

Vindhyachal and are also completing renovation of first stages. NTPC would renovate first six units of 210MW each in Vindhyachal at a cost of INR 80 crore and Rihand is upgrading its first two units at an investment of INR 100 crore to be completed by 2009.

NTPC will procure equipment from Bharat Heavy Electrical, Siemens, ABB and others. While the boilers will be supplied by BHEL, control systems by Siemens and ABB.

This plan will save a substantial amount as setting up Greenfield projects of similar capacity which will cost over INR 25,000 crore.

Visa Steel Ltd has posted a profit after tax of INR 19.87 crore for April to December 2006 up by 93% YoY as compared with INR 10.29 crore April to December 2005. Its net income during the period amounted to INR 391.94 crore up by 46% YoY as compared with Rs 275.46 crore during April to December 2005.

Visa Steel recorded production of 134,734 tonnes of hot metal during the period as compared with 110,754 tonnes produced during April to December 2005. The release added that its entire production of coke was utilized in the blast furnace.

According to a press release, the performance has been attributed to the manufacturing segment, presently comprising pig iron and coke operations, which registered a revenue growth of 55% YoY to INR 209.6 crore during the period April to December 2006. The release states that though trading operations contributed close to 50% of gross revenues, the company expects the trading business to contribute to a marginal portion of overall operations with additional facilities going on stream in the months ahead.

IFGL Refractories Ltd is reported to be eyeing acquisitions in the US and Europe and hopes to raise and deploy INR 500 crore towards this within the next two years

IGFL acquired the Monocon Group of the UK last year for EUR 8 million, has now acquired the Goricon Group of the UK for EUR 1 million. IFGL has also invested INR 9 crore in China and plans more investment for expansion of the Chinese facility in the current year

IFGL has its manufacturing facility at Rourkela in Orissa and has a capacity to manufacture 300,000 pieces of continuous casting and 240,000 pieces of slide gate refractories every year. About 60 % of the production is exported.

The NTPCs Talcher Thermal Power Station is now transmitting largest quantum of power ever in its history to the Grid Corporation of Orissa by running all its 6 units in full steam after the renovation and maintenance works. Gridco now draws about 409 MW of power daily from the NTPC plant which has the total installed capacity of 460 MW. The current level generation is said to be the highest since the plant was acquired by NTPC from Orissa government.

NTPC official said that the power output could go up in the next year as this year and has been a marginal gain than that of the last financial year where only 1 % of gain has been achieved over the plant load factor by the end of the third quarter than the corresponding period of 2005 to 06.

The coal based TTPS, the foundation of which was laid by the first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru in 1964, has four 60 MW units and two 110 MW units.

Indias Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs recently gave its approval for widening of National Highways for 3 sub projects in Tamil Nadu on build, operate and transfer basis.

The projects include 136 kilometers of Salem to Ulundurpet highway, 88 kilometers of Trichy to Dindigul and 80 kilometers of Trichy to Karur highway costing INR 941 crore, INR 576 crore and INR 516 crore respectively.

It is reported that Arcelor Mittal and POSCO discussed possible ways to cooperate when Mr Roland Junck former CEO and the current advisor of Arcelor Mittal met Mr Lee Ku taek CEO of POSCO for about 1 hour but reached no firm commitments and avoided any discussion of mergers and acquisitions.

As per a POSCO statement Mr Junck told Mr Lee that Arcelor Mittal wanted to re establish communication channels with POSCO that had existed with Arcelor SA. The statement said, without elaborating, added that Mr Junck also suggested the possibility of mutual cooperation in overseas investment projects, such as in Asia and Mexico.

The statement said that Mr Lee expressed interest in a dialogue and indicated his willingness to cooperate whenever it helps develop the global steel industry and there is an area that is beneficial to both companies.

However the statement clarified that "There was no discussion about M&A between the two companies."

The European Commission announced that it has extended the deadline for its inquiry into Evraz Group SA's proposed acquisition of a 24.9% stake in Anglo American's Highveld Steel and Vanadium Corp Ltd until February 20th 2007. The original deadline was February 6th 2007.

EC normally extends inquiries by ten working days, in cases where a national competition authority has asked for jurisdiction, or where the companies have offered remedies to competition concerns raised during the investigation

ICRA in a recent report forecast that the world steel consumption growth is likely to slow down significantly in the next four years. It said "The world steel consumption growth is expected to slow down from 8.9% in 2006 to 5.2% in 2007 and 4.2% in 2010," the ICRA industry monitor said.

The ICRA report said that the decline in growth would mainly be caused by China, where the rate of consumption increase is likely to drop from 14.4% in 2006 to 8% in the next four years.

It forecast that the growth in consumption in India would come down marginally in 2007 to 9.1% from 10% in 2006. The major drop in the growth would come from the European Union and the NAFTA region. According to the report, the EU is likely to see a negative growth of 1.1% in 2007 as against positive of 8%and NAFTA region may see a growth of 0.7% from a positive of 8.7%.

POSCO has decided to set up POSCO Mexico, a 52.3:47.7 JV with POSCAN, in Mexico to oversee its production of steel sheet for automobiles exclusively for the region and has signed a MOU with Mexican government for availing tax and other corporate benefits. The plant would be located at Tampico near Altamir in Tamaulipas region of Mexico. The construction of the factory is due to commence in October 2007 with the aim of being fully operational by June 2009.

Mr Park Seung-hyun a POSCO spokesman said We will work closely together with the Mexican government and industry officials to realize the project by the set date and will now construct the electricity and gas infrastructure needed for the establishment of its value added automotive steel plant.

Mr Park said that Mexico has almost all major international automakers present and that the region has an attractive logistics system adding that Mexico and the Americas have an annual demand for auto grade steel sheets is over 1.6 million tonnes with import accounting for about 1.3 million tonnes. POSCO plans to supply steel to global carmakers such as Koreas Hyundai Motor, GM, Toyota, Nissan and Volkswagen in the South and North American regions.

POSCO invested some USD 262 million in Mexico in 2006 to build an automotive steel sheet plant with an annual production capacity of 400,000 tonnes. POSCO Mexico will be POSCOs 62 units both at home and abroad.

Although some Chinese traders claim that they have suspended the semis export offers citing unclear steel export policy at moment, the rumor goes that Chinese government is to reduce or even cancel steel export tax rebate after Chinese Spring Festival, most likely between March 1st 2007 and March 15th 2007

Mr Luo Bingsheng deputy director of China Iron & Steel Association at a recent working conference on January 22nd 2007 warned that China intends to scrap tax rebate in response to prevailing trade frictions and suggested that domestic exporters take precautionary measures against imminent altering tax regime. He said "Though CISA believe that 10% is a suitable ratio for export volume versus total steel output, related departments would reduce or even cancel the export tax rebate if the export volume for the first two months of 2007 still maintain at the same level of that in Q4 2006."

Mr Luos remark has sparked the rumor that Chinese government would take measures soon, probably after Chinese Spring Festival.

A senior trader disclosed that they have paused semis export offers since the first day of 2007 saying that "Overseas customers are not willing to take the risk of policy adjustments on export tariff. Thus it is hard for us negotiate export business at moment."

But analysts express that there is no need to adjust again since there has been effects already. However analysts hold that there is slim chance that semis export tariffs would be raised since exports have been trimmed to some extent and while export tax rebate rate for some finished steel products are believed to be reduced soon, but it is not likely to cancel them at once.

Besides, the increase of billet prices is expected to go on and would not cease in a short period. The limited supply is boosting the market. With constant growing steel product export and having a part of facilities under maintenance, the steelmakers have limited billets & 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 and the increased price has basically accepted. Under such circumstances, there has been little sentiment for traders and billet producers to export since there have been few profits.

On October 27th 2006, a new policy was officially released to impose a provisional 10% duty on export of semi steels, effective from November 1st 2006. This move followed reduction of 13% export tax rebate to 8% for steels in April 2005 to strengthen the government's intention to hold down export of high energy consuming, heavy pollution, low value added resource intensive products.

Statistics show that China exported billet & slab of 9.04 million ton in 2006 and imported 0.37 million tonnes up by 28% YoY and down by 72% YoY respectively resulting in net semis exports reaching 8.67 million ton.

(Sourced from MySteel.net)

According to preliminary information consolidated net income of the United Metallurgical Company CJSC in 2006 increased by 58% YoY to USD 440 million, revenues will total above USD 3 billion which is 50% more than in 2005 and USD 1.8 billion EBITDA is up by 58% YoY as compared to USD 720 million in 2005.

Mr Anatoly Sedykh chairman of board of OMK said that it is planning to increase investments in 2007 to USD 800 million as compared to USD 630 million in 2006, out of which 60% to 70% will be from the company's own resources.

Mr Sedykh also noted that the main investment project of last years a casting rolling complex that is being built by OMK in the Vyksa district will be launched as per scheduled. The company's investments in the project will total some USD 1 billion.

Founded in 1992, OMK is one of the largest domestic producers of pipes, railway wheels and other metal products for power, transport and industrial companies.

BNamericas reported that Brazilian steelmaker CSN will continue to pursue acquisitions abroad after losing the Corus takeover race, although it could become a takeover target itself.

Mr Carlos Nunes an investment analyst with brokerage Coinvalores told BNamericas that "CSN's failure to acquire Corus is actually positive, because to gain market share at any price is a very aggressive and questionable strategy. CSN could go for new acquisitions, but the problem is there are probably not many other assets for sale in the world. I don't think there are any more filet mignons out there."

Corus loss is the second for CSN in last year after it cancelled an agreement to combine its North American assets with US steel producer Wheeling-Pittsburgh due to strong opposition from the Wheeling workers' union and some shareholders.

CSN is executing a 4.5 million tonne steel slab projects and 0.5 million tonnes long steel project in Brazil along with expansion of its Casa de Pedra iron ore mine and other operations in the cement industry.

Arch Coal Inc posted a profit of USD 79.5 million in October to December 2006 quarter as compared with its loss of USD 1 million in October to December 2005. Its revenue dipped by less than 0.5% to USD 618.4 million from $619.8 million in October to December 2005.

Arch Coal's revenue for 2006 remained virtually flat while its profit soared by 1,058%. It recorded profit of USD 260.6 million on revenue of USD 2.5 billion in 2006 as compared with profit of USD 22.5 million on revenue of USD 2.51 billion in 2005.

Arch sold 33.9 million tons of coal in the fourth quarter up from 33.5 million tons in the year ago period. For the full year, Arch sold 127.4 million tons for the year down from 138.8 million tons in 2005. The company reduced its production target for 2007, now expecting production of between 130 million and 135 million tons of coal.

Mr Steven F Leer chairman & CEO said "Looking ahead, Arch remains focused on managing our business through the near-term weakness in the U.S. coal markets, while strongly positioning the company to capitalize on expected growth in coal demand later this year and beyond."

St Louis based Arch Coal Inc is one of the largest coal producers in US providing the fuel for about 6% of the electricity generated in the United States. Arch operates 12 mining complexes in the US.

POSCO has established a 49:51 JV with Societe Miniere du Sud Pacifique SA to build its first ferronickel refinery at Kwangyang in South Korea with an annual capacity of 150,000 tonnes. The project also includes a nickel ore mine in New Caledonia.

The construction on nickel refinery will start in May 2007 and finish by the end 2008.

POSCO has announced in 2006 that it will invest USD 352 million in two nickel projects with SMSP as part of an effort to cut purchasing costs of raw materials.

Xinhua news agency reported that at least 7 miners were killed and 4 injured in a coalmine fire in China's central Henan Province. The fire happened in Xin'an Colliery in Henan's northwestern Mianchi County at 7:25AM local time with 11 miners in total trapped inside the mine.

Rescuers found 2 trapped workers dead and sent another 4 to hospital. The other 5 workers are still trapped in the mine and are reportedly dead.

The coal mine is a licensed one.

Australian company CMA Corporation Ltd announced that it has entered into a Share Sale Agreement to acquire Victorian-based scrap metal recycling group Southern Rocycling. The agreement is conditional and subject to completing due diligence, shareholder approval and finalizing funding arrangements

Southern Rocycling is one of the largest privately owned processors and recyclers of scrap and secondary metals in Australia, with plants in Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide, Queensland, Tasmania and New Zealand. Southern Rocycling has an annual turnover in excess of USD 75 million and specializes in the recycling and processing of various metals into value added end products for Australian industry and specialized overseas markets

Mr Peter Hatfull MD of CMA said the acquisition was part of CMA's strategy to build a network of efficient and well run scrap metal operations throughout Australia. He said "We see this as an outstanding opportunity to take CMA to the next level in the Australian scrap sector.

Mr Ben Magara CEO of Anglo Coal South Africa said that it could spend ZAL 13 billion on building 5 coal mines in Mpumalanga, Gauteng and the Free State to meet rapidly growing demand from Eskom and the international export market. These 5 coal projects include MacWest, Zondagsfontein, Heidelberg, Elders & New Largo and could add as much as 25 million tonnes a year to the company's coal output.

Zondagsfontein would be a multi product coalmine combining opencast and underground mining. The mine could produce between 5 million and 6 million tons of coal a year.

New Largo would be an opencast mine 25 kilometer from Witbank and could produce 14 million tonnes to 15 million tonnes of coal a year. The new mine could supply coal to a possible new 4 000 MW Eskom power station in Mpumalanga.

Elders would consist of both an underground and opencast mine that would supply Eskom with coal as well as coal for export via Richards Bay could produce 7 million tonnes a year.

Heidelberg would be a medium-sized colliery close to the town of the same name in Gauteng with production capacity of 3 million to 5 million tons. There are also plans to mine underground.

Mr Magara while speaking on the sidelines of McCloskey's second South African coal exports conference said the company was looking to expand its annual coal production from 56.9 million tonnes in 2005 to between 80 million and 85 million tons over the next 10 years if the buoyant conditions in the coal market continued. Mr Magara said the expansions would depend a great deal on Spoornet's capacity to move coal from the mines to power stations and Richards Bay Coal Terminal.

The Anglo American subsidiary has 10 coal mining operations. Only the Goedehoop colliery near Witbank has received a new order mining right, which covers only part of the colliery's mining area.

UKs The Independent reported that Magnitogorsk Steel Plant plans initial public offering of its securities on the London Stock Exchange this year and that MMK would also place a part of its shares on the Moscow stock market.

Details of the upcoming IPO are to be published by the middle of the spring, but the plants representatives already said that securities were almost sure to be placed just on the London Stock Exchange that is the most popular floor for Russian companies.

MMK has got permission in Russia for placing on foreign stock exchanges up to 25 % of its shares in the form of global depository receipts.

Mr Gerard McCloskey of McCloskey Coal told a conference in Cape Town that Coal exports from the Richards Bay Coal Terminal are expected to be between 4.2 million and 4.5 million tonnes during January 2007 the lowest since February 2002.

Mr Kuseni Dlamini executive chairperson of RBCT however told Engineering News that a decline in exports during January was not unusual and that this had been exacerbated by a warmer winter experienced in Europe, which is the primary market for coal exported from the terminal which accounts for almost all of South Africa's coal exports.

But both Mr Dlamini and McCloskey indicated that volumes were expected to recover in February.

The RBCTs expansion from a 72 million tonnes a year capacity to 91 million tons a year is expected to be completed by 2009.

Chile's biggest steelmaker, CAP said recently said that its net profit in 2006 decreased by 11.6 % YoY due to higher raw material and energy costs.

CAP, also an important producer of mineral pellets, said that its net profit was USD 165.4 million in 2006 as compared with USD 187 million in 2005.

European Nickels Turkey based Caldag nickel project in is still awaiting a key forestry permit to begin wholesale site clearance and delays in getting the permit have pushed back the construction time table.

Heap leaching is now scheduled to start in Q4 of 2007 with first concentrates production in 2008 and full production of 20,400 tonnes per year of nickel in hydroxide early in 2009.

As per reports, the project is also facing delays in completing its debt financing documentation, which may have an impact on the project if the award of the acid plant supply contract is delayed as a consequence.

The company is supplying 200,000t of direct shipping ore to Greek ferronickel producer Larco for an interim 1 year period through the end of 2007.

UK based metals producer Kazakhmys with operations in Kazakhstan reported a 36% YoY increase in its zinc production to 129,100 tonnes in 2006 and a 17% rise in refined metal output to 59,500 tonnes. Its Artemyevskoe mine was the main driver for higher production.

On the refined side Kazakhmys experienced problems last year with the coolers on the Balkash smelter and the production tended to fluctuate according to temperature. But a program to redesign the cooling system is continuing and expected to be completed this year.

Anben Iron & Steel Co has started commercial production at its490,000 tonnes capacity No 1 Continuous Hot Dip Galvanizing Line at Benxi in the Liaoning province of China of on November 9th 2006 after first galvanized strip produced on October 1st 2006. The strip width ranges from 800mm to 1,870mm with a thickness of 0.4mm to 2.5mm.

The project has been carried out jointly with Siemens VAI and Stein Heurtey and involved installation of digiflex furnace with the latest technologies such as jet pre heating section, pulse fired radiant tube furnace, rapid cooling section, induction boosting suitable for automotive sheet production, after pot cooling tower including a galannealing heating and soaking section. The line has a maximum speed of 180 meter per minute.

Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Works has signed a EUR 8 million contract with Siemens-VAI for delivery of a ladle furnace for its electric furnace melting shop, where two ladle furnaces of Siemens are already operating. It is planned to complete the project within 17 months from the signing of the project.

MMK started to work over the project of the equipment delivery in October 2006 and leading manufactures of metallurgical equipment took part in the contest.

Interfax has reported that Shanxi coke producers plan to make an appeal against an anti dumping investigation that has been ongoing since December 20th 2006 by the European Union. One of the coke makers said that 16 coking companies in Shanxi joined hands in the appeal discussions in an effort to prepare for possible European anti dumping charges without giving further details.

EU's is investigating whether to limit coke imports from China, as Chinese coke suppliers offer a cheaper price at around USD 175 per ton.

EU's imports of coke from China last year reached a value of USD 700 million. Early in 1999 the EU held another investigation into China's coke exports and imposed a levy of EUR 32.6 per ton on Chinese coke at the end of 2000. The expiration date of this levy was December 16th 2005 after which no levy was required. But due to the impact from a shortage of supplies from 2003 to 2004 the EU decided to not implement levies on coke products.

Pacific Steel Casting Co and Communities for a Better Environment have agreed to enter into a consent decree that will result in specific emissions reductions at the West Berkeley facility. The goal of the scrap metal program is to reduce organic contaminants in the scrap supply used by PSC that it melts and forms into castings. The reserved fund will go toward projects that will reduce emissions levels at the West Berkeley facility. This is in addition to a carbon filter pollution control system the plant installed last year.

CBE filed a lawsuit against the Berkeley steel foundry last year. Under the terms of the decree Pacific Steel has agreed to certify the materials it uses will not come from post consumer automotive body scrap, oil filters, lead components and mercury switches, among other materials and to establish a USD 350,000 reserve fund to achieve and maintain emissions reductions totaling at least two tons.

Mr Joe Emmerichs GM & VP of PSC in a statement said, "Pacific Steel welcomes the cooperative spirit demonstrated by this agreement. We look forward to working closely with CBE toward our shared goals of reducing emissions for the benefit of our neighbors and workers."