Indonesia is trying to woo Indian steel majors including Essar Steel, TATA Steel and Ispat Steel etc to invest in the steel sector in Indonesia.

Mr Jusuf Kalla VP of Indonesia, during visit to India, told India's steelmakers that now are an opportune time for them to take advantage of Indonesia's growing demand for steel. Mr Kalla said The development of the steel industry would receive special attention from the government so as to enable Indonesia to meet its growing demand. We are interested in the Indian steel companies as they are able to produce steel more efficiently."

At present, Indonesia produces about 2.5 million tons a year, with state owned steel firm PT Krakatau Steel supplying about 2 million tons as against domestic demand of about 3.5 million tons a year and thus importing the balance steel despite abundant iron ore resources.

PT Krakatau Steel is encouraging foreign investors to participate in the planned development of a new USD 500 million steel plant with a production capacity of about 4.3 million tons per year. The government has proposed South Kalimantan as the site for the new steel mill. The province is not only rich in iron ore but also coal to supply cheap energy to power the mill.

Power Finance Corporation, which is overseeing the bidding process for two transmission line projects in the eastern India, has received about 30 expressions of interest for the projects by the deadline set in the last week.

The list of companies, who have submitted EoIs include AES Corporation, China Light and Power, Spanish firm Isolux Corsan, Canadian firm SNC Lavalin, TATA Power, Reliance Energy Ltd, Essar Power, Torrent Power, GMR Group, L&T and RPG Transmission.

The two projects, part of the 14 transmission links identified by the centre to be set up by developers selected through a tariff based competitive bidding model, include INR 4,200 crore Maithon-Bokaro grids and the INR 1,800 crore Eastern-Northern interconnection grids are to be implemented during 2009-11, entailing cumulative investment of around Rs 6,000 crore.

The first project is aimed at setting up an evacuation system for wheeling power from the 1,000 MW Maithon, 1,000 MW Kodarma, 1,000 MW Mejia and 500 MW Bokaro power plants in Jharkhand and West Bengal with the total grid length of about 1,500 circuit kilometers. The second project involves putting up interconnection links for enabling import of surplus power from the North-Eastern and Eastern region to the Northern region wit total length of the grid of around 500 circuit kilometers.

The projects are to be awarded to developers on a Build-Own-Operate basis after the bidding process. The Power Ministry had appointed PFC and Rural Electrification Corporation as nodal agencies for undertaking the initial groundwork for these projects and special purpose vehicles for the two transmission projects have been set up.

BL reported that Indian Railways is considering placing order for stainless steel BOX N wagons, which are supposed to be lighter and thus have a higher payload to tare weight ratio, with the aim of increasing the volume of freight that each wagon carries.

The wagons will have a payload to tare weight ratio of about 3.4 compared to the ratio of about 2.7 in use now and will carry about 1.8 tonnes to 2 tonnes of extra freight in each wagon resulting in higher earnings for Indian Railway from each wagon.

Indian railways Lucknow based Railway Design and Standards Organization designed these wagons to achieve a higher throughput per wagon. In addition, SS wagons would minimize corrosion and reducing the maintenance cost for the wagons.

Jharkhand government expressed displeasure over the delay in executing Jharia Action Plan by Coal India Limited and the Bharat Coking Coal Limited.

Mr Madhu Koda chief minister of Jharkhand told media that the coal company has not been able to initiate proper steps to contain the fire so far. He said "The government here will not sit idle and take up the issue with the union government soon I will take up the issue of the Jharia fire with Prime Minster Manmohan Singh for early approval of INR 6,300 crore Jharia Action Plan."

BCCL has embarked on a massive INR 6,000 crore rehabilitation program for 300,000 odd people in Jharia, who have been living on an underground inferno for over two decades now endangering both their lives and property. Jharia Action Plan' would ensure that the entire population living in an area of about 30 square kilometers in the mining town in Jharkhand was rehabilitated in a foolproof, proper and scientific manner within the next five years. Pre implementation work like survey and land acquisition is now on in full swing and the project is set for a 2007 launch.

In spite of the continuous burning of coal underground for the past several decades, caused by slaughter mining, the total reserve of coal in and around Jharia still remained at more than 1.6 billion tonnes although substantial quantity has already been lost. Revitalization of the Jharia Coalfields holds the key to providing substantial coking coal inputs for the growing steel industry.

Essar Steel Ltd announced last week that its board of directors at its meeting held on January 29th 2007 has decided to obtain the consent of shareholders to delist its equity shares from Bombay Stock Exchange Ltd and National Stock Exchange of India Ltd in terms of SEBI Guidelines of 2003.

Rural Electrification Corporation has decided to take the external commercial borrowings route after facing with difficulties in raising funds from the domestic bond market as Reserve Bank of India has recently cleared its overseas borrowing plan. REC plans to raise up to USD 200 million of yen denominated loans from the Japanese market.

Mr HD Khunteta director finance of REC told ET that REC has given the mandate to Standard Chartered Bank for syndicating the loans. We intend to raise the fund at a rate that is 47 basis points above the yen linked 6 month LIBOR which is hovering at around 0.60%. The total cost of borrowing including the administrative cost of raising the loan will be around 61 bps over yen - LIBOR.

Mr Khunteta said REC had earlier raised resources from multilateral funding agencies like Japan Bank for International Cooperation or Germanys KfW Bankengruppe. But this is the first time we will borrow directly from the overseas market on commercial terms.

AS per reports, REC is aiming to raise nearly INR 2,000 crore by this fiscal but could mobilize only INR 300 crore from the domestic bonds market despite having announced an INR 500 crore issue.

Funds raised through ECB will be used for RECs core activity to finance and promote rural electrification projects across the country. REC also provides financial assistance to state electricity boards and state government departments.

Suzlon Energy Ltd has a posted a net profit of INR 1762.3 million for October to December 2006 quarter up by 9% YoY as against INR 1619.4 million in October to December 2005. Its total income during the October to December 2006 quarter is INR 11260.7 million up by 30% YoY as against INR 8632.4 million in October to December 2005.

Suzlon Energy Ltd has realigned its operations and has commenced sale of tubular towers through one of its wholly owned subsidiary. Accordingly, the standalone results for the quarter do not include the sale of tubular towers aggregating approximately INR 1169.60 million and INR 3294.70 million respectively which have been sold through the wholly owned subsidiary.

Mr Madhu Koda chief minister of Jharkhand will lay the foundation of two more thermal power plants in the State.

An official from his office informed media that "The CM is scheduled to lay the foundation stone for a 600 MW power plant at Chitrapur in Latehar district on February 7th 2007. The Corporate Ispat, a local company, is setting up this plant."

He added that After that, Mr Koda would lay the foundation stone for a captive power plant of Adhunik Steel on February 15th 2007 at Kandra in Seraikela district.

Earlier Mr Koda had laid foundation of 1000 MW thermal power plant at Maithan on September 18th 2006, which is being set up by the union government.

It is reported that Binani Industries Limited is planning to start commercial production on its three copper and zinc mines allocated by the Gujarat and Rajasthan governments at Ambaji, Dearie and Basantgarh by July 2007 as the trial runs have already begun

The INR 200 crore projects with an overall production capacity of 100,000 tonne per annum of copper, zinc and lead concentrates are proposed to be funded partly through internal accruals. The company has spent INR 8-10 crore and requires INR 30-35 crore to start commercial production. Trial run has already begun.

As per reports, out of the 10 million tonne deposits, the zinc content is estimated at 8%, while lead and copper content is projected at 3% and 1.5% respectively.

BIL is planning to supply zinc concentrates to its own facility in Binanipuram, Kerala, while copper and lead concentrates will be supplied to private smelters and refiners.

ET reported that a consortium led by Adani group is planning to set up a 1,000 MW coal based power plant at an estimated cost of INR 4,000 crore in Chattisgarh to supply power to Gujarat government but the group cautioned that the plan is still at a very early stage and it may not happen if they do not get sufficient allocation of coal mines.

As per report, under the new tariff based policy of the Gujarat government, Adanis & Vishal Groups consortium has been short listed for supplying 1,000MW to the state at INR 2.35 per unit within 5 years and the consortium has indicated that they may supply power from their proposed plant in Chattisgarh.

Report mentions that if they get sufficient allotment of coal mines in Chattisgarh then it may even consider increasing the capacity of power plant beyond 1000MW.

China's steel industry is poised to experience intensifying competition as a result of overwhelming overcapacity and market surplus, which would bring rare opportunities for big leading mills to grow bigger while make smaller producers become target for either merger & acquisition or elimination.

According to Chinas National Development & Reform Commissions latest report China turned out 418.78 million tons of steel last year, 18.48% higher than the year before, with state owned mills reporting healthy sales. The report has that both state owned mills and private mills have played an active role in boosting domestic steel output growth, while the latter have expanded much faster than peers in the public sector. Based on a study of regional breakdown, north and east China combined produced 280.77million tons accounting for 67% of the country's total production.

The top 5 producing provinces are Hebei, Jiangsu, Shandong, Liaoning and Shanghai. Steel output in west region shows strong growth, while the output from the east declines, reflecting Chinas steel industry is going through profound industrial shift and reshuffles.

The trend is well displayed in two major changes over the course of last year, altered ranking of steelmakers and astonishing rise of private producers. It is to be noted that top five steelmakers registering fastest growth of steel products output are all from private sector. Conversely, domestic steel heavyweights have reduced their production last year.

Anben Steel Group produced 22.557 million tonnes of crude steel in 2006, surpassing Baosteel's 22.531 million tonnes to become China's largest crude steel maker.

China's biggest private steel mill Shagang Group boosted its output of steel products to 12.72 million tons in 2006 after taking over Huigang, overtaking Wuhan Steel. Likewise, Tangshan Jianlong, Tangshan Guofeng and Nanjing Steel, all have reported rapid output expansion last year.

NDRC has clearly stated that domestic steel industry should focus on restraining the gross output, phasing out inefficient producers and speed up industrial consolidation. The top planning body has already made concerted efforts with related government bodies in hammering out new rules and polices for this end.

(Sourced from MYSteel.net)

MEPS has forecasted that in February and March stainless transaction values to rise to new record highs due to inflated nickel prices in December and January. MEPS believe that basis figures should begin to fall and that this may partly offset the hike in the alloy surcharges over the next two months. Prices are then predicted to fall into the fourth quarter of this year.

MEPS said that the de stocking is likely to continue in the near term putting ever increasing pressure on the mills to reduce basis prices as the alloy surcharge rises and customers struggle with the high transaction value and March is expected to be the peak of the current cycle with alloy surcharge representing more than two thirds of the transaction value at that point.

In the longer term, MEPS forecast a decline in stainless selling values as nickel prices reduce and demand slows as we enter a de-stocking phase. Both basis figures and alloy surcharges should begin to reduce into quarter four of this year before stabilizing as stock levels come under control

AP reported that an explosion tore through a coal mine in remote hamlet of San Roque, 255 miles northeast of Bogotain northeast Colombia on Saturday, burying at least 31 miners in two separate tunnels filled with deadly gases.

As per reports, the explosion was caused by some spark and the gas that was inside the mine.

Mr Fernando Rosales director of civil defense in Norte de Santander state told AP that the emergency crews have not yet been able to enter the mine. He said that hope of finding the miners alive was discouraging because of the extensive damage and the trapped gases. He said "There is a lot of gas inside and we're in the process of trying to get it out to see if rescue crews can go inside."

Japan Iron and Steel Federation in a release said that Japans December Steel exports increased by 18.5% YoY to 3.19 million tonnes.

JISF said that exports to China rose by 23.9% YoY, increasing for the seventh straight month, while those to South Korea gained by 33% YoY. Exports to Taiwan increased by 16.6% YoY and to the US dropped by 14.8% YoY, down for the first time in 13 months, while those to Thailand lifted by 26.9% YoY.

(Volume is in tonnes)

Malaysian Mycron Steel Bhd has signed second Technical Service Agreement with JFE Steel Corp for the production of high end cold rolled steel sheets in Malaysia within 15 months to 18 months.

Mr Azlan Abdullah Mycron CEO of Mycron told StarBiz that the group would soon have know how and capability of JFE Steel to supply directly to high end sectors, such as the automotive and electric appliances industries. He said JFE Steel will send its technical team to Mycron to evaluate and make recommendations for improvement and train Mycron's personnel in the production of high end grade cold rolled steel sheets and will send its personnel for training at JFE Steel's facility in Japan.

Under the first TSA, Mycron Steel CRC Sdn Bhd started to produce thin gauge cold rolled steel sheets in 0.2mm thickness from 0.3mm previously, also improved production efficiency by operating our cold-reduction mill at higher speed and achieved better profile and surface appearance in CR products.

Mr Azlan said the 2TSAs are part of Mycron's efforts to upgrade itself into the higher quality cold rolled steel sheet market and substitute the imported ones. The steel sheet coating industry in Malaysia currently imports over 400,000 tons of cold rolled steel sheets per annum.

It is reported that South African rail freight operator Spoornet has issued new coal freight contracts recently, which include stiff performance penalties for producers. The contracts are to move coal by rail to Richards Bay and cover the current financial year ending March 31st 2007 as well as the financial year ending March 31st 2008.

As per reports, the new contracts replace a much simpler documentand will make it more difficult for RBCT exporters to cooperate among themselves, as they did in the past, to overcome temporary problems.

The report mentions that South African large and small producers of coal said that they were reluctant to accept the new Spoornet contracts as they stand because the operator does not propose to face a similar level of penalty if it fails to perform. The report cites them as saying "It's not as if Spoornet has a clear track record of performance itself. Spoornet has suffered major derailments for a variety of reasons for the past few years but there is not an equal set of performance penalties in the new contracts for Spoornet."

South Africa's coal mining companies are almost completely reliant on Spoornet to take their exports to the Richards Bay Coal Terminal.

Precious Metals Australia Ltd said that development of its AUD 200 million Windimurra vanadium project in Western Australia, which will exploit the largest proven ore reserve of vanadium in the world, is now moving from detailed design to the construction phase, with major sections of work being awarded.

PMA revealed that the Theiss Promet JV is progressing engineering design of the crushing to beneficiation section of the Windimurra treatment plant and Proteus Engineers has been awarded front-end design and engineering for the magnetite to final product section. South Africa based Drytech International has been awarded the contract to design and supply AUD 20 million worth of high tech vanadium processing equipment for cost effective production of ferrovanadium.

PMA said that the contracts have also been awarded for the refurbishment of the project borefield, installation of the accommodation village for the construction workforce and the supply of high quality, living quarters for the permanent work force of 140 people. Orders have been placed for long lead time items of equipment, including high pressure grinding rolls that will be the principal comminution equipment at Windimurra, and a gas turbine power station. In addition, the old refractory lining of the 126 meter long rotary kiln has been removed and PMA has obtained budget pricing for its replacement. Tender documents for the purchase of the new lining are now being prepared.

Windimurra Vanadium Pty Ltd, the special purpose company that owns the Windimurra assets and is 90% owned by PMA.

Peace River Coal announced that it has received a permit allowing it to take the Trend mine to full production of 2 million tonne per year of clean metallurgical coal.

PRC recently added fines wash circuit and other modifications to the wash plant. In the first six months of this year, the plant will handle 1.6 million tonnes of run of mine coal.

Vancouver Headquartered, PRC is a limited partnership of Hillsborough Resources with 20%, NEMI Northern Energy and Mining with 20% and Anglo Coal Canada with 60% stake.

It is reported that the president of the Bolivian Confederation of Mining Cooperatives, which represents thousands of mineworkers, has threatened to hold a national protest against plans by President Mr Evo Morales to overhaul the mining industry.

Mr Andres Villca president of FENCOMIN said Because President Morales had already decided to increase the CMT, which we vehemently oppose, we will meet to coordinate future protests nationwide.

In response, Bolivian Mining Minister Guillermo Dalence vowed to carry on with the reforms with or without the support of FENCOMIN, and said that any tax hike would be devised with the hope that foreign companies continue operating in Bolivia.

Mr Morales, who nationalized the energy industry in 2006, has repeatedly pledged to restructure the mining industry and secure a larger slice of the profits. Mr Morales said that the overhaul would include a huge hike in the Complementary Mining Tax which will effectively cut revenues of large mining companies and independent miners.

Yieh reported that Chinas Ningbo Iron & Steel, formerly known as Ningbo Jianlong Steel has announced that it is going to commission two slab casters in April 2007, to set forward its 4 million tons per year steel production project.

However, with only one 2500 cubic meter blast furnace and two 180 tons converters commissioned, so far the company will only be able to produce 2 million tons per year until it builds up the second blast furnace latter in 2007.

The second stage of the expansion project will start in 2008. It contains a CRC line with width of 1,780mm, and an annual capacity of 2 million tons production.

Mr Olusegun Obasanjo president of Nigeria signed the proposed Mining Bill to make it a new mining law, predicting a new dawn for the country's mining industry by accelerating foreign direct investment in the sector.

Mr Ufot Ekaette of Nigerian government at the opening of the mining investment conference in Abuja said that a number of other initiatives such as the institution of transparency in the issuance of permits for titles as well as the setting up of an autonomous Cadastre office to undertake the processing and award of the mining titles had been put in place. He said We can now say that Nigeria is open for business as a choice mining destination".

Although there are abundant mineral deposits in the country, exploration and exploitative efforts in the past years either by private sector or the public mining institutions have been grossly inadequate.

The Vietnam China Minerals and Metallurgy Company launched on February 3rd the ground breaking for infrastructure of Vietnam's second largest iron mine, Quy Sa Van Ban in the northern mountainous of Lao Cai Province.

The Quy Sa iron mine, to exploit the 120 million tonne iron mine and scheduled to operate in the first quarter of 2008, will produce between 1.5 million to 3 million tonnes a year.

The company will also build a steel plant in Tang Loong industrial zone in Bao Thang District in 2008.

The opening ceremony was held with the participation of representatives from the provincial People's Committee, the Viet Nam Steel Corporation and Kungang Steel and Iron Company of China's Yunnan province.

Russian zinc major Chelyabinsk Zinc Plant announced that it produced 148,384 tonne of zinc and zinc based alloys in 2006 which is up by 27.5% than 116,366 tonne in 2005. It said that the production growth was mainly due to stable deliveries of concentrate to the plant.

As per report 58% of the metal produced in 2006 was supplied to the domestic market mainly Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Works, Novolipetsk Iron and Steel Works and Severstal as against 70% domestic supplies in 2005.

The Chelyabinsk Zinc Plant is the largest metal zinc producer in Russia and accounts for 60% of the Russian zinc production. In 2006, the plant's revenues under IFRS totaled RUB 4.79 billion and its net income was RUB 147.2 million.

The Chelyabinsk Zinc Plant belongs to the ChTPZ Group, one of the leading industrial groups of Russia's metallurgic complex. 87.99% shares of the ChTsZ are held by NF Holdings BV of Netherlands. The only shareholder of NF Holdings is Arkley Capital Sarl, which also controls the ChTPZ Group's assets.

It is reported that South African rail freight operator Spoornet has cut the targeted volumes at which it moves coal to the Richards Bay Coal Terminal for one week due to a lack of locomotives and rolling stock and as it undertake trials for moving coal at 71 million tonnes a year on an annualized basis.

The official target for RBCT exports, which is to be matched by scheduled rail transport, is 78 million tonnes for 2007.

Spoornet's rail transport of coal to RBCT has had a few interruptions during the past two weeks, due to technical problems, lack of locomotives and lightning strikes which took out a signaling station, they said. These forced Spoornet to cancel some scheduled trains. Spoornet has come under fierce criticism for failure to meet its transport targets for coal due to derailments, technical problems and other causes.

Coal industry sources said the rail operator may have opted to set lower rail targets in order to be seen to be clearly meeting them.

Australian zinc-lead producer Perilya has announced that both its Potosi and Flinders mine projects are on track to produce first ore by the end of 2007.

Potosi is an underground extension at the existing Broken Hill operations in Australias New South Wales. Construction work has begun with all key equipment now in place. In its first year of production Potosi should boost existing output at Broken Hill 131,500 tonne contained zinc last year by 10,000 to 15,000 tonne. Thereafter, it is scheduled to generate an additional 35,000 tonne per year contained metal.

Work has also started on the Flinders project in South Australia. In its first phase this will be a direct shipping ore project with targeted output of 150,000 tonne of ore, grading 38% zinc. A further 242,000 tonne of intermediate product, grading between 14% and 26% zinc, will be stockpiled separately on site pending further studies on how best to treat it.

Ferguson Metals announced that Mr James Huggard has been promoted as COO & VP of human resources. Mr James Huggard had formerly been director of human resources. Mr Huggard has more than 20 years of experience in sales, marketing and human resources.

Mr H Wayne Ferguson president of Ferguson Metal said Jim has impacted positive changes in our human resources, operations and strategic planning initiatives during his six years with the organization."

Ferguson Metals, headquartered in Hamilton, is a supplier of specialty stainless steel and high temperature alloys to a variety of industrial markets.

It is reported that 2 new zinc mine projects including the Angas mine in South Australia backed by Terramin and the Dairi mine in Indonesia backed by Herald Resources are being held up at the permitting stage.

Mr Kevin Moriarty, the executive chairman of Terramin admitted that it is still experiencing delays in regulatory approvals for the Angas operation, despite the equipment being on site to start the boxcut and all studies completed and reported. As per report the companys focus is on buying the remaining parcels of property from traditional landowners and getting residual waivers to allow operations to begin.

Herald Resources in its latest quarterly report said that the hold up is coming from the issue of a key forestry license. It said Late last year the Ministry referred the matter to Commission IV, a sub committee of the Indonesian Parliament dealing with forestry issues. The Company is scheduled to give a formal presentation to Commission IV on February 6th after which, assuming approval, a letter will be sent to the Minister of Forestry who will hopefully not delay the process projects go-ahead.

It is reported that POSCO has recently appointed Ms Oh Ji-eun, 40 its first female factory manager at the company's Gwangyang plant in South Jeolla Province. There are only 64 female workers at the Gwangyang plant and Ms Oh is now one of 31 factory managers there. She will manage some 80 male coworkers.

Ms Oh joined POSCO in 1990. She won a prize from the company in 2002 for contributions to improving the quality of steel products. She actively participated in the company's "Six Sigma" business innovation campaign and achieved related licenses.