June, 11 2007
SAIL to form JV with Jaypee for cement plant at Bokaro
It is reported that Steel Authority of India Limited and Jaypee Associates Limited have entered into a tie up for setting up a p2 million tonne BF slag based cement plant at SAIL’s Bokaro Steel Plant in Jharkhand and will form a JV shortly, in which Jaypee would have a majority stake. It is reported that Jaypee outbid Shree cement for this partnership.
The proposed cement plant at Bokaro would use the slag produced by the Bokaro Steel Plant of SAIL. According to the plan, 1 million tonne of slag is likely to be supplied to the proposed cement unit annually. The implementation of the project may take three years.
This would be SAIL’s second tie up with Jaypee for a cement plant as the first JV was signed over two months back to set up a 2.5 million tonne cement plant at SAIL’s Bhilai Steel Plant.
Marcegaglia eyeing high end steel market in India - Report
It is reported that Italian steel major Marcegaglia is planning to make a major investment in India.
Mr Antonio Marcegaglia CEO of Marcegaglia on the sidelines of MB's 2nd Steel Tube & Pipe Conference in Düsseldorf said that the company was exploring ways to expand its overseas production and was planning facilities in India and China. He said that "We want to make a major investment and to focus on the high-end sector, as we're doing in Poland.”
Mr Marcegaglia could not give further details, but did explain the three phases of investment that the group is planning at Kluczbork in southwest Poland, which will become its second largest plant in Europe. It has bought 500,000 square meters of land, out of which 200,000 square meters will eventually be covered.
Fully owned by the Marcegaglia family, Ravenna based Marcegaglia was founded by Mr Steno Marcegaglia in 1959 and is a major player in steel and metallurgical sector. Through its facilities, spread all over Italy and overseas, more than 4 million tons of steel are processed every year. It also operates in other manufacturing fields, tourism, financial and environmental services.
NMDC’s iron ore operations at Bailadila still paralyzed
IANS reported that iron ore mining and transportation of stocks for exports from National Mineral Development Corporation’s mines in Chattisgarh's Bailadila region has come to a halt after Maoists destroyed power transmission towers recently.
The report cites an official of NMDC as saying that "Iron ore mining has completely stopped in Bailadila since May 31st 2007 as Maoists destroyed several power transmission towers and caused a massive blackout. We are neither mining at Bailadila nor taking previously stored stocks for export to Visakhapatnam by rail since that night, due to the blackout. We estimate the power outage is causing a loss of about INR 90 million daily to NMDC and a daily production loss of about 60,000 tonnes."
Meanwhile, Chattisgarh State Electricity Board said that about 500 men are working round the clock to repair the eight high tension power transmission towers that Maoist rebels destroyed. A senior CSEB official said that "Maoists have extensively damaged power facilities and infrastructure. Our engineers are doing the best to resume supply at the earliest but since the area is vulnerable to Maoists attacks, repair work is possible only in day time and hopefully the supply will resume by June 12th 2007."
NMDC has an annual iron ore production of about 25 million tonnes accounting for about 15% of India's total iron ore production. NMDC’s 80% of the production comes from its Bailadila deposits. Bailadila has the world's largest stocks of good quality iron ore and NMDC has been operating mines in 3 of Bailadila's 14 iron ore deposits for about 3 decades. NMDC exports about 9% of its annual production and the rest of the production goes to customers like Ispat Industries, Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited and Vikram Ispat and hundreds of steel and sponge iron plants in Chattisgarh.
As per report, NMDC has enough stocks at Visakhapatnam port to maintain normal flow of exports to China, Japan and other Asian nations but exports would suffer if the blackout continued beyond June 20th 2007.
Global Steel to invest in Bangladesh - Report
Bangladeshi media reported that a high level delegation of the Global Steel Holdings has reached Dhaka with more than USD 3 billion investment proposal in Bangladesh.
As per reports, signing of an MOU with the Bangladesh’s Board of Investment is likely to happen during the visit. Under the deal, the company will first conduct a feasibility study and then begin negotiations with the government on specific projects, which may include petrochemicals, coal mining, steel, coal bed methane and power generation.
UNB reported that Mr VK Mittal, heading the delegation, on arrival at Dhaka airport told reporters that "We want to be a development partner in Bangladesh. We find the atmosphere now investment-friendly and we may invest more than USD 3 billion in different sectors, mainly power and energy.”
The report mentions that the group has already expressed its keen interest to invest in different sectors in Bangladesh through its local agent GRH Bangladesh Limited, which has arranged the visit of the delegation. Mr Syed G Dastagir Nishad chairman of GRH told UNB that they have identified the areas of investment. He said “Energy sector, particularly exploration of gas and power generation will get top priority.”
Global Steel, the holding company of Ispat Industries, has operations worldwide. It has a steel making capacity of about 14 million tonnes; and associated businesses such as mining, energy and logistics.
After the Indian industrial giant TATA's USD 3 billion investment offer, still undecided, this will be the second largest investment offer from an overseas firm.
TATA Steel refutes Greenpeace concerns over Dhamra Port
It is reported that international environmental campaigner Greenpeace has raised serious concern over TATA Steel and Larsen & Toubro’s plans to set up INR 25 billion port at Dhamra in Orissa's coastal Bhardrak district, saying that it would be an ecological blunder causing irreversible destruction in the state's coastal areas. Greenpeace said that a port being built on India's eastern coast is a killing field of rare Olive Ridley turtles and other marine life and should be shut down. It said that the Dhamra port is close to the beaches of Gahirmatha, one of the few remaining mass nesting sites of the Olive Ridleys in the world.
Greenpeace has recently conducted a 40 day study of the ecology around the port site and came across more than 2000 turtles, rare horseshoe crabs, crab eating frogs, dolphins and snakes, killed by mechanized fishing boats. Mr SK Dutta a renowned turtle researcher while releasing the report on the World Oceans Day said that “The finding shatters the theory that the offshore waters near Dhamra are a no turtle zone. The water and the beach around the port site are breeding and feeding grounds for the turtles.”
Mr Ashish Fernandes campaigner of Greenpeace said that “A Greenpeace commissioned study has unequivocally established that TATA Steel's port at Dhamra would be an ecological blunder causing irreversible destruction.” Mr Fernandes said that the 13 berth mechanized port which when commissioned and handling 83 million tonnes of cargo per annum, mainly steel exports and iron ore imports to feed TATA's steel plants in Bihar and Jharkhand will also pose serious environmental hazards.
Mr Fernandes added that primary mistakes relate to poor baseline ecological data, a complete omission of the impact on turtles and other environmental impacts. He said that “To top it all, the EIA considers the port site that is completely different from the one being developed. The EIA considers the port site on Kanika Sands, whereas the site now being developed is on the mainland. TATA Steel has repeatedly asserted that there was no scientific evidence to suggest that the port would harm the turtles and if there was, they would not build the port. We now call on Mr Ratan Tata to live up to the TATAs' reputation and his word to Greenpeace.”
TATA Steel has however slammed these reports and findings by saying that it posed no threat to the turtles as it has been testified by the National Environment Appellate Authority. Mr Prabhat Sharma a spokesperson of TATA Steel told PTI that "It is not true that the process of environment clearance for Dhamra Port did not examine the turtle issue. It would be interesting to know that the area where the port is proposed in a no nesting zone as found by the Dehradun based WII.” He said that the WII's report was further corroborated by the Orissa government and the Chief Wildlife Warden, following which the environmental clearance for the port was granted.
SAIL’s modernization plan for BSP on track
It is reported that Steel Authority of India Limited’s INR 11,262 crore modernization and expansion plan for its Bhilai Steel Plant is progressing well. The modernization and expansion plan is designed to raise BSP's capacity to 7 million tonne by adding a blast furnace No 8, a coke oven battery and a sinter plant and also install finishing facilities.
After the modernization, BSP will stop producing ingots and will turn into a fully continuous casting plant. Among other facilities being added are a universal beam mill with a capacity of 1 million tonne per year capable of producing beams up to 1.1 meter deep, a universal rail mill with a capacity of1.2 million tonne and a new bar and rod mill with a capacity of 0.9 million tonne.
BSP has reported a production of 4.82 million tonne of hot metal, 4.80 million tonne of crude steel and 4.22 million tonne of saleable steel for 2006-07, thus achieving capacity utilization rate of 118.1% for hot metal, 122.3% for crude steel 122.3% and 134% for saleable steel.
Foundation stone laid for Brahmani Steel Plant in AP
Mr YS Rajasekhara Reddy chief minister of Andhra Pradesh has laid the foundation stone for Brahmani Steel Plant at Jammalamadugu in Kadapa district of Andhra Pradesh.
Brahmani Steel Plant is coming up on 10,670 acres of land in four villages with a total investment of INR 125 billion. It will have a capacity of 4.3 million tonnes of steel annually.
Phase one of the plant, with an investment of INR 45 billion, is likely to be ready in 18 months with a capacity of 2 million tonnes. According to the promoters of the plant, phase II would add a capacity of 2.3 million tonnes in the next one decade while the investment would be around INR 75 billion to INR 80 billion.
The promoter of the steel plant is Mr Janardhan Reddy, a member of Karnataka legislative council, from Bellary.
Essar to feed Trinidad & Tobago plant from Brazil - Report
FE reported that some Indian steel companies including Essar Steel are looking for iron ore mines in Brazil to meet the growing requirement of iron ore.
The report cites a member of Brazilian delegation during a recent visit to India told FE that “We have huge iron ore reserves unlike India and presently steel sector is at boom. Thus, to fulfill the increasing requirement of iron ore, some Indian companies, including Essar are in talks for iron ore minerals. Essar is one of them.”
He added that “Last year Brazil has exported 300 million tonne of iron ore to various countries and even if it continues to export such high amount in future too, still its iron ore reserves are likely to last for 150 years. However, Brazil has to content will poor infrastructure. Poor Infrastructure is the biggest bottleneck in Brazil.”
The report cites an official of Essar Steel as saying that “Brazil is iron ore rich country. We are also coming up with plants outside India, thus, we are looking for iron ore in many countries including Brazil.” He added that iron ore from Brazil will be used for 2.5 million tonnes plant in Trinidad & Tobago, which is at a conceptual level.
Brazil has exported 300 million tonnes of iron ore in 2006 to various countries and even if it continues to export such high amount in future too, still its iron ore reserves are likely to last for 150 years.
CIL starts due diligence on coal mines in Mozambique
UNI reported that Coal India Limited has started due diligence in a bid to acquire coal mines at Mozambique in South Africa. Dr NC Jha technical director of CIL told UNI that CIL is at the final stages of negotiation with the respective government through Indian government to acquire the coal mines in South Africa.
He added that ''We have identified a number of mines in Mozambique and their government has shown keen interest. A high level delegation, comprising of CIL official and representatives of the coal ministry, will visit Mozambique in July or August 2007 to strike the final deal.”
CIL had planned venturing in Mozambique when it formed its subsidiary Coal Videsh in 2005. Coal Videsh is also interested to acquire mines in various countries like Indonesia, Canada, Bangladesh, Australia and Zimbabwe. In March 2007, a high level delegation had visited Canada to explore opportunities to acquire steel grade coking coal mines.
CIL has set a coal production target of 521 million tonnes in 11th Plan Period as compared to 360 million tonnes in 2006-07.
NTPC’s Talcher power plant in a critical stage due to coal shortage
Statesman News Service reported that the National Thermal Power Corporation’s 3,000 MW Talcher Super Thermal Power Plant at Kaniha has slipped into a critical stage as its stock has dipped to a record low of 78,000 tones.
The report mentions that TSTPP’s stock was 0.320 million tonnes on April 1st2007, which slid down to 0.2 million tonnes on May 1st 2007 and to about 0.15 million by the later part of May 2007. The situation became grim in the first week of June 2007 when stock started falling below 0.1 million tonnes.
According to Central Electrical Authority, the plant has to maintain a stock of 0.75 million tonnes for 15 days during exigencies but the present stock will suffice for not more than 2 days if there is a halt to the coal supply on any account. 48,000 tones of coal are required per day to run the plant.
Since the NTPC power plant began production using its 6x500 MW units in 2004 it has not been able to build full stock. It depends mainly on Coal India Limited’s Mahanadi Coalfield Limited which is facing serious production and dispatch constraints due to agitation by locals over rehabilitation issues.
JSW’s Jaigad Port gets environmental clearance
Exim News Service reported that union ministry of environment and forest has cleared the JSW Group’s Greenfield port project at Jaigad in Ratnagiri district in Maharashtra.
JSW Group had floated an infrastructure and logistic company called JSW Infrastructure and Logistics for undertaking the port project to be developed in 2 phases and completed before March 2009.
The new port would initially handle 75,000 DWT to 105,000 DWT size vessels and later be upgraded to receive capsize vessels.
Nagarjuna to set up thermal power plants in South India
Mint reported that Hyderabad based infrastructure firm Nagarjuna Construction Co Ltd has plans to set up 1500MW power plants in South India by 2012 at an investment of INR 6,000 crore.
Mr YD Murthy senior VP finance of Nagarjuna Construction said that “We are looking at developing some coal based power projects in Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh. However plans are not finalized as yet. The plan is to set up 250MW to 300MW capacity per year which translates into around INR 1,200 crore investments per year.”
Mr Murthy added that “Our equity participation in these projects is INR 258 crore. We are very bullish on the road sector and power sector and will set up projects through our subsidiary company NCC Infra Holdings Ltd. We have an electrical division that can do turn key electrification and transmission and distribution lines. There is a huge business opportunity in the transmission and distribution sphere and these projects have a short gestation period of up to a year.”
Nagarjuna Construction is currently involved in the development of 2 hydroelectric power projects, one at Himachal Pradesh with 100MW and another at Sikkim with 280MW at a total cost of INR 2,050 crore. While the company is developing the Himachal Pradesh project along with Satyam group’s Maytas Infra Private Limited and Bangalore’s SSJV Projects Private Limited, it is developing the Sikkim project with SMEC of Australia. Nagarjuna Construction is also a partner in the 460MW gas based power project being developed by Gautami Power of GVK Power & Infrastructure Ltd in which it holds a minority stake of 10%.
Nagarjuna Construction has posted revenue of INR 2,900 crore for the 2006-07 up by 57% YoY as against INR 1,842 crore in 2005-6. It has also posted a net profit of INR151.91 crore in 2006-07 up by 46% YoY as against INR 103.90 crore in 2005-06.
REC& HUDCO’s consortium to finance power related projects
Rural Electrification Corporation announced that it has inked a MoU with HUDCO for forming a consortium for financing power related projects. Mr AK Lakhina chairman and MD of REC and Dr HS Anand CMD of HUDCO had signed the MoU on June 5th 2007.
Under the pact, REC and HUDCO would provide a single window to power utilities for consortium lending for power related projects, housing projects related to power sector development and co financing other infrastructure projects related to the sector.
The release added that "In order to meet the challenges and competition in financing power projects and related infrastructure developments, REC has come forward to finance and provide assistance for those activities having a forward and backward linkage with power projects."
Severstal to build a new pipe plant at Sheksna
Severstal has announced an investment of USD 109 million to build a new pipe works in the Sheksna industrial area to cater to the demand from Russian construction industry which is currently experiencing a boom. It is due to start operations in the second quarter of 2009 and reaches target output by mid 2010.
Severstal said that the new plant will be capable of manufacturing up to 250,000 tons of fabricated sections a year. The new pipe works will produce round, square and rectangular pipes with a range of diameters from 127mm up to 426 mm. Steel stock will be provided from Severstal’s Cherepovets steel mill.
Mr Igor Timofeev director of strategic planning at Severstal’s Cherepovets steel mill said that “The investment in the new Sheksna pipe works is entirely consistent with Severstal’s strategy we will concentrate on producing high value added products and will be taking advantage of Severstal’s integrated nature by supplying the works from our Cherepovets plant. The Sheksna works is strategically located within reach of both Saint Petersburg and Moscow where the construction industry is showing significant growth.”
Chinese domestic HR strip price starts weakening
It is reported that China’s domestic HR strip market has started to show weakening signs from late May 2007, as a result of the string of restrictive export policy and slipping slab market. The market supply of narrow HR strip is also lower than normal level in years before. Production cutback and stock run down from traders are believed to underlie declining market supply of HR strip.
The price of narrow HR strip supplied by Shengfang and Tangshan in Tianjin already softened, while the market price of medium and wide HR strip levels with steelmakers June EXW price. The market inventory moves downward as medium and wide HR strip stock amounts to 5000 tonnes to 6000 tonnes in Tianjin, down by 40% to 50% from March's level. And some big dealers are reducing the inventory to less than 1000 tonnes from 5000 tonnes in previous days.
Some strip producers in Tangshan also halted production completely or partially from April 2007 or May 2007 while others have put forward maintenance. In the mean time, the traders are working down inventory in view of steep market price and poor buying sentiment at the moment. Most traders reveal that HR strip market has seen remarkable slowdown in market demand and sales from May 2007. In particular, the sales has decreased almost a third in late May 2007 when price heads for a downward correction.
The end users appear to be staying off the market for now since they have built up sufficient stock previously. Most welded pipe producers have signed purchase contract with strip producers, and only buy small volume to meet urgent demand amid current sluggish welded pipe market. And customers from other downstream sectors like CR strip, hardware pressing are faced with poor demand.
Slab price has extended strong gains from the year start, rising to CNY 3380 per ton in early May 2007 as compared with CNY 3500 per ton posted for HR strip. The price spread shrinks to some CNY 100 per ton from normal gap of CNY 250 to CNY 300 per ton.
The curbing policies and falling slab price are putting domestic HR strip price under pressure. However, price uptrend in steelmaking ingredients is set to continue, which would help underpin HR strip price after slight correction in one or two months.
Market fundamentals of supply and demand would move towards better balance in the future. Domestic demand for HR strip from the downstream sectors is expected to revive again from Aug to Oct bolstered by healthy economic growth. And domestic narrow HR strip, with a width less than 600mm, output rises by 22% YoY to 13.08 million tons during January to April 2007, 2.4% points lower than the growth of steel products output in the time frame. And the daily output of HR strip reaches 1.10 million tons in March 2007 and slows to 109,800 tons in April 2007.
(Sourced from MySteel.net)
Iron ore prices likely to fall - Merrill Lynch
Reuters reported that Merrill Lynch World Mining Fund forecast that that iron ore prices are likely to fall but companies mining gold, platinum and uranium offer good value.
Reuters quoted Mr Evy Hambro manager of Merrill Lynch World Mining Fund as saying that the demand for most metals was strong and expected to see more production delays and disruptions underpinning prices.
He added that "The fact that China is continuing to grow ahead of peoples expectations has got to be a positive. One of the strongest streams in our fund over the last few years has been our exposure to iron ore."
Mr Hambro thinks metals prices do not reflect their long term value and that analyst price forecasts are too conservative and dramatic changes in the world economy have completely changed the commodity landscape. He also said that iron ore had yielded excellent returns for the past several years but that could change and rising supplies of iron ore could depress prices of the raw material used in the production of steel.
Al-Tuwairqi’s relocated DRI plant starts production in May 2007
Midrex Technologies Inc announced that Saudi Arabia's Al-Tuwairqi Group has successfully started up the first of two relocated MIDREX® DR Plants at Dammam in Saudi Arabia with first product produced in early May 2007.
Al-Tuwairqi’s Direct Reduction Iron Factory is currently making about 57 tonnes per hour at 2% carbon and 93.5% metallization and will ramp up production towards a target of about 88 tonnes per hour in the next few months as additional Iron Oxide feed material is delivered.
Al-Tuwairqi acquired two MIDREX DR Plants from Corus Group Plc in December 2004. The two plants each had an original production capacity of 400,000 tonnes per year. The Direct Reduction Iron Factory MIDREX Plants, commonly referred to as modules, were relocated from Mobile in Alabama last year. The newly commissioned module now has a rated capacity of 500,000 tonnes, as a result of critical equipment replacement and new process engineering advancements.
Mr Zulfikar Uddin GM of Al-Tuwairqi’s DRI said “Based on my past experience in operating and managing MIDREX DRI Plants, I was not surprised at the speed at which we were able to re commission the plant. I will be happy when we can increase production after the additional feed material is received.”
ArcelorMittal to invest USD 1.5 billion in Mittal Steel Kryvyi Rih
Interfax Ukraine reported that ArcelorMittal plans to invest USD 1.5 billion in the coming four years in the reconstruction of the Mittal Steel Kryvyi Rih.
The report cites Mr Narendra Chaudhary GD of Mittal Steel Kryvyi Rih and management committee member of ArcelorMittal as telling the reporters that “Loans from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development will account for a relatively small share in overall investment.” Mr Chaudhary added that “Under the business plan, USD 277 million will be put into the steel mill's retooling in 2007.”
Mr Volodymyr Sheremet production chief of mill said that the shareholders plan to build a sinter plant with an annual capacity of 9 million tonnes. He said "Building a sinter plant is tantamount to building an entire mill." Mr Sheremet added that the sinter plant currently in operation will be shut down after the new one is put into operation.
Mittal Steel Kryvyi Rih, formerly known as Kryvorizhstal, is Ukraine's largest steel enterprise with an annual capacity of over 6 million tonnes of rolled stock, about 7 million tonnes of steel and over 7.8 million tonnes of pig iron.
Ferrexpo to fix price prior to London IPO - Report
The Sunday Telegraph, citing a source close to the company, reported that Ukrainian iron ore producer Ferrexpo will fix a price for its shares this week prior to a London Stock Exchange listing and that the price is expected to be set before Friday and the shares are expected to start trading the following week.
The Sunday Telegraph reported that JP Morgan Cazenove, which is sponsoring the listing, has set a price range valuing Ferrexpo at between USD 1.4 billion and USD 1.8 billion.
The Sunday Telegraph said that Mr Konstantin Zhevago owner of Ferrexpo is looking to raise around USD 500 million through the sale of a 25% stake in the firm.
Ferrexpo controls the world's fourth largest iron ore reserves and the biggest deposits in Europe at its Poltava mine.
Deacero to expand capacity at Celaya plant
Wire World reported that Mexico's mini mill group, Deacero has started up the Greenfield expansion of its Celaya plant under a project designed and executed by Danieli.
The report added that the expansion includes addition of a melt shop and two rolling mills for bars and wire rod production that will doubles the production capacity at Celaya to over 2 million tons per year.
The No 2 melt shop features a 120 tonnes EAF with Danieli's Endless Charging System, ladle furnace and 6 strands FastCast caster for high speed billet casting. The No 3 rolling mill is composed of 18 continuous stands plus a 10 pass high speed finishing block.
Deacero is one of the largest wire producers in the world is a privately own company with more than 50 years of experience using the best technology and methods of production as well as high quality standards. It produces about 2 million tonnes of liquid steel per year and exporting its products to USA, Europe, Central and South America and the Caribbean.
EU highlights concerns over raw materials access in Europe
It is reported that European Commission published a paper highlighting concerns over European industry's ability to gain access to raw materials.
European Commission in a statement said that "As a result of rising global demand, prices for many metals have reached record levels and Europe's capacity to provide raw materials is limited. Many metallic minerals are either geologically not available within the EU or only in relatively small volumes compared with global production copper 5%, iron ore 2%, nickel 1.7% and zinc 8.5%."
In the case of metallic minerals, EC noted that Europe's capacity to provide in its own supply through domestic extraction is very limited, noting as an illustration that 177 million tonnes of metallic minerals was imported into the EU in 2004 compared with the EU's production of some 30 million tonnes.
EC said that access to raw materials is on the agenda of the G8 summit on June 6th 2007 to June 8th 2007 adding that a declaration on Responsibility for raw materials transparency and sustainable growth was expected to be adopted, which will address the key priorities for a sustainable and transparent approach to this question.
Mr Gunter Verheugen VP of EC said that "European industries need predictability in the flow of raw materials and stable prices to remain competitive. We are committed to improve the conditions of access to raw materials, be it within Europe or by creating a level playing field in accessing such materials from abroad."
TMK’s Volga Tube starts construction of a new heat treatment line
It is reported that TMK’s Volga Pipe Plant’s shop No 3 has begun construction of a new line for heat treatment of seamless pipes and should come to the end in October of current year. The line is likely to be commissioned by the end of 2007.
The line after commissioning will increase capacities of on heat treatment of pipes to 340,000 tonnes a year.
Construction of a new line is stipulated by the Strategic investment program calculated till 2010.
Norfolk to open service center at Durant in Iowa
Norfolk Iron & Metal Company has announced construction of a new full service steel distribution facility at Durant in Iowa State of USA. It has selected Ryan Companies US Inc as the general contractor for the construction of the warehouse and office facilities. Ground breaking will be announced and held at a later date.
Mr Richard Robinson president of Norfolk Iron said that “Construction will start immediately and we expect to be delivering steel from the Durant facility within the next ten to twelve months. We are excited to be a part of this very progressive community and to be able to increase and improve the services we provide to our customers in this geographic area. With the addition of this facility we will be able to broaden our services to the Wisconsin and Illinois areas as well as expand our delivery capabilities in Minnesota, Iowa and Missouri.”
Norfolk Iron & Metal Co is a 99 year old family owed wholesale steel distribution company operating steel service centers at Norfolk in Nebraska, Emporia in Kansas and Greeley in Colorado. It also has ownership interest in a steel processing facility at Rock Island in Illinois. Norfolk provides its customers a full line of carbon steel products as well as first stage processing services such as sawing, shearing, breaking and laser and plasma cutting.
Mining accidents in South Africa killed 199 workers in 2006
Bloomberg reported that mining accidents in South Africa killed 199 workers in 2006 and that most of the deaths occured in mines with deep shafts. Gold mines recorded 113 deaths and 40 fatalities occurred in platinum mines. Coal mining accidents killed 19 miners, 4 were killed on diamond mines and 23 people died on other operations.
Mr Lazarus Zim president of Johannesburg based Chamber of Mines termed these deaths as a considerable blow. He said "More of the same is not going to do the trick."
The National Union of Mineworkers in a May 24th report had said that Gold mine accidents claimed 8,000 lives between 1984 and 2005 while 1,064 workers were killed on coal mines and 774 on platinum operations and 181,027 miners were injured. The union said "For deaths and serious injuries to occur as a result of simply being at work is completely unacceptable."
About 440,000 people work on mines in South Africa which has a 25.5% unemployment rate.
Japanese steel mills to start ferrochrome price talks
YIEH reported that Japanese mills will start talks about the prices of high carbon ferrochrome for July to September shipments with South Africa.
As per report South African suppliers intend to increase its third quarter prices but Japanese buyers attempt to squeeze the price rise as a result of a drop in the production output of stainless steel by European mills.
South African producers have indicated they will largely rise the offer prices of high carbon ferrochrome as the price will be soared by USD 8 to USD 10 per pound.
Chinese spot price of high-carbon ferrochrome is at USD 115 per pound.
China nonferrous metal trade deficit in 4 months up by 136% YoY
China Securities reported that China's deficit from nonferrous metal trading kept enlarging during January to April 2007 and has reached USD 10.577 billion which is up by USD 6.088 billion or 135.62% YoY.
China's total trade value of nonferrous metals during January to April 2007 hit USD 27.7 billion up by 60.56% YoY. Export and import respectively touched USD 8.561 billion and USD 19.139 billion up by 34.2% and 76.1%.
Import volumes of refined copper, alumyte, unwrought nickel and nickel ore rose in a large way; while export volumes of unwrought nickel dropped obviously. Moreover, unwrought zinc turned to net export from the previous net import.
Data from the China’s National Development and Reform Commission showed that during January to April 2007, China imported 6.4552 million tonnes alumyte, 39,200 tonnes unwrought nickel and 3.8494 tonnes nickel ore, respectively surging by 245.5%, 21.9% and 10.4 times. Export of unwrought lead and zinc, however dropped.
Yuzhny GOK’s sinter output in 5 months up by 20% YoY
Interfax reported that Ukrainian Yuzhny GOK in Dnipropetrovsk region has raised sinter production by 20.1% YoY in January to May 2007 to 2.215 million tonnes.
Yuzhny said that its iron ore concentrate production rose by 3.6% YoY to 3.67 million tonnes and in May 2007 it produced 480,000 tonnes of sinter and 744,000 tonnes of concentrate.
Yuzhny produced 4.652 million tonnes of sinter and 8.71 million tonnes of concentrate in 2006 up by 13.5% and 7% respectively over 2005.
Yuzhny is controlled on a parity basis by the Dnipropetrovsk based Privat Group and Zaporizhiya based Smart group.
Rusina to invest USD 600 million in its Philippine project
Philippine Daily Inquirer citing Mr Robert Gregory CEO of Rusina said that Rusina Mining NL will invest USD 600 million in its projects in Zambales province and Semirara Island in the Philippines.
As per report, Rusina will spend USD 500 million on a heap leaching plant in Zambales and spend USD 100 million on a nickel smelting facility in Semirara.
Manila based DMCI which operates the Philippines biggest coal mine in Semirara bought 3.66 million Rusina shares in May.
Northwest Pipe to supply pipes for Freeport project
Northwest Pipe Company announced that it was named as pipe supplier by Mountain Cascade Inc of Livermore California for the Freeport Regional Authority Project near Sacramento in California.
Northwest Pipe Company will supply approximately 27,000 feet of 84 inch diameter steel pipe valued at approximately USD 11 million for an engineered and custom fabricated piping system to be installed in the Freeport Pipeline Facilities Project.
The pipe is expected to be manufactured in the Company's Portland in Oregon or Adelanto in California division with delivery scheduled to begin in the fourth quarter of 2007.
Northwest Pipe is headquartered at Portland in Oregon and has 9 manufacturing facilities across the United States and Mexico. It operates 3 business segments Water Transmission Group, Tubular Products Group and Fabricated Products Group.
Dogeng to commission new SS plate production lines in China
It is reported that Dageng Stainless Steel Corp Ltd has set up a new stainless re rolling plant at Jiangsu province in east China.
Dageng Stainless Steel said that this new mill owns two production lines. One of them can produce 80,000 tonnes per year for stainless steel plate products. Its size range for width is up to 2,500mm and thickness is 60mm. Another production line’s annual capacity is 70,000 tons with width up to 3,000mm and thickness 80mm.
As per report this plant will import the raw material slabs from other countries including South Korea and Japan.
Mittal Steel Galati invests in environmental projects
Romanian media reported that Mittal Steel Galati has invested USD 400,000 in upgrading parts of the compound’s Coke Plant 1.
Mr Augustine Kochuparampil CEO of Mittal Steel Galati said that "This follows other environmental investments worth USD 1.2 million at Steel Works 3. Both projects are part of the list of 13 environmental objectives that the company has pledged to accomplish by 2008."
Mr Kochuparampil added that the recently finished project improves the safety of the industrial water management at the steel works and complements a USD 1.2 million project that is also related to industrial water safety.
China to reduce pollutant discharge by 10%
Xinhua has reported that the Chinese government has reiterated its intention to meet strict energy efficiency and pollutant reduction targets which it failed in 2006. As per report the General Work Plan for Energy Conservation and Pollutant Discharge Reduction shows that China will stick to the original plan of energy saving as well as reducing major pollutant discharges by 10%.
Together with Ministry of Finance the State Environmental Protection Administration and five other authorities China's top economic planner National Development and Reform Commission has kicked off a campaign to ensure the elimination of high energy consuming and heavy polluting industries. The campaign aimed at curbing excessive growth of energy consuming and polluting industries will run until the end of June focusing on the iron and steel copper alumina cement, power and coking sectors.
The plan said China will promote the use of renewable energy resources such as wind power, solar power, hydro power, methane and terrestrial heat. The country will also establish medium and long term outlines on fuel ethanol and bio ethanol and will also reform pricing mechanism for resource products such as refined oil natural gas and electricity and restrict the export of high energy consuming and heavy polluting products.
China will optimize energy use in high energy consuming industries, such as steel, non ferrous metal, petrochemical and cement production realize energy saving capacities of 50 million tonnes of standard coal in 2007 and 240 million tonnes by 2010. The country will also save 31.5 million tonnes of standard coal this year and 118 million tonnes by 2010 and cut sulfur dioxide emissions by 400,000 tonnes in 2007 and by 2.4 million tonnes by 2010. To meet the goals the government will accelerate the elimination of out dated production capacities and reduce chemical oxygen demand by 620,000 tonnes in 2007 and by 1.38 million tonnes by 2010.
Some of the targets set by Chinese government to meet the goal include the following
1. Solid fuel burning electricity generating capacity will be reduced by 10 million kilowatts in 2007 and 50 million kilowatts by 2010.
2. Iron ore production capacity to lose by 30 million tonnes in 2007 and 100 million tonnes by 2010.
3. Steel production to close 35 million tonnes of capacity in 2007 and 55 million tonnes by 2010.
4. Electrolytic aluminum production to close 100,000 tonnes of capacity in 2007 and 650,000 tonnes by 2010.
5. Iron alloy production capacity to lose 1.2 million tons in 2007 and 4 million tonnes by 2010.
6. Calcium carbide production capacity to lose 500,000 tons in 2007 and 2 million tonnes by 2010.
7. Coke production capacity of 10 million tonnes will close in 2007 and 80 million tonnes by 2010.
8. Cement production capacity to lose 50 million tonnes in 2007 and 250 million tonnes by 2010.
The plan requires departments and local governments to prioritize the tasks and use economic, legal and administrative methods to curb excessive growth of high energy consuming and heavy polluting industries. Meanwhile, efforts must be made to adjust industrial structure, improve technology, expand spending and strengthen monitoring.
NSW promises environmental funds after approving coal mine
After approving a controversial coal mine, the New South Wales Government is promising to spend millions of dollars to try to show it still cares for the environment.
Mr Morris Iemma Premier of NSW said that the state will help fund experimental projects to reduce greenhouse gases from burning coal.
Mr Iemma said that “it's an exciting day because there's real hope in saving the coal industry and also tackling climate change. These two projects that we were to show you in the Hunter are part of an exciting initiative to find ways of burning coal cleaner, of capturing emissions and of reducing greenhouse gas emissions as part of our effort on climate change, of saving the industry & jobs and of New South Wales showing the way that it is possible to tackle climate change, to do our bit on climate change and at the same time preserve jobs, investment in the industry.”
