It seems that the Indian steel majors, who normally follow monthly pricing, may resort to mid term hike

Indian buyers, fearing major hike in steel prices in April on the perception of hike in raw material prices, are scrambling to the sellers creating huge push from demand side, which is resulting in about 1% price increase on daily basis for last few days.

Since the beginning of March, when Indian steel majors announced their pricing for the month of March, the market prices have surged by more than 10%.During this period Indian Long Product Price Index ILPPI went up by 768 points or 11% to 7537 whereas Indian Flat Product Price Index IFPPI surged by 661 points or 9% to 8234. The overall Indian Steel Price Index INDSPI went up by 717 points or 10% to 7869.

This recent surge in market prices have brought up the price levels closer to the PEAK of July-September 2008 with gap narrowing to just about 20%

What remains to be seen that how the buyers would react to such levels of steel prices when the market stabilizes in April 2010

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Reuters reported that Bolivia's government said on Tuesday that it would not accept changes to the contract awarded to India's Jindal Steel and Power Ltd to develop a USD 2.1 billion iron ore and steel project near the Brazilian border.

Mr Jose Pimentel Bolivian mining minister told local radio that “Unfortunately Jindal hasn't fulfilled its commitments with the state.”

Mr Pimentel said “They have proposed changing some terms of the contract and we've rejected that proposal.”

He added that JSPL had proposed modifying the contract so as to reduce the quantity and quality of steel production.


A 40 year contract signed in late 2007 gives JSPL the right to mine about half the El Mutun site, which is believed to contain one of the world's largest iron ore reserves. The site in eastern Bolivia has estimated iron ore reserves of more than 40 billion tonnes, though they are said to be of medium grade quality.

As part of the project, JSPL had vowed to develop an integrated steel plant with an annual capacity of 1.7 million tonnes. Under the deal, investments had been due to start in late 2008 but that was rescheduled to the second half of 2009 due to administrative delays.

(Sourced from Reuters)

The Indian Long Product Price Index ILPPI went up by 101 points whereas Indian Flat Product Price Index IFPPI also surge by 88 points. The overall Indian Steel Price Index INDSPI rise by 95 points

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Change is on 16th March as compared to 15th March 2010
Change is in INR per tonne

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(Sourced from www.steelprices-india.com)

Reuters reported that India's third largest steel producer JSW Steel Ltd expects to raise prices in April as higher prices of key raw material may push up costs by up to USD 40 per tonne.

Mr MVS Seshagiri Rao joint MD and group CFO of JSW Steel said that coking coal prices are not affordable in the short-term we have to pass through this cycle.”

He added that "Price increase is not avoidable."

Mr Rao said that JSW may also sign contracts with miners around the same levels, but is negotiating for annual contracts instead of quarterly.

The company will source 5 million tonnes of coking coal, mainly from Australia.

(Sourced from Reuters)

BS reported that the Chinese auto component makers recorded the biggest presence among all foreign automotive players in t the Delhi Auto Expo this year with over 100 of them

As per report, from about INR 30 crore in 2000 less than 1%, imports of Chinese auto parts increased to over INR 2500 crore in 2009 accounting for 10% of the total Indian auto components market.

The Automotive Component Manufacturers Association of India said that imports of components from China have registered a 97% compounded annual growth rate over the past seven years.

According to a report by research firm A T Kearney, the 12,000 odd auto parts companies in China are far more competitive than the 5,000 plus companies in India due to several factors, including lower wages, steel price, power tariffs and taxes.

According to estimates, wage rates in China are 15% to 25% lower than in India and the companies there get higher subsidy on power usage. ACMA has found that the difference between Indian and Chinese auto component companies’ factory to factory cost taking into consideration the cost of transport, octroi, Customs duty and others is a huge 45% in China’s favor. The flood started after the government lowered the import duty from 15% in 2005 to 12.5% in 2006 and 2.5% the following year.

India is already the third biggest importer of cheap Chinese tyres, which not only cater to the demand from the after market but also service the original equipment manufacturer demand. The demand recently shot up due to unavailability of adequate commercial vehicle tyres in the local market.

An executive from one of the Chinese companies said that their products are about 40% to 50% cheaper than India made products having the same quality standards.

(Sourced from Business Standard)

TMT
Fe 415
12mm

Change is on 16th March as compared to 15th March 2010
Change is in INR per tonne

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This would assist persons, including steel makers, traders, users and others, who are connected with industry in some way to assess the steel pricing trends and utilize in their day to day working to take considered decisions.

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The recovery in the industrial sector is clearly discernible as corroborated by both the data on national accounts and the index of industrial production. The downward trend observed in the rate of growth of the IIP that spanned almost eight quarters stands reversed as gleaned from the latest data for the current fiscal. After reaching a trough of 0.6% during the second half of 2008-09, growth in the IIP revived to a level of 7.7% during April to November 2009-10.

The broad based nature of the recovery was evident in the pick-up in growth of almost all major components of the IIP. The major industrial groups like automobiles, rubber and plastic products, wool and silk textiles, wood products, chemicals and miscellaneous manufacturing staged a strong recovery during April-November 2009, while machinery and textile products reinforced their growth. Led by cement, non-metallic mineral products also staged a modest recovery.

The strong growth in the machinery and equipment group fed into the growth in capital goods, while some automobile components like commercial vehicles exhibited slack in growth. Growth in consumer durables has been broad-based, the robust production performance of automobiles being quite significant. On the other hand, the low growth in food products, beverages and tobacco products and cloth and footwear acted as a dampener on the growth in consumer non durables.

India also ranked as the 5th largest producer of crude steel in the world during January-November 2009. The Indian Steel Industry appears to have successfully overcome the effects of the global economic slowdown during 2009-10. India and China are the only countries to have registered a positive growth during January-November 2009. The strong growth in the GDP in the 2nd quarter of the current fiscal and in the IIP during April-November 2009 suggests that the demand side of the steel industry is back on stable footing. Indian steel outlook for 2010 continues to be positive, since Indian steel consumption is expected to be rising at 6% to 9% during the current year.

FDI inflow to India, which remained robust in 2008-09 despite the slump in global financial growth have also continued to flow smoothly during the current year so far. During April-November 2009-10, total FDI inflows stood at INR 93,354 crore as against INR 85,700 crore during the corresponding period 2008-09, signifying a growth of 9% in rupee terms and a decline of 2% in US dollar terms; the divergent patterns in growth rates being attributable to exchange rate changes during the period. Sectors like agricultural services, sea transport and electrical equipments have shown a quantum jump in FDI flows during 2009-10.

The controversy to allot land to the Bhushan Steel at Salanpur in Burdwan district for its proposed steel project is likely to be resolved soon. The project was put on hold after the Coal India raised objection due to the presence of coal reserves in the area.

Ms Nirupam Sen state commerce and industries minister said that “The Bhushan Steel will set up its proposed steel plant at Salanpur. We will finalize the land for the project by the end of this month.”

Sources at the state commerce and industries department revealed that nearly 405 acres land at Salanpur has already been acquired by the state government for this project. The Bhushan Steel had signed an agreement with the state government in 2007 for setting up a 2 million tonne steel plant and a 1000 MW captive thermal power plant at Salanpur. The company had sought 2500 acres land for the project, which was later revised to 2300 acres by the experts’ committee on the steel projects in the state.

However, later the Coal India had raised objection to the project due to the presence of underground coal reserves in the area. The West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation then made realignment of the land for the project in consultation with Bhushan Steel.

Sources added that “We will have to leave 180 acres to 300 acres land outside the purview of the land acquisition for the project due to the underground coal reserves and the company has more or less agreed to it.”

(Sourced from livemint.com)

Pencil ingot

Change is on 16th March as compared to 15th March 2010
Change is in INR per tonne

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Bloomberg reported that JSW Steel Limited won additional carbon credits for reducing greenhouse gas emissions at a project in the southern state of Karnataka.

According to data compiled by Bloomberg, JSW Steel was awarded 504,214 credits by the United Nations Clean Development Mechanism, the world’s second-biggest greenhouse gas market, according to its Web site.

The company previously won 2.8 million Certified Emission Reductions for the project.

(Sourced from Bloomberg)

Melting scrap
80:20
HMS

Change is on 16th March as compared to 15th March 2010
Change is in INR per tonne

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ANGL
GR A
65X6

Change is on 16th March as compared to 15th March 2010
Change is in INR per tonne

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India’s Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited has pulled out of the bid to acquire more than 70% equity in the leading fixed phone in Zambia.

The withdrawal of Indian Telecommunications Company leaves only 3 suitors in the race of the 23 companies that sought to buy shares in Zambia Telecommunications Limited, known as Zamtel. The 3 companies and consortia still in contention are Russia’s Altimo Holdings and VimpelCom Limited, Lap Green networks of Libya and UNITEL of Angola.

The 3 bids are second round offers and they follow the first round bid submissions, received on December 23rd 2009 after undertaking a due diligence scrutiny of Zamtel from November 2.

Mr Andrew Chipwende GD of Zambia Development Agency said that 8 foreign companies had pre qualified to participate in the first round of bids. Besides the 3, the others were Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited, Majanagar Telephone Nigam of India, Portugal Telecomm, Telkom SA Limited of South Africa and Orascom Telecom Holdings of Egypt.

Mr Chipwende said that the ZDA and its advisors, RP Capital will review and assess all the bids. The process is expected to take about two weeks. The ZDA will invite all the preferred bidder or bidders to enter into negotiations with an independent negotiating team in Lusaka to be appointed by ZDA.

He said that the privatization process has so far gone well and we are pleased to see such experienced and competitive bidders show a continued and increasing interest in Zamtel.

Mr Chipwende said that the announcement of the successful offer will be made before March 29th 2010 year and talks will begin shortly after that. However, details of all the bids and subsequent negotiations will remain confidential while the Zamtel privatization process continues.

He said that the final close of the partial sale of Zamtel is expected by the end of June 2010. A maximum of 75% of shares will be sold to a strategic partner while government will retain will retain 25%. Last year, Mr Rupiah Banda president of Zambia announced Zambia’s intention to sell 75% shares in Zamtel to a strategic partner to make the company competitive and save it from collapse. Zamtel needs capitalization of USD 200 million to meet short term liabilities.

(Filed by Mr Kapembwa Sinkamba SteelGuru Correspondent Zambia)

Sponge iron

Change is on 16th March as compared to 15th March 2010
Change is in INR per tonne

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Mr Bharatsinh Solanki minister of state for power informed the Lok Sabha that the electricity generation in the country short of the target of 720.88 BU during the current Financial Year 2009-10 so far. The actual generation represented a growth of 6.37% as compared to the actual generation of 658.74 BU during the corresponding period of last year. The status of electricity generation in the country is reviewed on regular basis in CEA/MOP.

The Minister reiterated that the distribution of electricity in a State / UT is under the purview of the concerned State Government/UT administration/Power Utilities. However, to improve the electricity distribution system in the country, Government of India has launched two centrally sponsored schemes, namely, Rajiv Gandhi Grameen Vidyutikaran Yojana and Restructured Accelerated Power Development and Reforms Program.

The objective of the RGGVY is to electrify over 100,000 un electrified villages and to provide free electricity connections to 2.34 crore rural BPL households. The focus of R-APDRP is on actual, demonstrable performance in terms of Aggregate Technical and Commercial loss reduction. Projects under the scheme are to be taken up in two parts while part A includes the projects for establishment of base line data and IT applications for energy accounting / auditing and IT-Based consumer’s service centers, part B includes the regular distribution system strengthening projects.

HRC
Tube
2.5x1250

Change is on 16th March as compared to 15th March 2010
Change is in INR per tonne

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Mr GK Vasan Union Shipping Minister informed the Lok Sabha that the processing time for grant of No Objection Certificates for registration of vessels has been progressively reduced by Directorate General of Shipping and brought down to a fortnight from the date of application for deep sea fishing vessels.

Besides this, the period of NOC validity has been increased from six months to 1 year.

The issuance of NOC cannot be done away with since they enable periodic monitoring of the status of ownership of the deep sea fishing vessels based on which provisional registration certificate is issued by respective Mercantile Marine Department.

It is reported that the 18th Gram Shree Mela, hosted by TATA Steel and sponsored by Council for Advancement of People’s Action and Rural Technology is scheduled to be held from March 13 to 22 at Gopal Maidan.

Designed to bring the sellers and the buyers on common ground, this mela is well designed to create a market for the rural artisans. The objective of having this mela is to facilitate the marketing process of rural produce by bringing together the producers and the buyers from across the country.

This year CAPART has upgraded the Jamshedpur Gram Shree Mela as the State Level Mela. There will be over 150 stalls out of which 100 stalls have been sponsored by CAPART while the remaining stalls will be represented by the local rural artisans, SHG’s as well as handicapped artisans. Artifacts from 20 states and 21 distinct rural products in will be on display and sale.

Cultural programs focusing on different folk dances will be performed every evening by various cultural groups. Rhythm, comprising differently able children will also showcase their talent. A Kati tournament, the tribal sport of Jharkhand which is being actively tried to be revived by TATA Steel, will also be organised at the Mela. The final round of this will be held on March 21.

In order to promote an eco friendly environment the company will promote the use of paper bags at the fair. Another stint to make this year’s venture outstanding is the fact that the Company will also be hosting a workshop on Jharkhand Art - Paitkar, Jadopatia & Sohrai forms for rural artisans and visitors at large during the Mela.

(Sourced from www.merinews.com)

PLTS
GR B
12-20x2.5

Change is on 16th March as compared to 15th March 2010
Change is in INR per tonne

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After a one year lull phase, the general engineering industry in the Coimbatore region is back in full force. The year end demand this fiscal is said to be substantial and numerous small and medium enterprises in the city are working non-stop to meet the requirements.

The texcity is reckoned as a manufacturing hub with various clusters focused on the production of castings to components to spares to products, machineries and machine tools. They cater to diverse industries including automotive, textile and pump and motor both in the domestic and export markets.

The revival in year end demand is a clear turnaround from a drab 2008-09, when the global recession and subsequent slowdown in various industries affected the general engineering industries in Coimbatore, say industry experts. They added the domestic demand is growing by leaps and bounds, while exports have also started picking up.

RSM Autokast JMD K Ilango said that "The industry has taken a full circle now. Last year, same period, there was only 50% to 60% capacity utilization. Today, we are working to full capacity and still the requirements are only increasing.”

He said that the demand is very high now and all the small and medium enterprises in the city are working hard to meet the March delivery deadline. There are about 9000 industries in the engineering cluster in Coimbatore employing 150000 people. The annual turnover is approximately pegged at INR 20,000 crore.

Mr V Venkateshwaran GM of Ammarun Foundries said that "The engineering industries in Coimbatore had a problem last fiscal. The recessionary trend slowly eroded the system. So we started the year 2009 on a cautious note. But, the situation has improved in the last six months and demand peaked in the last two months.”

Mr Vijay Mohan CMD of Pricol told ET that the schedules have drastically improved this year end. He said that "Even till middle of February, things were normal but suddenly, the vehicle manufacturers have increased their schedule for March by 10% more than what they indicated in February.”

He further said the industry is growing by 18% to 19% now compared to last fiscal. The auto components are riding on the strong recovery in the automotive segment. They also see demand coming from tractor and infrastructure sector. Sakthi Auto Component MD M Manickam too said the industry is running very well now.

(Sourced from Economic Times)

Mr RPN Singh minister of state for road transport and highways informed the Lok Sabha that Union Government has made an allocation of INR 55,533.04 crore for development of NHs across the country during the last three years, i.e. since 2006-07 onwards to the current financial year. Against the above allocation, an expenditure of INR 51,783.67 crore has been incurred.

1869 NH projects are on going as of February 28th 2010 across the country. The highest number of projects are being executed in Karnataka of 178, followed by Uttarakhand of 174, UP of 150, Maharashtra of 133, Andhra Pradesh of 119, Jammu & Kashmir of 119 and Orissa of 104. All NH works are being carried out as per Ministry’s Standard Specifications for Road & Bridge Works and as per relevant Indian Roads Congress guidelines.

Where consistent non-performance of contractor is observed, the contractors are placed in the list of non-performing contractors. 20 contracting firms stand identified by National Highways Authority of India as non performing contractors as on date. In a few cases, due to consistent non performance, existing contracts have been terminated. So far, 27 contracts have been terminated by NHAI.

GC
100Gms
0.40

Change is on 16th March as compared to 15th March 2010
Change is in INR per tonne

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Mr Kamal Nath minister for road transport and highways informed the Lok Sabha with a view to resolve the procedural impediments, National Highway Authority of India has modified some of the norms in model documents for Build Operate Transfer projects ie Request for Qualification and Request for Proposal. This has been done consequent to acceptance of the recommendations of the Chaturvedi Committee’s first report by the government.

Further, in accordance with the provisions under clause 2.1.18 of Model Request for Proposal, NHAI has laid down some norms recently in the bidding documents with a view to expedite implementation of the National Highways Development Program. As per the new norms a bidder shall not be eligible for bidding if, as on the bid date, the Bidder, it’s Member or Associate was, either by itself or as member of consortium has been declared by the Authority as the Selected Bidder of undertaking three or more projects and the bidder is yet to achieve financial closure. A bidder shall be considered as declared Selected Bidder for the projects of NHAI, where the Letter of award has been issued.

It has also been made mandatory, as per Clause 2.1.18 that the Concessionaire shall engage only such EPC Contractors for execution of the work that have experience of at least one single completed highway work of value at least 20% of the Estimated Project Cost in the preceding 5 years. An undertaking to this effect shall be provided by the Concessionaire along with the EPC Project Agreement Document.

These norms will impact those developers, who have outstanding LOAs but have not yet achieved the financial closure while seeking participation in the bidding process for further projects. For the purpose of determining the eligibility of developers to bid, all projects pending for financial closures are taken into account and not merely those which are overdue. The amendments in the model RFP have been introduced by the NHAI with the view to expedite financial closure by the developers.

TATA Motors has put in place an aggressive cost reduction strategy for its luxury brands Jaguar Land Rover which it acquired from Ford in 2008, involving a substantial increase in sourcing vehicle parts from low cost countries.

As part of the plan a third of JLR’s component requirements will be sourced from countries such as India, China and eastern Europe within the next 12 months.

Mr C Ramakrishnan CFO of TATA Motors said that “A year and a half ago, the company sourced 14% to 15% of its components from low cost countries. Over the last couple of quarters, it rose to about 20% and we hope to take it to 30%.”

To this end, the company plans to introduce some of its long-term suppliers to a team of executives from JLR visiting India in search of partners.

The low cost of skilled labour and cheaper raw material costs give these countries a 30% to 40% cost advantage on component prices, which is key to JLR’s new drive to reduce manufacturing costs. TATA Motors was dependent on Ford for a bulk of supplies of components after it was sold in early 2008.

TATA Motors which was recently sanctioned an expensive European Investment Bank loan of GBP 340 million at Libor plus 6% is working towards making the two brands as cost competitive as possible in the long run.

An analyst with a leading brokerage house said that “TATA Motors needs to tighten costs in order to be competitive while not being complacent on quality and technology.” He added that “The companies does not have deep pockets like BMW or Daimler, but the expertise of working in a low-cost environment like India will aid JLR operations greatly.”

Aggressive cost reduction initiatives over the last six months plus a rationalisation exercise advised by KMPG and Roland Berger helped the company post its first post-takeover quarterly net profit in the long run.

(Sourced from Business Standard)

CR
DSK
0.63

Change is on 16th March as compared to 15th March 2010
Change is in INR per tonne

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BL reported that severe power cuts and power holidays in Andhra Pradesh are causing serious concerns to high tension consumers, affecting the manufacturing sector in particular. They expect much tougher times during the summer months. According to industry representatives, even the IT industry, which has been assured dedicated feeders, is at times facing hardships.

The overall demand supply gap is now estimated at 25 million units to 30 million units with the peak requirement of 260 million units forcing AP Transco and discoms to impose cuts on all consumers mainly to divert the power to ensure seven-hour supply to the farm sector for the rabi crop.

Delay in commissioning couple of projects, including Konaseema gas plant and teething problems faced by a 500 MW recently commissioned plant has added to the State's power woes. In addition, while the gas-based projects commissioned last year from KG Basin fields have helped add about 2,800 MW, about 1,400 MW was out of generation due to annual maintenance and other problems.

Mr K. Harishchandra Prasad president of Federation of Andhra Pradesh Chamber of Commerce and Industries told Business Line that “It is unfortunate that we are faced with such a situation. Everybody is caught unawares. Power cuts of three days are simply unmanageable for small and medium enterprises in particular. Such a situation comes through only by bad planning. We are trying to take up the matter with the Government and see how this unilateral decision could be handled better.”

Mr Y Harish Chandra Prasad chairman of Confederation of Indian Industry of AP region said that “If you analyse the problem, there is clear bungling. The Government anticipated additional power would come into the grid. It failed to place tenders for additional power supplies, unlike its counterparts in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka had done. The entire process of tendering takes time. In the meantime, the cost of power has also gone up.”

According to Government sources, the peak energy demand has increased from about 157 million units per day in 2004 to 255 mu per day in 2010, a growth of 62.4%. The peak demand is up from 7,613 MW to 11,116 MW in 2010, an increase of 46.04%. Consumers have increased from 1.57 crore in 2004 to 2.2 crore in 2010.

(Sourced from Business Line)

PLTS
GR A
8x1250

Change is on 16th March as compared to 15th March 2010
Change is in INR per tonne

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Dalmia Cement (Bharat) said that its board will meet on March 18 to consider a restructuring proposal of the company and its subsidiaries.

Dalmia Cement in a filing to the BSE said that a meeting of board will be held on March 18 to consider a restructuring proposal of the businesses of the firm and its subsidiary companies.

(Sourced from Press Trust of India)

Shiva Cement said its board will meet on March 26th 2010 to consider proposal for setting up of a 25 MW captive power plant.

Shiva Cement in a filing to the BSE said that the board would also consider allotment of 10 million securities to its promoter group.

(Sourced from Press Trust of India)

Reliance Industries and Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemical Ltd have committed to buy up to 45% of crude oil which ONGC Videsh Ltd and its partners plan to produce from a Venezuelan oilfield.

The overseas arm of Oil and Natural Gas Corp and partners Spain’s Repsol YPF, Malaysian state Petronas, Indian Oil Corp and Oil India Ltd, had last month won the Carabobo 1 heavy oilfield in Venezuela.

Sources said that the work entails producing up to 480,000 barrels per day of extra heavy oil and building an upgrader to convert it into higher quality crude. The consortium would invest USD 8.8 billion in developing the oilfields and another USD 12.1 billion in the upgrader.

OVL, Repsol and Petronas all have an 11% stake each in the project while IOC and OIL have 3.5% each. The rest 60% is held by Petroleos de Venezuela.

Sources said of the planned output, Repsol has indicated it can take 165,000 barrels per day while Petronas said it could take 100,000 bpd. The remaining 220,000 bpd was split equally between OVL and OIL.

(Sourced from Business Line)

Patra

Change is on 16th March as compared to 15th March 2010
Change is in INR per tonne

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Realty firm ABW Infrastructure said that it will invest INR 1000 crore in developing a 105 acre integrated township at Gurgaon in Haryana.

Mr Aditya Bansal MD of ABW Infrastructure said that “This township is going to be our flagship project. We will invest INR 1000 crore to build about 2,500 units in this project.” He added that the flats will cost between INR 1.962 million to INR 5.5 million.

Mr Bansal said the company is targeting a sales revenue of about INR 2000 crore from the township. He said that the company has already acquired the land for the project and construction will start in the next 2 to 3 months adding the company is also planning to expand the township to up to 250 acres.

Mr Bansal said that the project Aditya Niketan will be developed in different phases and the entire township will be completed in the next five years.

(Sourced from PTI)

According to a Joint Paper of Capgemini and ASSOCHAM, nuclear reactor vendors worldwide have to grow their production capacities with joint ventures arrangements and need to bring together know how of experienced nuclear countries with industrial and human resources of new nuclear countries.

The Paper said that this is because nuclear plant construction all over the world stands shelved for nearly 20 years and thus collaborations between experienced and less experienced nuclear operators are necessary to bring new nuclear operators upto speed.

The Paper known as Nuclear Energy Legal and Regulatory Frameworks: Best Practices and to be released shortly, however, adds that in order to bring together know-how of experienced nuclear countries with those of plenty of industrial and human resources of new nuclear countries, collaborative approach would pave ways for forging durable and longer nuclear alliances.

Therefore, new and existing nuclear countries need to reinvigorate or to create an industrial network by establishing a map of critical competencies and decide what should be provided at national or local level and what could be imported. The new and existing nuclear countries need to identify gaps and create the right incentive to bridge those gaps, say the Paper of ASSOCHAM and Capgemini.

It further emphasizes that aging workforce is a major issue in existing nuclear countries. Vendors and operators need to massively recruit engineers to replace baby bombers retiring to meet the growing demand.

Nuclear energy institutions need to be created or boosted and research related to safe and long term disposal of nuclear wastes for long life time radioactive elements transmutation.

The Paper on issue of pre-requisites for a sustained nuclear renaissance, however, says that it needs to be put in place through world wide collaborations so that these turn nuclear generation program into success.

Nuclear plants construction carries multi-dimensional risk. In addition, the nuclear industry has some unique and especially stringent requirements to comply with. Capabilities to meet these requirements are prerequisites for industry to succeed.

This would need precautionary steps such as effective nuclear non proliferation control, stringent safety management, ensure nuclear energy financial competitiveness and master exceptionally long project life times and large investments. In addition, smooth industrial ramp up, competent human resources and public opinion acceptance would also be needed.

New nuclear countries will need to establish the right safety structure with right governance and trained future collaborations. Existing nuclear countries will need to reinforce their safety authority staff for which an action plan of human resources would have to be launched.

On the issue of multi faceted risks of nuclear plants, the Paper points out that construction of nuclear plant costs a few billion dollars and its lifetime extends to 60 years or more. Construction time would include close to 10 years including several years needed to get clearance on regulatory requirements. Other risks would include technical complexities, contractual or environmental concerns, complex and volatile regulatory environment, suppliers, scalability, skilled human resource scarcity and local community’s opposition etc.

Risk limitations for nuclear operators would involve careful planning, role and responsibilities definition, clear contractual arrangements, regular multi risk assessment, best practices implementation and other risks are beyond the capability of nuclear operators alone.

Ahmedabad based Gujarat Gas Company reported consolidated net profit of INR 462 million as against INR 325 million in the fourth quarter of the financial year, a rise of 42.15%.

The consolidated net sales for the quarter was at INR 3,779 million compared to INR 3,204 million in the corresponding quarter of the previous year. Its total volume of the gas sold during the quarter was 274 mmscm compared to 250 mmscm in the corresponding period last year.

The weakening rupee has impacted the gas cost of the company in the fourth quarter of the previous year, which has been addressed through price corrections in the current year.

Shaleen Sharma MD of Gujarat Gas said that “The company has succeeded in growing its volumes in the second half of 2009 with the help of short term RLNG as well as KG D6 gas which the company has applied for, as the two significant sources of gas which would enable long term growth of the company. The company has invested INR 1,553 million in network extension and infrastructure upgradation during 2009 and will await clearance from regulatory authorities before venturing in new areas under its plan.”

(Sourced from IRIS)

WRC
SWR14
5.5/6

Change is on 16th March as compared to 15th March 2010
Change is in INR per tonne

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CHNL
GR A
75/100

Change is on 16th March as compared to 15th March 2010
Change is in INR per tonne

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JSTI
GR A
250X125

Change is on 16th March as compared to 15th March 2010
Change is in INR per tonne

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