Indian domestic steel prices continued to exhibit strong upward sentiments last week, but some signs of weakening were visible for long products in the later part of the week.

After 16 days of mad rush, which started on Holi, the upward movement in the Indian steel market paused for the first time in last 16 days. The prices movement on March 17th 2010 was subdued, especially for long products, but recovery was again seen on Friday.

But the frenzied buying of steel both by users and traders, in order to secure there requirements at lower prices and attempt to make huge profits respectively, may continue to fuel the market. Indications of huge price hike in April by Indian steel majors would also continue to prop up the sentiments.

As per unconfirmed reports, most of the flat product producers have undertaken mid month price increase of INR 500 per tonne to INR 1000 per tonne and are likely to go for major increase on April opening, citing cost pressures.

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%

Last week trend

ILPPI - Indian Long Product Price Index
IFPPI - Indian Flat Product Price Index
INDSPI - Indian Steel Price Index

Long Products

PI - Product Index

Flat products

PI - Product Index

These indices have base of 10,000 as on July 1st 2008

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1. Input material

Melting scrap
80:20
HMS

Change is on March 19th 2010 as compared to March 12th 2010

Alang

Change is on March 19th 2010 as compared to March 12th 2010

Pencil ingot

Change is on March 19th 2010 as compared to March 12th 2010

Pig Iron

Change is on March 19th 2010 as compared to March 12th 2010

Sponge iron

Change is on March 19th 2010 as compared to March 12th 2010

2. Long products

TMT
Fe 415
12mm

Change is on March 19th 2010 as compared to March 12th 2010

WRC
SWR14
5.5/6

Change is on March 19th 2010 as compared to March 12th 2010

ANGL
Grade A
65X65X6

Change is on March 19th 2010 as compared to March 12th 2010

CNHL
Grade A
75/40

Change is on March 19th 2010 as compared to March 12th 2010

JSTI
Grade A
250X125

Change is on March 19th 2010 as compared to March 12th 2010

3. Flat products

HRC
Tube
2.5x1250

Change is on March 19th 2010 as compared to March 12th 2010

Patra

Change is on March 19th 2010 as compared to March 12th 2010

Plates
Grade A
8X1250/1500

Change is on March 19th 2010 as compared to March 12th 2010

Plates
GRADE B
12-20X2500

Change is on March 19th 2010 as compared to March 12th 2010

CR
DSK
0.63x1000

Change is on March 19th 2010 as compared to March 12th 2010

GC
100Gms
0.4

Change is on March 19th 2010 as compared to March 12th 2010

4. Indian Export Levels

Export levels of HDG and PPGI from Indian mills surged further last week
Change is on March 19th 2010 as compared to March 12th 2010
Change is in USD per tonne

To know more details on steel prices subscribe to services of www.steelprices-india.com by registering or sending a mail to admin@steelprices-india.com with contact details. This is a paid service with subscription fee of INR 60,000 plus ST for 12 months. This will keep you in tune with daily happenings in Indian and global steel markets for steel prices. Tailor made package with restricted access to match your needs at lower prices are also available.

(Sourced from www.steelprices-india.com)

ANI reported that Mr Virbhadra Singh Indian steel minister on Sunday said that the government has no control over the pricing of steel as it is the market forces which influence it, however, the government intends to ensure price curb.

Speaking to media on the sidelines of a function organized to mark the opening of the Laboratory for Soil and Leaf Inspection of Apples here, Mr Singh said the centre is trying its best to keep steel prices down

He told reporters that “The rise in price of steel price is lesser than it was earlier. Though, the union government has no control over its prices. Of course, the government is trying to exert moral pressure on it and is trying to keep the prices down so that the common people can use it easily.”

He further noted that the prices of steel are not that much high that could be considered alarming. He told “The prices are low comparatively. Sometimes the prices are high and sometimes low. Still, the prices have not reached at an alarming situation.”

Indian steel market for both long and flat products, which had surged by more than 10% since March beginning, seems to be stabilizing as the daily surge has stopped since March 16 and weakness in input material and long products is being seen for two consecutive days.

Indian steel buyers have rushed to the market to secure large volumes since March beginning resulting in huge surge in market prices in anticipation of mid term price hike by steel majors.

Although Indian steel mills remain buoyant on prices, citing cost pressures, trend in last two days as on March 19 signal possibility of some correction, especially for long products.

(Sourced from ANI and www.steelprices-india.com)

Welspun Gujarat Stahl Rohren Ltd has recently won orders worth INR 600 crore for Pipes from its prestigious global clients.

It may be noted that Welspun very recently announced another order of plates and pipes worth INR 600 crore.

With the addition of these orders, the current order book of the company stands at INR 7,800 crore without excluding the orders being executed in the current quarter.

Mr BK Goenka CMD of Welspun said that "Our growth journey is strongly cemented with these fresh orders which we have bagged in very short succession. We believe that these new orders will once again re establish our capabilities as quality pipe manufacturer across the World."

The fast developing Indian steel industries are continuing beyond what most believed was possible. As one of the world's fastest growing economies, India has become the most happening place among world steel market over last few years and thus is in the radar of not only Indian but most of global players associated with steel industry. But due to fragmented nature of industry, a comprehensive list of smaller steel makers is not readily available.

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POSCO is a big step closer to a new facility in India. The company on March 15 held a groundbreaking ceremony for a continuous galvanized line plant at the Vile Bhagad industrial complex in Maharashtra State.

The hot dip facility, with an annual production capacity of 450,000 tonne will produce zinc-galvanized steel sheets for automobiles and electronic goods and zinc galvanized alloy steel products to be sold in India and other overseas markets.

Cold rolled coil products will be supplied from POSCO`s Gwangyang Works and POSCO-Vietnam.

Construction is scheduled to be completed in May 2012.

Orissa government’s high sounding claim of industrializing the state with huge amount of FDIs and investment from Indian industries goes hollow as the investor industrialists and groups are expressing their frustration over a repulsive and arrogant bureaucracy coupled with a slow decision making mechanism.

When large projects like POSCO and Arcelor-Mittal are making least progress, other comparatively smaller projects are also facing lots of problems in pushing a proposal for a government node.

SPS Steel which has set up a 0.58 million tonne per annum steel manufacturing unit at Jharsaguda said that “Red tapism, slow decision making mechanism and inaction by the state government is hampering our growth. It is high time the state government acts.”

The group that had signed MOU with Orissa government is still waiting for required land, iron ore mine and other support as promised by the government in the MOU.

During almost last seven years, only 100 acres of land has been handed over to the group against a requirement of 350 acres. Because of no mine given on lease, the group primarily depends upon private ore traders to acquire iron ore as OMC gives only 20% of the requirement.

Mr Vohra CMD of SPS Steel said that “Recession has shot past our ear in a close range and we struggled hard to recover from the shock. The prices came down drastically leading to losses, mainly, due to low demand everywhere and low per-capita consumption. But fortunately we could manage to make optimum use of our resources weathering the storm.”

Even though Mr Vohra didn’t risk commenting at whether the power and bureaucratic lobby are working against the interests of industries and corporate, his expression on the question was enough to answer why the big and mega projects planned in the state are not doing any progress.

Once the first attraction of the investors, Orissa is now becoming the state of deadlocks for groups that have planned mega projects in Orissa. Apart from public opposition in some places, bureaucratic red tapism has become the other major reason for the stagnancy in the process of industrialization of the state.

(Sourced from HNF Bureau)

If steel happens to be a big ticket item in your business, you would agree that keeping track of steel price trends could immensely improve your bottom line, especially in current turbulent times when Indian domestic prices have seen unprecedented volatility.

Indian domestic steel prices for both longs and flats after a period of loss of 9% and 6% during September 15th 2009 to December 1st 2009, surged by 27% and 7% respectively during December 2nd 2009 to January 4th 2010. They are on down path since than and have gone down by 9% and 3% respectively till date during this period.

On the other hand, global steel price levels, under input pressure, are on uptrend. Thus, although Indian steel market scenario can not remain isolated to international trends, trends can be divergent at times and monitoring of international trends is not enough to formulate your strategy for steel related business within India.

Whereas timely input on Indian market conditions can keep you in tune with ground realities and help you in better decisions on day to day basis.

www.steelprices-india.com is a comprehensive portal that provides domestic pricing information for benchmark steel products in each category at select location in India on a regular basis 5 days a week and international price levels on a weekly basis.

As steel comes in hundreds of grades shapes and sizes, we have taken benchmark products in each category at select locations to cover the entire basket of garden variety of steel products including input material for steel making and processing. The product covered include iron ore, sponge iron, pig iron, scrap, pencil ingot, billets, rebars, wire rods, sections, HR, plates, CR ,HDG and pipes.


Input

A. Domestic

Updation: Daily

B. International

Updation: Weekly

Long

A. Domestic levels

Updation: Daily

B. International levels

Updation: Weekly

Flat

A. Domestic levels

Updation: Daily

B. International levels

Updation: Weekly

Pipes
Black pipes Heavy and GI pipes Medium

Updation: Daily

All these features are accessible only to registered user who is provided with a login id and password after payment is received. To know more about the service, please logon to the web site and click on “Features”, “Subscription” and if you like the services on “Registration”.

This is a paid service with subscription fee of INR 60,000 plus ST for 12 months. This will keep you in tune with daily happenings in Indian and global steel markets for steel prices. Tailor made package with restricted access to match your needs at lower prices are also available.

To know more details on steel prices subscribe to services of www.steelprices-india.com by registering or sending a mail to admin@steelprices-india.com or call us at 0124-4048993.

After a year of downturn, major ports in India are back on the recovery track. Traffic handled between April 2009 and February 2010 has increased by 5% from a meager 2% growth in 2008-09. The figure however is still short of the pre slowdown performance an 11% growth in traffic handled by 12 major ports in 2007-08.

Mr A Janardhana Rao MD of Indian Ports Association said that “The economy will take some time to recover. We have witnessed growth over last year, but will take more time to reach the 2007-08 level.” He added that the overall growth for 2009-10 should reach 6% to 7% by the end of March.

With India’s Gross Domestic Product at 6.7% in 2008-09 due to the economic crisis, as compared to 9.2% the previous year, ports were impacted by dwindling exports which grew 3% compared to 29% in 2007-08.

Under commodities, the ‘other cargo’ category saw a growth of 22% in 2009-10 due to sugar imports and a recovery in the textile sector. The iron ore category has grown 6% this year. In 2007-08, it was 34% which fell to 2.5% last year.

Mr Rao said that “China imported iron ore heavily during the Olympics. That demand has completely dwindled now, hence, the fall.”

Mr S S Hussain chairman of Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust also said that "The TEU (twenty-foot equivalent unit), which can contain 12 tonnes has been calculated as 14 tonnes. This is higher, so the TEU number has gone down. But, we have done better than last year. The last three years have been difficult, but we have grown continuously."

Meanwhile, the annual aggregate cargo handling capacity of major ports increased to 574.77 million tonnes per annum in 2008-09 from 532.07 million tonnes in 2007-08. The average turnaround time was 3.87 days in 2008-09 compared to 10 hours in Hong Kong.

Mr Rahul Asthana chairman, Mumbai Port Trust said that "Ports in India are very expensive compared to the ones in Singapore and Colombo. Main liners first go to Colombo and do trans-shipment to India.”

(Sourced from Business Standard)

Afcons Infrastructure Ltd, the infrastructure arm of Shapoorji Pallonji Group, has bagged a INR 938 crore project for design and construction of a part of the East-West Metro project in the city.

Mr Ramakrishna V Ramanan director for transportation of Afcons said that “The project includes design and construction of the underground Metro from Howrah Maidan station to Central Station.”

The project, bagged through competitive bidding in joint venture with a Russian company Transtonnelstroy Limited, has to be completed in four years.

Part of the project includes making a link, 20 meters below the Hooghly River. The contract includes designing and construction of three underground stations and a nearly three kilometers of twin bored tunnel, of which 520 meters is under the river.

(Sourced from IANS)

BS reported that Japanese power companies including Tokyo Electric Power Company and J Power seek to make their presence felt in India.

An industry insider said that "They might not look at the bigger projects like ultra mega power projects right away, but will look at projects with a size of 1,200 to 1,400 MW.” They added that these companies were looking at opportunities in the Indian power sector and might bid for some power projects soon.

India has plans to add 78,000 MW of power generation capacity in the 11th Five Year Plan and these companies want to seize this opportunity. Mr Kuljit Singh head infrastructure of Ernst & Young said that "Japanese companies can look at the opportunity as they already have a presence in the equipment side of the power market. India is a huge market, with high requirement of electricity, leading to a demand supply skew towards power generators. This is a country which requires anywhere between 100,000 to 200,000 MW of power in the short to medium term.”

Foreign companies, able to procure debt at a lower interest cost, can be an advantage in this capital-intensive sector, according to experts. A Mumbai based equity analyst said that "With 2% interest cost and fixed returns of 89%, the power sector makes for a good investment for foreign companies. Merchant power sales also offer good profits.”

Mr Sing said that foreign companies will also have their share of challenges in the Indian market. He said that "The Indian market is a Greenfield play where you require assistance from many government agencies for land acquisition, fuel, water, environment and other clearances. Foreign companies might find it tough to handle such aspects on their own.”

This has been one of the reasons for many foreign power utilities to stay away from bidding, though the government allows 100% FDI in the automatic route in generation, transmission, distribution and power trading except in atomic power. Besides, the negative publicity of the Dabhol and Enron scandals also kept foreign investors at bay.

(Sourced from Business Standard)

Shree Cement announced that it has commissioned its 1.80 million tonne per annum clinker grinding unit at Village Akbarpur Oud in Uttarakhand.

As per report the company markets its products under two brands, Shree Ultra Ordinary Portland Cement and Shree Ultra Red Oxide Cement.

(Sourced from IRIS)

Oswal Group Global said that its subsidiary Maruti Shipping is investing USD 320 million in nine ships being built at Yangzhou Guoyu Shipyards in Jiangsu province of China.

Oswal Group Global in statement said that the first of the fleet, a 57,000-tonne dry bulk carrier, was taken today and the rest would be delivered by 2012.

It added that some of the other ships that are at various stages of construction have already been chartered to some of the largest companies in the sector, including Klaveness Chartering, BVI and Pacific Chartering.

It said that "At least one ship may be used to transport resources to Oswal's expanding global petrochemicals plants. All of the Oswal fleet of ships will be Singapore flagged.”

Mr Oswal CMD of Oswal Group Global said that "This marks an important milestone in the future of the Oswal Group Global, bringing our company into partnership with the Chinese for the first time. We look forward to building a strong working relationship across all our business units with China and Singapore in the future.”

(Sourced from Press Trust of India)

Mr Arun Yadav minister of State for Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises informed the Rajya Sabha that Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd has received an order valued at approximately INR 200 crore in January 2010 from Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd for the supply of over 453000 420 kN Anti-fog Porcelain Disc Insulators for use in the +/- 800 Kv HVDC Transmission Line of PGCIL from Biswanath Chariyali in Assam to Agra in Uttar Pradesh, to be completed by August 2012.

The anti-fog disc insulators are generally used in stretches of transmission lines which are prone to pollution accumulation. These insulators have special profile and additional creepage compared to standard insulators.

The usage of anti-fog insulator results in lesser interruptions/outages of transmission lines under polluted and foggy conditions as compared to standard insulators, thereby increasing the availability of the Transmission line.

It is reported that Mr Sushilkumar Shinde union Minister of Power inaugurated the site leveling work of 1320 MW Solapur Super Thermal Power Project.

After the Bhoomi-Pujan held at site Mr Shinde reviewed the progress of the project. In his interaction with the local people, Mr Shinde assured them that the Solapur Training Institute will be functional as per time schedule.

Mr RS Sharma CMD of NTPC informed that the main plant would be awarded soon and construction activities of Power Training Institute at Solapur will commence shortly.

It is reported that the commissioning of Adani Power's 3300 MW power plant at Tiroda in Maharashtra runs the risk of getting delayed for want of fuel due to an environment hurdle in mining coal.

A person familiar with the development said that top government officials decided not to grant an alternative coal mining block now after the environment ministry ruled out clearance for mining in an area adjacent to tiger reserves, citing that it would ruin the environment. But they seek to overcome the problem.

Mr C Balakrishnan coal secretary said that "There is no provision in the existing guidelines under which allocation of alternative coal block in lieu of the allocated/recommended block could be considered. There is no precedent in the past of allocation of alternate blocks on any ground."

Adani Power which is building a 3300-MW power project for around INR 16,000 crore said it has written to the government for securing coal supply. "We have applied to the government to consider allotment of alternative coal mine and we understand that the government is considering to evolve a policy framework in this regard," Ameet Desai, CFO at Adani Power said.

The first phase, 660 MW unit was to begin generation in July 2011 and the total plant by April 2012, according to the company's offer document during initial public offer last year. Adani Power which raised more than USD 500 million in an IPO last July, was stripped of the power of mining for coal for its Tiroda project near the Tadoba-Andhari tiger reserve.

(Sourced from Economic Times)

Monnet Ispat & Energy said that its board in a meting held on March 15th 2010 has approved the merger of Mounteverest Trading & Investment with itself.

Further, the swap ratio for the proposed merger shall be two shares of Monnet Ispat & Energy for every five stocks of Mounteverest Trading & Investment.

(Sourced from IRIS.com)

Mr Murli Deora minister of petroleum & natural gas introduced Petroleum and Minerals Pipelines (Acquisition of Right of User in Land) Amendment Bill 2010 in the Lok Sabha.

The Amendment Bill proposes to amend Section 15 and 16 of the Petroleum and Minerals Pipelines (Acquisition of Right of User in Land) Act 1962 for strengthening the enforcement mechanism and penal provisions for making punishments more stringent for pilferage of petroleum crude/products with the onus on the accused to prove that the pilfered product does not belong to him.

Petroleum crude oil and products are hazardous materials. Crude/ petroleum product being very costly item(s), any spillage is financial loss to the company besides causing disruption in supply of crude oil/finished products, damage to cultivable soil as well as loss of life and property, in case of a fire; etc. Despite regular patrolling and inspection of the pipelines incidents of pilferage and sabotage by anti social elements have been taking place frequently in various pipelines.

Mr Murli Deora minister of petroleum & natural gas informed the Rajya Sabha that GAIL(India) Ltd is laying Kochi-Koottanad-Bangalore-Mangalore pipeline for evacuation of gas from Kochi Liquefied Natural Gas terminal.

He informed that phase-I of the pipeline includes 26 kilometer stretch from Kochi to Alwaye. This involves laying about 15 kilometer gas pipeline stretch from Vallarpadam to Kalamassery along the National Highway. GAIL Ltd has applied to National Highway Authority of India for permission for the same.

He further informed that gas pipelines come under the list of utilities for which Ministry of Road Transport & Highways has a policy for accommodation along and across National Highways.

The National Highways Authority of India in its board meeting decided to raise the net worth criteria of the concessionaire to restrict the bidding to only big players in the national and international stage for its large projects.

Net worth is the total assets minus the total outside liabilities of an individual or a company. The earlier net worth clause was flat 25% for projects of all sizes and values.

According to the revised norms, the net worth criteria has three slabs. In the first slab are projects worth up to INR 2,000 crore with a net worth criteria of 25% of the total project cost.

Projects worth between INR 2,000 crore and INR 3,000 crore will attract a total net worth criteria of INR 500 crore plus 50% of the cost above INR 2,000 crore. For example, if a project is worth INR 2,600 crore, the concessionaire’s net worth has to be INR 800 crore.

For projects with a total project cost of above INR 3,000 crore, the concessionaire should have a net worth of INR 1,000 crore, plus 100% of the cost above INR 3,000 crore. To elaborate further, if a concessionaire bids for a project worth INR 3,600 crore, he/she must have a net worth of INR 1,600 crore.

Industry sources said that the increase in the net worth criteria will discourage competition in bigger projects, with the sole intention of attracting international players for the larger projects. However, NHAI refuted the allegations by saying that this would help restrict companies who are not serious and reasoned that 15 out of the 64 Indian contractors are eligible for the projects.

(Sourced from Business Standard)

The Minister of State for Petroleum & Natural Gas Shri Jitin Prasada while commending the efforts of Indraprastha Gas Limited in providing Compressed Natural Gas to the world’s largest CNG based public transport in Delhi, asked IGL to accelerate providing Piped Natural Gasconnections to the households in the national capital city.

Speaking at a function to sign agreement for supply of gas to Thyagaraj Stadium which has been geared for Commonwealth Games, Mr Prasada offered all assistance of the Ministry for the purpose.

IGL, the sole supplier of CNG and PNG in the National Capital Territory of Delhi signed an agreement with Public Works Department, Govt. of NCT of Delhi for supplying natural gas to the Gas turbines at Thyagaraj Stadium, which is the totally eco friendly green building being built for Commonwealth Games 2010 being held in Delhi.

IGL would be supplying 30,000 scm per day of natural gas for 3.5 MW gas turbine installed at the stadium, which would be producing power through this on the principle of Cogeneration where waste heat from turbine exhaust would be used to run 1300 TR VAM for Air Conditioning. IGL has already laid pipeline to connect the stadium. The metering and regulating station are under installation and the gas supply is expected to start in the last week of March 2010.

ET reported that oil ministry is setting up an elaborate surveillance system to safeguard mid-sea oil and gas production facilities spread across the east coast, which account for a major chunk of domestic production, against snooping, damage from stray vessels and attacks by pirates or terrorists.

The surveillance system, known as VATMS consists of a network of radars and other mechanisms to track marine and air traffic. It gives advance warning against unwanted or stray boats or ships as well as aircraft. This in turn alerts oilmen on platforms and coastal and air defense forces to initiate preventive action.

The need for extra security in the east coast has arisen since the region has seen major discoveries in recent times. At the same time, there has been increased Chinese presence in Myanmar offshore, literally a stone’s throw from some of the Indian installations.

Besides, recent reports have given rise to apprehensions that unoccupied islands dotting the region right up to Indonesia, which have been used as a haven by pirates, may be used by anti India elements operating out of Bangladesh to launch attacks on oil platforms.

There are about 58 acreages that have been auctioned by the government. The initial cost of setting up the system is estimated at INR 50 crore. This will be pooled by all the companies that are operating in the region in proportion to their last year’s profit. A similar system is in place in the western coast which cradles ONGC’s Mumbai High field, a major source of oil in the country.

(Sourced from ET)

Indian Coast Guard Ship Vishwast the first of a new class of offshore patrol vessel indigenously designed and built by Goa Shipyard Ltd will be commissioned by the defense minister.

The 90 meter long vessel has an integrated bridge system equipped with modern navigation and communication equipment and a platform management system.

Propelled by two MTU engines, the vessel delivers a maximum speed of 26 knots and has an endurance of about 4,500 nautical miles.

A spokesman for GSL said that the new vessels is capable of operating a helicopter, Vishwast is equipped with a 30 mm gun to counter intruders. It is the only vessel in its class in the world with a wide range of facilities for pollution control, fire fighting, search and rescue and patrolling.

He added the vessel was primarily designed for patrolling and policing maritime zones, search and rescue operations, maritime surveillance, anti-smuggling operations, pollution response against oil spillage and external fire-fighting.

(Sourced from Business Line)

It is reported that India's cement sales in February 2010 increased by nearly 8% to 13.71 million tonnes over the same month last year on increased demand from realty and construction sectors.

Cement Manufacturers' Association data said that Cement production and sales were 12.7 million tonnes and 12.72 tonnes respectively in February 2009. However, cement production and sales in February fell when compared with January this year. In the first month of the current year, production was at 14.57 million tonnes and sales at 14.52 million tonnes.

Cumulative production of the Indian cement manufacturers during the April to February period of the current fiscal went up to 144.6 million tonnes as compared to 128.22 million tonnes in the same period last fiscal.

Sales also zoomed to 143.67 million tonnes in the first 11 month of the current fiscal as against 127.79 million tonnes in the corresponding period last fiscal.

An industry observer said that "Almost all leading players recorded higher sales in February this year mainly on the increased demand from the realty and construction sectors.”

The cement price is on the rise on increased demand and budgetary proposal of 10% excise duty hike. While the risk of overcapacity looms large on the sector due to the highest-ever capacity addition by industry in the current year which may result into significant squeeze in margin and utilization.

(Sourced from Economic Times)

BS reported that the fractious relationship between the TATA group and West Bengal seems to continue unabated. TATA Chemicals expressed concern over the ongoing strike at its Haldia plant that began from February 18th 2010.

The firm in a statement said that “Our deep concern is that the ongoing illegal strike will severely impact the future of the factory. If this continues, Haldia may not be seen as a preferred industrial location in West Bengal.”

Though the company added that the state administration’s machinery has been informed at various levels to help in restoring normalcy, it did not rule out the possibility for taking legal action against the CITU backed striking workforce. However, it added that it was open to further negotiations.

Operations at the Haldia facility came to a halt last month after the memorandum of understanding signed by contractors, contract union employees and the state authorities failed to arrive at a long-term tripartite Settlement. Although some contract workers have shown willingness to resume work, the company said some others were opposing them and obstructing entry.

Incidentally, after being faced with a similar stir backed by the Trinamool Congress union, Hindustan Unilever had resorted to legal recourse and was able to evict protesting workers from the gates of its Haldia unit earlier this week.

(Sourced from Business Standard)

If the things go the right way, Odisha's first attempt to harness tidal power for generating electricity would be in the form of a 1236 MW plant along the creeks in Mahakalpada area in the Mahanadi deltaic region.

The SPI Ports Limited a private limited company has already carried out a feasibility study and documented a detailed project report for the proposed tidal power plant.

The officials of SPI Ports Limited, which in the race for an integrated port at Barunei in Rajnagar tehsil of this district, held talks with the district administration.

The proposed power project is in requirement of 600 acre of land.

(Sourced from Kalinga Times)

Hindustan Dorr-Oliver a leading total engineering solution provider company announced that its board has approved raising funds not exceeding USD 50 million.

The aforesaid funds would be raised through issue of equity shares / GDRs / ADRs / FCCBs and/or any other financial instruments convertible in to equity shares including fully / partly convertible debentures, bonds, warrants and/or such other securities either through preferential issue and/or qualified institutional placement and/or private placement / public offering or any combination thereof etc.

(Sourced from IRIS.com)

It is reported that Surat based Sumeet Industries has commissioned its new project of 100000 TPA continuous polymerization (pet chips) plant and 6MW gas based genset captive power plant.

This being a backward integration project the commercial production of the same has been started from July 1st 2009. The valuation of the entire project is estimated to be INR 1.50 billion.

The company’s expansion for enhancement of capacity of production of POY and FDY project has been successfully completed and commissioned. The commercial production of the project has been stated on March 11th 2010. Due to this expansion the total capacity of the company’s POY and FDY production has been increased from 12000 TPA to 56500 TPA.

(Sourced from IRIS.com)