Indian domestic steel prices for long products remained weak on September 2nd 2008.

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

Long products

Flat products

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Violent protests led TATA Motors to announce that it is stopping work on a factory in eastern India where it planned to make the Nano, billed as the world's least expensive car.

TATA in a statement said that "This decision was taken in order to ensure the safety of its employees and contract labor, who have continued to be violently obstructed from reporting to work.”

TATA Motors said it was evaluating alternatives to the site in Singur and was putting together a detailed plan for the relocation of the plant and machinery. It might make the Nano at other company facilities, it said. Suppliers also suspended work for the Nano at their plants in Singur.

Mr Ratan Tata chairman of TATA had said last month that he was prepared to move the plant from West Bengal State, despite having invested USD 350 million in the project, because of the risks to employees from the protests.

Reuters reported that thousands of people demonstrated in eastern India on Tuesday against South Korean firm POSCO's plans to build a steel plant, the first major protest since the Supreme Court gave the project the go ahead.

The villagers, many of them carrying bows, arrows and sticks, walked from their homes to the district of Jagatsinghpur in Orissa shouting slogans against POSCO.

Villagers in Orissa said that the POSCO plant will force them off their farmland and could displace about 20,000 people. POSCO and the government say the plant will create jobs in an impoverished part of the country.

Mr Prasant Paikray a protest leader told Reuters that "We will not give an inch of land from our area to the plant. We assembled here to threaten the government and the company not to send any officials for land survey or for land possession."

India's Supreme Court ruled last month to allow POSCO use of large swathes of forest land to build a USD 12 billion plant, the largest foreign direct investment project in the country.

BS reported that TATA Steel is disappointed over the lack of progress in the company’s titanium dioxide project in Tuticorin in Tamil Nadu.

The report cited Mr B Muthuraman MD of TATA Steel as saying that he is disappointed over the lack of progress,

Mr Muthuraman said that the company is not looking for alternative locations as yet. Titanium dioxide is also available in Orissa and Andhra Pradesh.

The INR 2,500 crore project, which proposes to mine for titanium dioxide in the port town of Tuticorin, has been waiting for land acquisition to be completed. The project requires 10,000 acres for mining.

TATA Steel officials in the past have said that such large tracts of land can be acquired only with the support of the state. Though state officials had suggested that they would do the needful, no progress has been made yet.

ET reported that according to a section of the steel industry, the proposed quality specifications for steel would result in enormous wastage of energy and natural resources and hit the construction sector.

As per report, this group of secondary steel manufacturers is of the opinion that these mandatory specifications would lead to a sharp escalation in prices, retarding industrial and economic growth.

The report added that “The cold rolled steel manufacturers’ association CORSMA has also alleged that issuance of the order was not based on any representation from consumer bodies but at the behest of some major producers who wanted to block competition from the secondary producers and imports to retain high prices.”

CORSMA is reported to have said that “Commercial grade steel not complying with the norms specified is utilized all over the world for numerous applications. Non availability of re rollables will intensify shortages to the extent of 5 to 6 million tonnes, destabilising industry and construction sectors already hit by shortages and high prices of steel.”

CORSMA also said that mandatory registration of foreign exporters with BIS, another norm the new order prescribes, would result in restrictive trade practice and if the foreign countries retaliate, it would severely hit Indian exports.

The order was issued by the ministry of consumer affairs in November last year but is yet to be implemented as the Bureau of Indian Standards is reviewing the specifications with respect to some of the products in the light of global developments.

ET reported that Bharat Heavy Electricals is planning to set up a Greenfield project for manufacturing locomotives in the country.

As per report, the company is already in talks with global majors such as French train maker Alstom, German rail transit solutions firm Bombardier Transportation, Siemens and General Electric for forming a JV.

The report added that BHEL proposes to offer 49% equity to its partner in the new venture. The project will start with an initial investment of INR 10 billion. BHEL is already looking for tie up with a foreign locomotive manufacturer to set up an electric locomotive factory at Madhepura in eastern Bihar.

The move comes after BHEL decided to bid for the tender floated by Indian Railways to procure 660 electric locomotives at an estimated cost of INR 250 billion.

The report further added that the company has a board meeting on September 17th where the issue of offering 49% in the JV will be discussed. It will announce the JV by end of this month. The company has already identified 2 locations Bhopal in Madhya Pradesh and Vizag in Andhra Pradesh where this project will be set.

It is reported that exports during July 2008 were valued at USD 16345 million which was 31.2% higher than the level of USD 12454 million during July 2007. In rupee terms, exports touched INR 70018 crore which was 39.1% higher than the value of exports during July 2007. Cumulative value of exports for the period April to July 2008 was USD 59191 million as against USD 47487 million registering a growth of 24.6% in Dollar terms and 27.6% in Rupee terms over the same period last year.

Imports during July 2008 were valued at USD 27143 million representing an increase of 48.1% over the level of imports valued at USD 18333 million in July 2007. In Rupee terms, imports increased by 56.9%. Cumulative value of imports for the period April to July, 2008 was USD 100418 million as against USD 74840 million registering a growth of 34.2% in Dollar terms and 37.3% in Rupee terms over the same period last year.

Oil imports during July 2008 were valued at USD 9480 million which was 69.3% higher than oil imports valued at USD 5600 million in the corresponding period last year. Oil imports during April to July 2008 were valued at USD 35006 million which was 54.9% higher than the oil imports of USD 22596 million in the corresponding period last year.

Non oil imports during July 2008 were estimated at USD 17664 million which was 38.7% higher than non oil imports of USD 12733 million in July 2007. Non oil imports during April to July 2008 were valued at USD 65412 million which was 25.2% higher than the level of such imports valued at USD 52243 million in April to July 2007.

As per report, the trade deficit for April to July 2008 was estimated at USD 41227 million which was higher than the deficit at USD 27352 million during April to July 2007.

BL reported that auto component makers are not too worried about the current slowdown as their order books are overflowing with new cars being launched. Besides, work on new product development for future models going on in full swing and capacity expansion by domestic and global auto makers too is keeping their spirits high.

Auto component companies said that while sales would remain flaccid for the next few months, it was likely to be a temporary phenomenon.

Mr Deepak Jain ED of Lumax Industries said that “My order book is full up to 2010-11. The domestic auto component industry has matured over the years attained more competence in cost cutting measures, product development and understanding the market, making companies better prepared to fight the current slowdown.” The company supplies automotive lamps to various makers including Maruti, Toyota amongst others.

Mr NK Minda Chairman of Minda Industries Limited part of the NK Minda Group said that “There is a slowdown. But work on product development for the future car models which would be launched in the next few months takes a lot of time, keeping us busy.”

Mr Santosh Singhi CFO of Amtek Auto said that “Over the next Q2 to Q3 we don’t see any significant change in the market scenario. TATA Nano is being launched in October. But due to the problems at Singur, volumes may pick up only by December. However, by supplying forging and casting parts to engine assembly line of domestic majors, some of which are expanding and new facilities being set up by global auto makers would generate good business next year onwards.”

BL reported that all the trade unions of Visakhapatnam Steel Plant have threatened to resort to direct action if Gangavaram Port authorities fail to remove the rail track laid on the Balacheruvu road by Thursday.

The union leaders in a representation to Mr Y Manohar director personnel of RINL said that the port authorities constructed the rail track overnight on a war footing by deceiving the employees and their families living over there. They said that “In the absence of a flyover, the track would cause threat to the lives of people living in the area.

Earlier, the track laid by the port authorities was removed by the residents of the area leading to tension. The unions said that despite their demand to construct a flyover before laying the track, the port management had unilaterally built the track again.

They have requested for intervention of RINL to settle the issue amicably and warned that “If the track is not removed by Thursday, we have no other alternative except to go for direct action.”

It is reported that 5 biomass power projects in Punjab with an aggregate installed capacity of 68 MW are expected to be commissioned by end 2008.

Currently, all these projects coming up at Moga, Jalandhar, Faridkot, Hoshiarpur and Kaputhala district are on advanced stage of completion. The company has already signed land lease agreement for these projects.

It is reported that Larsen & Toubro and Karnataka Power Corporation are on the verge of entering into a JV agreement for acquiring a coal mine in Indonesia.

As per report, the financial modalities for the JV were still under discussion, but indications are that it is likely to be on 50:50 basis and will be leveraging on each other's core competencies. KPCL is also examining extension of the JV with L&T for building large power plants to overcome balance sheet limits. KPCL's preference is for super critical plants or boiler turbine generation equipment of about 600 MW plus.

The reported added that if the JV materializes it will be one of the first PPPs in the country between a state government owned entity and the private sector for power generation.

BS reported that Hindustan Copper has cut basic selling prices of cathode full and cathode cut by over 1% or INR 400 per tonnes effective from September 1st to bring them in line with global prices. With the current revision, these products are quoted at INR 341,300 per tonnes and INR 341,700 per tonnes.

As per report, prices of copper bars have also been revised downwards by less then 1% to INR 345,700 per tonnes, INR 345,300 per tonnes and INR 347,400 per tonnes of its three basic varieties that is standard 8 millimeter, non standard 8 millimeter and 11 millimeter to 16 millimeter.

The report added that the company had revised its product prices last on August 16th because of high volatility in global copper prices. It revises copper prices in line with copper prices on the London Metal Exchange.

It is reported that Reliance Industries has discarded plans to transfer a majority stake in a deepwater gas block in the Krishna Godavari basin to a fully owned subsidiary as it has raised necessary finances.

Earlier RIL applied to assign part of its interest in the D6 block in the Krishna Godavari basin to a 100 per cent owned subsidiary in order to retain flexibility for raising finances for the project.

As per report, the company has taken this decision owing to the completion of its projects and availability of necessary finances. RIL holds a 90% stake in the D6 block, while Canadian oil major Niko Resources owns the rest of the gas rich asset.

BL reported that 2 new quay cranes to be supplied by ZPMC of China will start functioning at Gateway Terminals India’s existing berth at the Jawaharlal Nehru port from April next year. With this, the number of cranes at GTI terminal will rise to 10.

According to Mr Prakash Tulsiani COO of GTI, the installation of the new cranes will push up GTI’s handling capacity by an additional 5 lakh TEUs annually. He said that the cranes estimated to cost USD 6.9 million would arrive some time in December. Meanwhile, GTI has surpassed the throughput of one million TEUs recently for this year.

Mr Tulsiani attributing it to efficient operation “We’ve achieved the milestone on August 28 that is precisely within 241 days.” He estimated that the throughput in the whole of 2008, it would be around 1.45 million TEUs against the capacity of 1.3 million TEUs.

He further added that “We would have achieved an even higher throughput this year but for the arrival of the new cranes and the preliminary work related to their installation.”

It is reported Mr Murli Deora minister of petroleum and natural gas has sanctioned additional quantity of 10 thousand tonne of Superior Kerosene Oil to the flood affected areas of Bihar as requested by the CM of Bihar.

As per release, this emerged at a review meeting chaired by Mr Murli Deora on fuel supply and providing relief to the flood affected people. It was also reiterated that the required quantity of LPG would be supplied by the Oil Marketing Companies besides maintaining enough supply of transportation fuels like petroleum and diesel. In addition, the Oil PSUs would provide essential relief material like tents, medicine, etc worth INR 5 crore through the state government accredited agencies like the Red Cross Society of India. The retail outlets of the OMCs will also be made available for extending relief and assistance to the flood affected people.

India’s Central Electricity Regulatory Commission has published draft regulations on terms and conditions of tariff for the period 2009 to 2014 seeking comments of stakeholders by September 28th 2008. Consumer interests are best served, the Central Commission believes by ensuring reasonable price for electricity while at the same time facilitating sufficiency of supply through adequate inducements to the investors.

Salient features of the proposed terms and conditions of tariff are summarized below:

1. Tariff fixation procedure simplified. Provision for provisional tariff done away with. Upfront fixation of payment based on actually incurred and/or projected expenditure of capital nature and truing up exercise at the terminal year that is in 2013-14.

2. Benchmarking of capital cost for thermal and transmission projects and prudence check of capital expenditure based on benchmark norms to the extent possible.

3. Provision of additional expenditure rationalized. Separate compensation allowance to meet the expenses on additional expenditure on new parts etc. not within the original scope of work without disturbing the capital base.

4. Post tax ROE of 14% retained. Return in Indian rupees only.

5. Sharing of hydrological risk in a reasonable manner.

6. Depreciation rates rationalized avoiding front loading of tariff while at the same ensuring adequate cash flow for the investors. Provision for Advance Against Depreciation discontinued.

7. Inducement to hedge foreign exchange risk exposure to the extent possible.

8. O&M norms factored to inflation and reasonable compensation for pay hike for employees.

9. Provision for Renovation and Modernization for life extension with an alternative option to thermal generating stations by way of an additional compensation so that the plant owner remains incentivised to maintain the unit availability at a good level after its useful life.

10. Beneficiaries not to take burden of payment of tax on the income on net Unscheduled Interchange earnings and incentives.

11. Norms of operation have been tightened but with due regard to the real life operational constraints and factors like vintage etc. Target availability for recovery of fixed cost has been raised.

12. Incentive payment has been linked to plant availability as against the existing practice of payment of incentive based on plant load fact.

13. Norms for new technologies such as supercritical introduced.

14. Provision for sharing of CDM benefits.

BL reported that Mr Uttam Kumar Basu has assumed office as MD of Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Limited with effect from September 1st. The company has informed the BSE that Mr R Rajamani who was the MD of the company superannuated on August 31st 2008

Consequent to his retirement, Mr Basu has assumed the office of the MD of the company. It said that his appointment has been made by the Union Government.

Mr Basu a chemical engineer from Jadhavpur University has over 3 decades of experience in refinery operations and management in Indian Oil Corporation Limited.

Project Today reported that India government plan to decongest New Delhi railway station, three new railway stations are coming up at the borders of the capital.

The new stations will come up at Holambi Kalan in north Delhi, Bijwasan in south west, both bordering Haryana and at Anand Vihar in east, bordering Uttar Pradesh. While upgradation of the existing Anand Vihar station has already been initiated at a cost of INR 85 crore land acquisition for the other 2 stations has begun.

As per report, the remodeling of New Delhi railway station will be undertaken from September 6th 2008 to upgrade it to world class standards.

BL reported that amid a surge in short term power costs triggered by acute shortages, State Electricity Boards are increasingly opting to overdraw from the grid and shell out the INR 10 per unit maximum penalty instead of sourcing power from more expensive liquid fuel stations.

While this trend is pushing the grid to the brink of a collapse with frequency dipping way past the danger mark on numerous occasions over the past couple of days, rampant overdrawal by States comes even as nearly 3,000 MW of naphtha and diesel based capacities lie idle across the country.

Flagged by outages in a key thermal power station, besides lower hydro generation in the southern region and a continuing dip in nuclear generation, the cost of short-term power has shot up well into double digits across regions over the last couple of days.

An official involved in the exercise said that “With the maximum penalty for overdrawing from the grid during low frequency condition scapped at INR 10 per unit by the regulator, most States prefer to overdraw from the grid and pay the penalty to buying electricity from liquid fuel stations which could cost between INR 12 per unit to 14 per unit.”

Official said that with short term power shortages spiraling out of control, at the Indian Energy Exchange the only functional power bourse, the difference between supply and demand was nearly 1,500 MW on Sunday. For Tuesday, power tariffs are pegged at over INR 10 per unit for four of the 24 hourly blocks contracted on the IEX and between INR 9 to INR 10 for a majority of the other blocks.

It is reported that GAIL has finalized four to 5 sites for creating compressed natural gas corridors along the national highways in the country. The locations identified include Delhi-Agra-Lucknow and Nagapattinam-Chennai-Puducherry.

It is reported that Megha Engineering & Infrastructure has emerged the lowest bidder for Oil & Natural Gas Corporation's INR 2,400 crore revamping of oil and gas production facilities at the Lakwa oilfields in Assam.

As per report, the project will involve design and construction of captive power plants. It also included design and execution of highest capacity gas compression facilities, establishment of gas separation plants and oil effluent treatment plants.

Meanwhile, Megha Fibre Glass Industries a subsidiary of MEIL has set up an INR 200 crore glass fibre reinforced plastic pipes manufacturing unit. The unit will add 2 more production lines with a total investment of INR 500 crore and is expected to commence production from September 6th 2008.

It is reported that Captain PVK Mohan senior most member of National Shipping Board has been nominated as Chairman of National Shipping Board for a two year term with immediate effect.

Captain Mohan is the youngest and also the first Master Mariner to become the Chairman of the National Shipping Board. In his vast experience on the Board for over 11 years, he is well versed with all subjects in the shipping and port sectors besides having an intricate knowledge of the global shipping industry.

Mr Thiru TR Baalu Union Minister of Shipping, Road Transport and Highways said that the entire shipping fraternity and the industry has expressed his happiness on the selection of a technical person and an eminent shipping personality with 30 years experience in shipping to head the Board by.

The Board consists of four members of Parliament from the Lok Sabha and two members of Parliament from the Rajya Sabha, besides some technical people.

Fitch has upgraded the long term issuer rating assigned to Jaiprakash Hydro Power from `A-(ind)/Positive to A(ind)/Stable`. Fitch has also upgraded the long term rating of the company’s INR 1.74 billion non convertible debentures from A-(ind) to A(ind).

Simultaneously, Fitch has assigned a rating of A(ind)to the INR 8,216.3 million long term bank loans of the company.

Further, Fitch has assigned ratings of A(ind)/F1(ind) to the company’s sanctioned fund based bank facilities of INR 440 million and non fund based bank facilities of INR 250 million.

ArcelorMittal South Africa has announced its first price decrease for the year and will cut the price of both hot rolled coil and wire rod by 5% as from October 2008.

The price of HRC, which provides the base price for flat steel, will decline from its record levels of ZAR 8,485 per tonne in September 2008 to ZAR 7,997 per tonne in October 2008, while the price of wire rod will decline to ZAR 7,418 per tonne from ZAR 7,808 per tonne in the month prior.

Prior to September 2008, when prices were held stable, there had been 7 upward revisions in the price of HRC, which, by the beginning of September 2008 was up by over 100% year to date. Similarly, there had been 6 increases in the price of wire rod. Therefore, despite the October reduction, HRC will still be up 96% for the year, while wire rod prices have climbed 81% since January 2008.

On August 28th 2008, China Steel Corporation held the fourth quarter domestic pricing meeting of 2008 and announced the price increase adjustment as shown in the following table.

Prices increase for domestic sales as of the fourth quarter 2008

Adjusting Amount in TWD per tonne

The average price increase per tonne is about TWD 1,170, which reflects CSC moving to narrow down the price gap between global and the domestic markets. However, the domestic steel prices are still lower than those in the global steel markets after the adjustment.

CSC consistently makes the effort to strengthen the global competitiveness of local downstream customers. In order to help its customers to pass on the cost increase, CSC only moderately increases the prices of stringent supply steels in the fourth quarter.

Zinc dropped for a second day in London on speculation supplies from mines will expand faster than demand into next year.

Zinc for delivery in three months dropped by USD 15 or 0.8% to USD 1,765 per tonne on the London Metal Exchange.

Zinc inventories in LME monitored warehouses fell 1,425 tonnes or 0.9 percent, to 158,900 tonnes. They have jumped by 78% this year.

South Korea's SK Group said that it is considering joining a consortium with steelmaker POSCO for a major stake in Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering.

Mr Kim Ju hyun spokesman at SK Group said that "We are still considering. There are multiple stages we need to take before making a decision."

Mr Kim was referring to an earlier report by local media that SK Group would invest less than KRW 100 billion in the consortium, an insignificant amount compared with the Daewoo deal that is estimated at USD 8 billion.

In August 2008, the cash rich POSCO and Hyundai Heavy officially expressed interest in the shipbuilder, while energy and construction focused GS Group and Hanwha Group, also handed in letters of intent to buy Daewoo.

POSCO had said earlier that it is seeking shipping companies and energy firms to join the consortium, expecting such participation would increase its chances in the bidding.

Phoenix Business Journal reported that Schuff International Inc has purchased a steel fabrication plant in Eloy from Strocal Inc of California.

Financial details of the purchase were not released, but officials said that the deal will provide Phoenix based Schuff with the additional steel fabrication capacity needed to support its growth in the West.

The newly acquired 130,000 square foot plant was built in 1997 and has an annual capacity of more than 30,000 tonnes of specialty fabricated steel.

Schuff also has plants in Phoenix, Gilbert and Flagstaff.

According to the data issued by Vietnam custom, Vietnam has imported 6.8 million tonnes of steel billet and steel products worth USD 5.7 billion in January to August 2008 up by 38.7% YoY.

Vietnam imported 5.9 million tonnes steel products in the first half of 2008, with worth USD 4.5 billion. The average import volume was 980,000 tonnes per month.

Vietnam’s imports of steel billet and finished steel product totaled 7.7 million tonnes in 2007 with value of USD 4.9 billion.

(Sourced from YIEH.com)

Taiwan’s Feng Hsin Iron & Steel has announced to cut domestic rebar prices again by TWD 2,000 per tonne this week. The move is bringing its total drop to TWD 5,000 per tonne in three weeks, and the company’s rebar price is now about TWD 23,500 per tonne.

The general scrap price decreased by TWD 1,200 per tonne on August 30th 2008 and decreased by TWD 500 per tonne on September 1st 2008. The scrap price is dropping to TWD 10,900 to TWD 11,600 per tonne.

Price of section also dipped by TWD 1,500 per tonne this week. New offer price of section steel is in a range of TWD 26,000 to TWD 26,200 per tonne. Actual deal price in the market is around TWD 25,500 to TWD 25,700 per tonne.

(Sourced from YIEH.com)

Timken Company announced that it is providing industrial services to Sparrows Point, a fully integrated steel mill based in Baltimore.

As a full service supplier to Sparrow’s Point, Timken performs bearing repair, chock repair, roll repair and other lifecycle services for the steel producer. Timken provides service on approximately 50 different bearing part numbers for use in cold and hot steel mills at Sparrows Point.

Timken’s bearing repair services have provided Sparrows Point like-new bearings at an average of 45 percent less than the cost of new bearings. Repair lead times also average 10 to 12 weeks compared to far longer lead times for new bearings due to strong global demand.

Sparrows Point is a subsidiary of OAO Severstal one of the world’s leading metal and mining companies.

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New York Times reported that construction workers will start erecting the frame of the National September 11 Memorial and Museum, forty years after work began on the original World Trade Center.

The building begins with the erection of a 24 foot 9 inch, 7,700 pound steel column, coming from South Carolina's Owen Steel Company. Columns and beams have been arriving since August 28th 2008.

Mr Joseph C Daniels president & CEO of the memorial and museum said that "To have it on site and to begin construction is a lift, a necessary lift."

Plans call for a landscaped plaza surrounding two square voids where the twin towers once stood. The memorial will include waterfalls and pools as well as the names of the victims listed around the sides of the plaza. Museum visitors will enter through a pavilion at plaza level, after which they will descend into the largely underground museum past remnants of the columns of the twin towers, part of a surviving staircase, and an exposed section of the existing slurry wall.

The USD 530 million for the memorial and museum is coming from private donations and the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation. New York State will pay for the USD 80 million pavilion.

Mr David Zalesne, president of Owen Steel said that the welders and fitters are proud to work on the memorial. He added that "Let's hope we never have to build anything new at the site again."

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Hyundai Heavy Industries said that it has ample cash reserves to take over local rival Daewoo Shipbuilding on its own. It is vying with steel manufacturer POSCO, the GS Group and Hanwha Group to buy Daewoo Shipbuilding.

Mr Lee Su Ho president of Hyundai Heavy said that "We have no problem in financing the deal. Hyundai Heavy has KRW 8.5 trillion in cash reserves and the deal should not exceed the figure. Even in case we form a consortium, we should claim managerial rights."

Hyundai Heavy said in a separate statement that if its bid succeeds it would help Daewoo Shipbuilding focus on offshore platforms for oil development, container ships and natural gas carriers. It promised to retain the workforce, whose union has opposed Hyundai Heavy's bid on fears of layoffs.

It is reported that Japan's steel exports reached 3.31 million tonnes in July 2008, up by 7.9% YoY. The highest level in amount is a new record and the increase has continued for eight months in a row.

The exports of common steel totaled 2.26 million tonnes, up by 9.3% YoY, while the exports of special steel is 550,000 tonnes, up by 5.6% YoY.

From the destinations, the exports to South Korea declined by 6.1% YoY to 740,000 tons. But exports to China grew by 14.7% YoY to 581,000 tonnes, while to Thailand rose by 9.5% YoY to 413,000 tonnes.

It is reported that Bulgarian government will sign a MoU with Austrian metallurgy giant Voestalpine on September 8th 2008. The document will determine the obligations of the Bulgarian state and the Austrian company, if it decides to construct a steel making plant in Bulgaria.

Mr Peter Dimitrov Bulgarian minister of economy & energy said that Bulgaria is competing with Romania, Turkey and Ukraine for the large scale investment worth over EUR 5 billion, which Voestalpine wants to make in Eastern Europe. He added that "If Voestalpine decide to construct their plant in Bulgaria, as early as this year we should sign an investment agreement."

He refused to comment on where exactly the industrial zone would be situated if Bulgaria is the chosen country. He said that "If Voestalpine chooses Bulgaria, a tender procedure will be announced since there is already interest from other, smaller companies, which would like to implement their activities in the industrial zone."

He further added that Turkey and Ukraine have advantage to Bulgaria and Romania for Voestalpine's choice since they do not have limitations in the noxious emissions.

JMB reported that Japanese sheet steel supply is expected to get tighter when Nippon Steel starts to build inventory in October 2008 for blast furnace relining at Oita works when the firm manages to keep the shipment for contract users despite of output reduction at Yawata works after the fire in July 2008.

The supply is also decreasing when POSCO plans maintenance for mini mill in October 2008 and Anshan Iron & Steel is suffered from blast furnace accident. Sheet steel supply for Japanese distributors will decrease, especially for hot rolled flat steel while domestic makers try to minimize the inventory for more shipment.

Taiwan's Tong Ho Steel announced that its H beam domestic prices will remain unchanged for September 2008. Its H beam price is now between TWD 36,700 and TWD 37,000 per tonne.

Tong Ho Steel is trying to stabilize the market, but the demand for H bema remains low.

(Sourced from YIEH.com)

Lincoln Electric Company has announced the successful completion of the modernization of the Continuous Cast Aluminum Rod Mill at its Canadian subsidiary Indalco Alloys Inc.

The multi million dollar modernization was conducted by CONTINUUS-PROPERZI, an Italy based designer and manufacturer of rod production lines. It is a tangible example of the Lincoln Electric commitment to provide superior quality rod for the manufacture of premium quality aluminum welding wires.

The upgrade of the Continuous Cast Rod Mill applied the latest technology to the company's casting process. The modernization also included the upgrade of the electrical controls and user interface via continuous line data from the rod mill.

Bloomberg reported that investment company Temasek Holdings Pte is arranging financing for bidders for Senoko Power Limited after a global credit crisis reduced availability of funds.

Credit Suisse Group AG and Morgan Stanley & Co, advising Temasek on the sale, will organize a bridge loan for 2 years at a cost of about 2.5 percentage points over the London Interbank Offered Rate. The funds may be lent by banks including DBS Group Holdings Limited and United Overseas Bank Limited.

Mr John Corrin chairman of Asia Pacific Loan Market Association said that "It certainly improves the chance of selling the assets by providing readily available financing, it makes it easier for buyers. It provides a fallback for those who can't find other alternatives.''

According to data compiled by Bloomberg, the collapse of the US subprime mortgage market has caused a slump in mergers and acquisitions, making it more difficult for companies such as Temasek to sell assets. Transactions in Asia's power industry have totaled USD 16.5 billion so far this year, a fifth of those in 2007.

UK based steel manufacturer Acertec is planning to sell its 50% stake in Tipperary steel supplier BRC McMahon Reinforcements. BRC McMahon Reinforcements is majority owned by the McMahon group, which has interests across the building sector.

Acertec said that it intends selling its stake in BRC McMahon to Wales based Celsa. Listed in London, Acertec manufactures car panels for Ford and steel products used in the construction industry. Acertec has also recently sold its 70% holding in a Singapore based steel reinforcement business for GBP 18 million.

BRC McMahon Reinforcements was established in 1970 in partnership with British Reinforced Concrete Engineering. Its products are used to strengthen concrete. It has two manufacturing sites, in Tipperary and Limerick.

Latest accounts for the McMahon group, which includes operations the North, show that it generated revenues of more than EUR 189.3 million in 2006 and posted an operating profit of EUR 15.1 million. It paid dividends of EUR 2.33 million in 2006, up from EUR 1.3 million the previous year.

Reuters reported that Somali pirates are demanding a ransom of USD 8.2 million to free 2 Malaysian tankers and a Japanese managed bulk carrier that they hijacked in the Gulf of Aden.

It may be noted that gunmen from Somalia have seized at least 30 vessels so far in 2008, making the waters off the Horn of Africa nation the most dangerous in the world.

Mr Andrew Mwangura head of the East African Seafarers' Assistance Program said that the pirates wanted USD 4.7 million to release the Bunga Melati 5 and its sister ship, the Bunga Melati Dua, which are both owned by Malaysian national carrier MISC.

Mr Mwangura said that the gangs were also demanding USD 3.5 million to free the MV Stella Maris, which was hijacked on July 20th 2008. He added that "We believe all 3 ships are near Eyl village, where the pirates have the strong support of locals. Eyl was set up as a fishing base in 1973 and then later abandoned. It is a very remote area and the pirates feel safe. They know that no outsiders or spies can approach them there."

Somali officials said that gunmen are believed to be holding at least 6 vessels for ransom near Eyl. In total, the pirates are thought to be holding about 130 crew members hostage.

The Bunga Melati 5 was carrying 30,000 tonnes of petrochemicals to Singapore from Saudi Arabia when it was seized on Friday. It had 36 Malaysian and 5 Filipino crew on board.

Yamaha Motor Company said that it will establish a motorcycle production plant in Cambodia jointly with Toyota Tsusho Corporation and a Cambodian firm, with operations scheduled to start from July 2009.

Yamaha will put up 70% of the starting capital of USD 11.5 million for the new company, while Yamaha Motor Cambodia Co and Toyota Tsusho will provide 20%. The remaining 10% will be provided by Kong Nuon Import & Export Co.

Asia Motors Co, a JV between Toyota Tsusho and Kong Nuon, has been assembling and marketing Yamaha’s motorcycles in Cambodia since March 2007.

According to a study called ‘Solar Generation 2008’ issued by Greenpeace and European Photovoltaic Industry Association, solar photovoltaic panels could supply electricity to more than 4 billion people worldwide by 2030 and could meet all of Europe's energy requirements, while occupying less than 1% of European lands.

'Solar Generation 2008' said that the PV industry is growing and has showed it can become a global energy contributor. More than 1.8 million MW of PV arrays will be installed around the world by 2030, equal to 14% of global electricity demand. This would reduce CO2 emissions by 1.6 billion tonnes, equal to the carbon releases from 450 coal fired plants.

The study said that "In Europe, solar energy is becoming more economically viable and should become cost-competitive with conventional energy by 2015 in southern European countries and by 2020 across most of Europe." It cited estimates that power from PV could satisfy all of Europe's electricity needs while taking up just 0.7% of its land mass.

Greenpeace and EPIA credit the feed in tariff mechanism used in many EU countries, including Germany and Spain, with boosting PV use. A feed in tariff, which guarantee payments for electricity generated from PV and other renewable sources, provides fair remuneration to the investor, and rewards the effort made in investing in a clean energy source.

The study further added that EU policy makers are slated to approve a final renewable energy directive this fall that is expected to reinforce the current legal framework and could facilitate the implementation of the feed-in tariff scheme throughout Europe.

Gulf News reported that Gulf Cooperation Council countries are likely to invest more than USD 320 billion by 2018 to develop oil, gas, power and petrochemical projects to meet burgeoning energy demands of their fast expanding economies.

Research shows that most of the energy related investments in the UAE would go towards building new utilities like power plants and cooling plants to meet the growing demands of the construction business.

According to the latest UAE official figures, by 2020, officials expect UAE electricity demand to exceed 40,800 MW based on an annual growth rate of 9% beginning in 2007. At present, almost 85% of the country's 18,000MW power capacity is generated from gas-based plants. The remaining capacity is generated from oil-fired plants. Nearly all of the power generated in Dubai and Abu Dhabi comes from gas fired plants.

Investment by GCC countries in the chemicals and petrochemicals sector is projected to reach USD 120 billion during the next five years, figures from the Gulf Organization for Industrial Consulting show. GCC petrochemical production contributes nearly 7% of the global petrochemical output at present.

Kate Dourian Middle East Editor of Platts said that any downstream capacity increase will certainly help meet the Middle East's demand growth.”

Mr Dalton Garis associate professor of Economics at Abu Dhabi's Petroleum Institute also said that "The Gulf countries need major upstream, midstream and downstream energy investments to meet their high economic growth targets.”