It is reported that Indian government may consider the demand of the steel producers of the country for waving of import and export duty in some sectors. Indian steel ministry has convened a meeting of the steel producers on October 18th to discuss the issue.

Mr Ram Vilas Paswan union minister for steel, fertilizer and chemicals, said that the steel producers’ demand is being considered as the national steel market is somewhat depressed and the purchasing power of the people is on the decline in view of double digit inflation.

He said that “We will listen to their demands and the issue of waving export and import duty in some sectors will be deliberated in the meeting. After listening to their demand, the government would take a decision.”

Indian steel makers have demanded waving of export duty in some sectors and imposition import duty for some items to reduce the impact of low global price levels.

There was a momentary pause in the thunderstorm and the dust seemed to settling as steel prices exhibited stability .The decline was nominal only 5 and 17 points respectively for Long and Flat products and a meager 11 points in the Steel Price Index.

LPPI – Long Product Price Index
FPPI – Flat Product Price Index
ISPI – Indian Steel Price Index

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Reuters reported that JSW Steel has delayed its commissioning of the 3 million tonne per annum blast furnace at its Vijaynagar plant near Bellary by two months owing to current market conditions.

The report cited Mr Sajjan Jindal vice CMD of JSW Steel Ltd as saying that "We were planning to commission it in October. But we are delaying it by a couple of months to co ordinate with the market situation.”

Mr Jindal added that "This is a temporary phase. This is a one and half-month problem. It will not last for more than two weeks.”

The blast furnace was supposed to go on stream in October this year and to take the plant's capacity to 7 million tonnes per annum by March 2009.

ET reported that Indian steel industry, which is feeling the heat of steel imports form countries including China, Thailand and Ukraine, has called for imposition of 20% import duty as the imports continue to remain attractive despite a depreciating rupee.

As per report, some of the major private sector steel companies have met senior officials of the steel and finance ministries with their demand. The matter may be discussed in the Committee of Secretaries reviewing prices of essential commodities before a decision to change the duty structure on steel is finalized.”

The report cited a senior official of a steel company as saying that “We have asked the government to re-impose import duty on flat steel products, especially hot rolled coils where the industry is feeling the pinch in a depressed market. In fact, steel companies feel that HRC imports should be banned till markets stabilize.”

Mr J Mehra CEO of Essar Steel Holdings said that “The conditions have entirely changed in the last 4 to 5 months. The demand for steel is witnessing a slump and this is prominent not only in India but across the globe. There’s surplus steel available all over. Therefore, the advantages given to the domestic steel sector to counter shortages should now be restored.”

Another steel firm official said that “Stocks of steel are piling up at the warehouses and we need to do away with it. The government should come forward and help the industry at the time of distress.”

In 2007-08, the country imported about 6 million tonne of steel to meet the growing requirement of the alloy.

The prices remained stable across the country with small dip at Kanpur and Indore and with the sole exception of Mandi where there was a nominal increase.

Delhi

Change is on October 14th as compared to October 13th 2008
Change is in INR per tonne

Chennai

Change is on October 14th as compared to October 13th 2008
Change is in INR per tonne

Mumbai

Change is on October 14th as compared to October 13th 2008
Change is in INR per tonne

Ahmedabad

Change is on October 14th as compared to October 13th 2008
Change is in INR per tonne

Kanpur

Change is on October 14th as compared to October 13th 2008
Change is in INR per tonne

Indore

Change is on October 14th as compared to October 13th 2008
Change is in INR per tonne

Raipur

Change is on October 14th as compared to October 13th 2008
Change is in INR per tonne

Mandi

Change is on October 14th as compared to October 13th 2008
Change is in INR per tonne

Bangalore

Change is on October 14th as compared to October 13th 2008
Change is in INR per tonne

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Reuters reported that JSW Steel expects to cut product prices by October-end in line with a fall in metal prices globally.

Mr Sajjan Jindal MD of JSW Steel told reporters that JSW Steel expects to cut product prices by the end of October and has no plans to cut production as of now.

Mr Jidnal, when asked whether he planned to cut steel prices this month told reporters that “There is a strong possibility.”

He did not give further details.

It is reported that 5 anti POSCO activists were arrested as tension gripped the proposed project site POSCO.

The five were activists of PPSS and after their arrest they were produced before a local court at Kujanga which remanded them to judicial custody.

The arrests came on the heels of the arrest of Mr Abhaya Sahoo on Sunday of POSCO Pratirodh Sangram Samiti president, who has been sent to Choudwar jail on judicial remand for 14 days.

Angry over Mr Sahu’s arrest, villagers opposing the project blocked roads connecting the proposed site by placing huge logs and other obstructions and even digging up roads at some places, police said. PPSS activists prevented outsiders from entering Dhinkia village, considered to be the epicenter of the anti POSCO agitation, as a large number of project opponents guarded the entry points round the clock.

BS reported that Elecon Engineering Company Ltd has bagged three orders by reputed clients namely Techpro Systems Chennai and Steel Authority of India Limited’s Durgapur Steel Plant worth INR 51.74 crore.

The first order which is valued at INR 15.50 crores is from Techpro Systems, Chennai while the second and third orders have been placed by SAIL DSP valued at INR 14.45 crores and INR 21.78 crores respectively.

Mr Prayasvin Patel CMD of Elecon Engineering said that "Due to a combination of factors like buoyant economy, high technology products backed by efficient service and aggressive marketing efforts of our entire team both in the domestic and in the International markets, Elecon has now procured more orders worth INR 51.74 crores from reputed companies Tecpro Systems, Chennai and SAIL Durgapur Steel Plant.”

Amidst the currently prevailing volatile and speculative steel price scenario in India, SteelGuru.com has started the much needed barometer to track and measure the price movements on daily basis.

Steel prices being an issue at the forefront in the context of inflation, drawing significant government attention, making up for about 4 per cent in the Wholesale Price Index(WPI), has been media's most favorite and hot topic at the moment. Unfortunately, the facts are misrepresented very often due to complexity in the structure and the dynamics of the steel market, leaving the users of the information mostly in a state of confusion.

In order to provide an index for steel prices, we call it SENSEX for steel, SteelGuru.com decided to work on both long products and flat products for respective category indices as also a composite one for steel. We call them ILPPI, IFPPI and INDSPI and have started releasing these indices with effect from July 1st 2008, after taking June 30th 2008 as base.

ILPPI is based on daily market prices of three benchmark products rebars, wire rod and sections in 4 metros, whereas IFPPI is based on HRC, plates, CR and HDG. These indices have been built considering their respective weights in the composite categories as also in the shares of sales in the regional markets.

The pricing input is from www.steelprices-india.com, which publishes market transaction prices of benchmark products among select locations 5 days a week.

These price indices outline the way domestic steel market is moving day by day and will help producers, agents in the supply chain, steel buyers, bankers and analysts in their respective businesses.

To know more, please visit
http://steelprices-india.com/spi_services/spi.html

FE reported that Goldman on Monday cut its estimate for India's economic growth to 7.5% for year ending March 2009 from 7.8% earlier as external demand growth and investment growth are likely to reduce.

The research house now expects the Reserve Bank of India to cut the repo rate, its key lending rate by 50 basis points at its October 24 monetary policy review or earlier. It had earlier predicted a rate cut in the first quarter of 2009.

Mr Tushar Poddar an economist wrote that “Deteriorating global financial conditions, evidence of weakening activity, tight domestic liquidity and rapidly falling commodity prices suggest to us that the focus of the monetary policy should and will shift to ensuring financial stability and growth over inflation.”

Mr Poddar wrote that “If the turmoil in the financial markets and the very tight liquidity in the domestic markets continue through the next few months, the growth outlook, especially for FY10 may deteriorate further.” He added that however, falling commodity prices, especially