It is reported that SAIL has accorded in principle approval for setting up two steel processing units at Nahan in Himachal Pradesh and Jhunjhunu in Rajasthan.

These will be set up in addition to the 9 SPUs in different states Bettiah, Mahnar and Gaya in Bihar, Hoshangabad, Ujjain and Gwalior in Madhya Pradesh, Guwahati in Assam, Srinagar in Jammu & Kashmir and Sitapur/Lakhimpur in Uttar Pradesh for which the SAIL board has previously accorded in-principle approval.

SAIL is putting up the units where it does not have manufacturing facility and where steel consumption is low as compared to national average.

SAIL said that the products manufactured from steel processing units would be mainly meant for construction purposes, both industrial and individual.

Moody’s Investors Service revised the outlook on TATA Steel’s Ba1 corporate family rating to negative, reflecting the change in slowing demand in Europe and UK for the products of company’s UK unit, formerly known as Corus.

Mr Ivan Palacios a Moody's AVP Analyst and lead analyst for TATA Steel said that "The change in outlook reflects the more challenging operating conditions now facing TATA Steel UK as a result of the likely deterioration in demand in Europe and the UK in the next 18 months, with declining steel prices and reduced production volumes.”

According to Moody’s, further downward pressure on the rating could result from sustained weakening in TATA Steel’s operating performance such that its adjusted debt/EBITDA exceeds 4.0x and EBIT margin falls eight per cent on a sustained basis.

Moody's noted that TATA Steel UK had recently announced its decision to reduce crude steel production by up to 20% in the next three months. The cut amounts to 1 million tonne or a 5% reduction in annual volume.

Moody’s said that “TATA Steel’s rating is two notches higher than the rating of its UK subsidiary. Still, the relative strength of the Indian operations may not fully offset the likely sustained compression in profitability of TATA Steel UK resulting from declining steel prices and volumes, thereby weakening the group’s credit metrics and reducing the group’s financial flexibility under the current rating.”

It is reported that SAIL has accorded in principle approval I for setting up an Industrial Training Institute at Samastipur in Bihar to help in skill development of the youth in remote areas.

The institute in Samastipur will be developed in two phases for which work is likely to start immediately.

In the first phase, construction of classrooms, library, workshops, administrative building, etc., will be taken up for student strength of 120 with an investment of over INR 10 crore.

In the second phase, further expansion of the ITI will be undertaken to accommodate an additional number of 160 students of the region.

SAIL is already discussing the issue with Bihar government officials, who have been requested to take over the running and maintenance of the institute after its construction.

SAIL is already providing support to some ITIs in Jharkhand, Meghalaya etc.

TATA Steel has won the Most Admired Knowledge Enterprise Asia Award 2008 for the fifth time.

This prestigious award was received by Mr H Jha VP Safety and Long Products of TATA Steel during a special award ceremony at the 9th World Knowledge Forum at Seoul in Korea. Mr Jha also gave the keynote address at the function.

TATA Steel release said that “This year's award is special for TATA Steel since for the first time, out of the 16 Companies that were given this award, TATA Steel has been recognized as the overall Asian MAKE Winner 1st position. TATA Steel was given the 2nd position when it had won the award in 2006. Prior to this, the Company has won this award earlier in the year 2003, 2004 and 2007.”

The study that was conducted to judge the winner, TATA Steel's strength were in the following areas of

1. Knowledge - driven enterprise culture - 1st position

2. Developing knowledge workers through senior management leadership - 1st position

3. Delivering enterprise value based on customer knowledge - 1st position

The 2008 Asian MAKE Winners were chosen by a panel of Asian Fortune Global 500 business executives and leading knowledge management and intellectual capital experts. The expert panel rated organizations against the MAKE framework of eight key knowledge performance dimensions which are the visible drivers of competitive advantage.

The 2008 Asian MAKE Winners have been recognized as leaders in:

1. Creating a knowledge-driven corporate culture

2. Developing knowledge leaders and workers

3. Innovation (R&D, creativity and new product/solution/service design and delivery)

4. Maximizing enterprise intellectual capital

5. Collaboration and knowledge sharing

6. Creating a learning organization

7. Managing stakeholder knowledge

8. Transforming corporate knowledge into shareholder value

Indian pipe major Jindal Saw Limited reported a net profit of INR 100 crore for the quarter ended September 2008 as against INR 90 crore in the same quarter last year.

Its net sales stood at INR 1,485 crore as against INR 1,429 crore in the corresponding quarter last year.

During the April-September 2008 period, the company had operations only from Indian facilities whereas the corresponding quarter in the previous year had contribution from the US operations as well. The profitability has come only from its Indian operations.

Mr Indresh Batra MD of Jindal Saw Limited said “A number of new projects were embarked upon which have resulted in the enhanced profitability.”

Project today reported that Areva T&D India's Transmission & Distribution division bagged a contract for EUR 35 million for Bhilai Steel Plant, a flagship unit of the Steel Authority of India Limited.

As per report, the contract includes a 132 kV gas insulated substation and air insulated substations. It also includes the complete revamping of the existing protection & control system and feeding the new sub stations through 132 kV transmission cables.

The project is scheduled to be completed by October 2010.

The Financial Express last week reported that ArcelorMittal has begun the process of direct and transparent participatory dialogue with the affected villages in the presence of Jharkhand government authorities and other relevant civic society entities.

Mr Vijay Bhatnagar CEO of ArcelorMittal said that "The steel company is keen to engage all stakeholders, groups and organizations in a pen and trustworthy environment to understand their concerns and help mitigate them."

Mr Bhatnagar said that "We are committed to take forward the land project in full compliance with the state's Resettlement and Rehabilitation policy. This is first and foremost a social project for us and secondly, an industrial project. Our focus is to rehabilitate first and develop the project after this."

Stressing that ArcelorMittal would continue to address the concerns of the people and dispel misconceptions, he said to find a mutually acceptable solutions the company was keen to extend the dialogue to other affected groups and organizations as well.

As per report, the steel giant has chosen areas in Gumla and Khunti districts for its multi crore Greenfield steel project for which the company had signed a MoU with the Jharkhand government about 3 years ago. Led by its convenor Dayamani Barla, the Adivasi-Moolwasi Asthitwa Raksha Manch has been protesting against acquisition of land and protested the visit of the group's senior officials on June 4th and August 20th.

ET reported that cement production and dispatches improved substantially in September as compared with the first 5 months of this fiscal.

As per report, cement production and dispatches up by 8% and 9% respectively, during the month on a YoY basis. In comparison, the production increased by 5.8% and dispatch by 6.1% during the April to August period. The industry has added around 25 million tonnes per annum of new capacity this year even as the rate of economic growth has slowed.

But cement said that the addition of new capacity has resulted in higher production, which in turn is pressuring prices. Prices have fallen by INR 7 to INR 8 per 50 kilogram bag since June 2008 in the North. They said “September figures don’t reflect a trend reversal and demand is definitely sluggish. There is a low base effect as we had more rains in September last year.”

Mr Rahul Kumar COO of Jaiprakash Associates said that “We also saw more capacities coming on stream at the beginning of the year, which is now showing up in terms of higher production. The real estate sector, which was the key driver of cement growth is in a bad shape. It’s the rural demand that is keeping the cement sector going.” Rural India consumes around 60% of the cement produced in the country.

Mr RG Bagla executive president of JK Cement said that “Manufacturers continue to produce more than what the market can easily absorb as companies can’t keep their capacity idle. The consequence of it is that prices are falling every month.”

Manufacturers added that the sector is very unstable today, especially in north India and they would be ‘very lucky’ to end this fiscal with 8% growth.

The report added that the capacity utilization fell to 81% from 87% in September 2007 on a YoY basis. Capacity utilization down by 8% points to 85% in the H1 of this fiscal.

The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India and Ernst & Young anticipate that a total investment of INR 455 billion is likely to be poured in the development of laying gas pipeline network in next 5 years in view of the intensity with which petroleum sector is in for expansion of pipeline infrastructure.

In a Paper Indian Oil & Gas Sector ‘Rising Business Opportunities’ jointly brought out by the ASSOCHAM and E&Y, it is pointed out that currently India has a gas pipeline network of more than 10,000 kilometer. In it, Gas Authority of India Limited share is 55% and remaining 45% is in the joint sector including the private players particularly in downstream sector.

Mr Sajjan Jindal President of ASSOCHAM said that significant expansion of gas pipeline network is expected over the next few years as India gears up to create a cross country integrated pipeline network for promoting gas utilization.

The Paper said that the GAIL is already implementing the National Grid Project under which it plans to develop about 8000 kilometer of pipeline network across 15 Indian states.

Reliance Industries Limited is also implementing its own pipeline network project which includes the development of 1440 kilometer Kakinada-Ahmedabad East –West Pipeline and a Southern India Pipeline network.

Regional pipeline network exists in Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Assam and Tripura. Gujarat State Petronet Limited is developing a 1200 kilometer Gujarat gas grid, while Andhra Pradesh is also enhancing its gas distribution network. In all these gas pipeline projects, it is anticipated that a total investment of INR 455 billion will be undertaking in the development of gas pipeline network by 2012. Thereafter, the Chamber anticipates that additional pipeline network would be laid both product and process in view of recent discoveries of hydrocarbons in the recent past which would be effectively transported through pipeline network.

The Paper has therefore projected that additional INR 800 billion investment would also be needed by 2015 as gas pipeline network is becoming a priority in the Indian petroleum sector which is going to take a policy decision for equally sharing this infrastructure for transportation of gas to end users and the ASSOCHAM expects that most of gas pipeline network will be commissioned in the joint sector.

On emerging scenario in Indian oil and gas sector, the Paper points out that while coal would continue to contribute the majority of India’s primary commercial energy requirements, oil and gas is expected to become increasingly import in the energy mix. The share of oil and gas in the primary commercial energy mix is expected to grow significantly from the existing level of 36% to 41% in a decade or so.

In order to meet the increasing requirement of oil and gas, the government has rightly initiated various measures in order to promote the development of this sector and increase availability of oil and gas.

Reuters reported that Norway's sovereign wealth fund plans to invest USD 2 billion in Indian stocks over the next 3 months.

Mr Lasse Johannessen minister counselor at the Norway embassy in Indian capital said that "The deputy secretary general at the finance ministry said that sovereign wealth fund is going to invest USD 2 billion in Indian stocks."

Mr Johannessen said that "This money is going to be invested from now until Jan 2009," added that the Norwegian finance ministry official. He said that the fund would increase India's weighting to 0.94% from 0.2% in its overall portfolio.

Familiarly known as the oil fund, the Government Pension Fund Global invests Norway's oil and gas wealth in foreign stocks and bonds. It is Europe's biggest equity investor.

It is reported that Kandla Port Trust has invited EOI for the development of integrated facilities at its satellite port at Vadinar located in the Gulf of Kachchh in Jamnagar district of Gujarat on PPP basis.

The port trust aims to transform Vadinar Port into an international maritime logistics hub. The facilities will include creation of berthing facilities, dry bulk cargo handling facilities and liquid bulk terminal, setting up of single point mooring and allied facilities, bunkering complex, container terminal, and shipbuilding and repair facilities. The last date of submission of bids is November 26th 2008.

Project today reported that Bharat Heavy Electricals has bagged an order worth INR 641 crore from Satluj Jal Vidyut Nigam for setting up a 412 MW Rampur hydro electric plant in Himachal Pradesh.

BHEL's scope of work in the project includes design, manufacture, supply, installation and commissioning of complete electromechanical works for the project. The equipment will be supplied by the company's units at Bhopal and Bangalore and the work order is slated for completion within 42 months.

Project today reported that Reliance Industries' is likely to begin construction work on its INR 25,000 crore multi product SEZ in Haryana by May 2009.

Besides the 1,395 acre given by the Haryana State Industrial & Infrastructure Development Corporation for about INR 400 crore, the company is acquiring additional land totaling to 25,000 acre.

The process of land acquisition is underway and RIL has already acquired over 1,086 acre in Gurgaon and about 9,000 acre has been acquired in Jhajjar. After the land acquisition is complete, the company will put forward the master plan for the approval.

The multi product SEZ Reliance Haryana SEZ is a JV between Reliance Ventures and HSIIDC.

Project today reported that Andhra Pradesh government has in principle decided to give the Nellore airport project to the Indu Group. To avoid the bid process, the project will be executed under the G2G model.

The Indu Group is partnering with the Maharashtra Airport Development Company which has submitted a proposal for the airport. MADC will hold 80% equity while the private partner will have the remaining 20%. But this equity structure is likely to be changed later.

District officials have already identified 1,500 acre in Damavaram between Nellore and Kavali for the proposed airport.

Project today reported that GE Transportation and Bharat Heavy Electricals on October 21st 2008 joined hands to bid for a 1,000 diesel locomotives tender by the Indian Railways.

GE was recently short listed by the Railways to compete for the proposed tender. GE and BHEL along with Railways intends to form a JV company for this purpose.

The new entity will set up a diesel locomotive factory at Marora in Bihar. GE Transportation also plans to supply diesel locomotives based on the company's global Evolution Series locomotive platform.

Project today reported that Reliance Power has tied up with the IDBI Bank led consortium of domestic banks to secure the debt portion for the Phase II of the 600 MW Rosa power project in the Shahjahanpur district of Uttar Pradesh.

As per report, the consortium will lend around INR 2,000 crore out of the total project cost of INR 2,702 crore, while the remaining amount will be funded through equity. While IDBI will fund INR 500 crore, India Infrastructure Finance Co will offer INR 465 crore. Canara Bank, Syndicate Bank and United Bank of India will provide INR 200 crore each. The Small Industries Development Bank of India and the Life Insurance Corporation of India will offer INR 100 crore and INR 80 crore respectively, while Axis Bank will offer a foreign currency loan of USD 50 million.

Rosa Power Supply Company a wholly owned subsidiary of Reliance Power is implementing a 600 MW coal based power plant at Rosa in two phases. The company had achieved the financial closure for the first phase in January 2007. The first phase is slated for commissioning in the Q2 of 2009, 9 months ahead of schedule. Work on the second phase is expected to be completed by early 2010.

RPSCL has already executed the fixed-price and EPC contract with Shanghai Electric, Utility Energytech and Engineers India for the second phase. The company has applied to the Ministry of Coal for obtaining coal linkages for the second phase and plans to enter into a coal transportation agreement with the Indian Railways.

BL reported that Tamil Nadu Government has come out with regulations for an equitable distribution of power between domestic, agricultural and industrial consumers. The basic thrust of the regulations is demand compression using the principle, if you consume more, you will have to pay more.

Rural areas are to get 3 phase power for 14 hours a day and single phase for 10 hours enabling farmers to use their irrigation pump sets for 6 hours during the day time and 4 hours in the night. They cannot use the irrigation pump sets during single phase supply.

Industrial and commercial consumers with high tension supply face a 40% power cut with a corresponding reduction in demand charge, those with LT-CT connection face a 20% power cut and these consumers cannot draw power from the grid during the peak demand period between 6.00 pm and 10.00 pm when supply to the domestic segment has to be maintained.

Industrial and commercial units with low tension supply consuming more than 2,000 units in a 2 month billing cycle will have to bring down their power consumption by 20% or face a 50% additional cost a unit on the excess power consumed.

Hospitals, State and Central Government offices, consulates, railways, newspaper and television offices, telecom facilities, educational institutions, fertilizer units and dairy plants are exempt from these regulations that take effect from November 1st.

Tamil Nadu is facing a nearly 30% shortage of power availability due to a shortfall in power generation in hydro and thermal power plants. Of the 10,122 MW of installed power capacity about 7,000 MW of power generation is available. Also out of the 3,900 MW of wind power generation capacity, the generation is down to about 16 MW.

BL reported that Indian Railways registered freight earnings of INR 4,003.28 crore in September up by 14.24% from the corresponding period last fiscal.

As per report, this was supported by robust earnings from commodities such as coal INR 1454.9 crore revenues with 13.56% growth, iron ore INR 656.09 crore with 23.37%, fertilizers INR 258.35 crore with 31.93%, cement INR 328.67 crore with 9.77% and also its container business INR 208.85 crore with 40.42%.

The earnings growth was also driven by freight rate hikes to some extent and does not reflect an equally proportional growth in loadings for many commodities. The commodity groups that witnessed decline in loadings are iron ore for exports, pig iron and finished steel from steel plants, and food grains.

The report added that total freight loadings in September went up by 8.18% with Railways moving 65.89 million tonnes of goods. The loadings growth was supported by coal 28.59 million tonnes, 11.42%, fertilizers 4.07 million tonnes, 25.62%, containers 2.49 million tonnes, 34.59%, mineral oil 3.11 million tonnes, 7.99% and cement 6.55 million tonnes, 6.5 %. Total iron ore loadings at 10.17 million tonnes were down by 1.83% this September.

For the April to September period, Railways earned INR 25502.95 crore of revenue registering an increase of 18.91%. It carried 401.89 million tonnes of freight traffic during April to August 2008 up by 8.55% against the corresponding period last year.

ET recently reported that the advent of a couple of state of the art technology ports across east coast with rail linkages to mineral rich regions in their backyard and deeper draught conditions is expected to change the way the country handles its exim business.

As per the report, after what is to become Asia's largest facility got officially inaugurated its first phase last month at Krishnapatnam Port in Andhra Pradesh, it is the turn of Gangavaram port near Visakhapatnam to begin commercial operations. The phase-1 of the project would go on stream shortly with 5 berths with an annual capacity of 35 million tonnes.

There are reports of numerous ports coming up across the eastern coast, mainly Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Orissa. The latest addition to the long list is the deepwater port that is being planned in Orissa by Mumbai based JSW Steel.

India's third largest steel producer plans to construct a deepwater port that will be capable of handling capesize bulkers to import coal from Australia and Indonesia and other project cargoes destined for its 10 million tonnes steel mill under construction on the east coast. The port is expected to be completed by late 2011. Such capacity enhancements would lead to quantum jump in use of Capsize and post Panamax vessels as against prevailing use of handymaxes and Panamaxs.

In this context, the host of new ports, which are either operational like Krishnapatnam or are on development stage like Gopalpur would help to equalize rates and to make for a level playing field for buyers. The ports would also help to have economies of scale not only by loading in Capes but also by providing rail linkages they could ensure that similar vessels get feeded much faster.

Project today reported that Power Grid Corporation of India has been sanctioned a loan for USD 400 million by the World Bank to increase reliable power exchange between regions and states.

The proposed loan is backed by a Republic of India guarantee and has 30 years of maturity including a grace period of 4 years. The additional financing to the Fourth Power System Development Project will finance the completion of selected transmission schemes intended to expand transmission system and capacity.

The project will help government to achieve its goal of expanding power generation capacity to more than 200,000 MW by 2012 through enhancing the country's power transmission capacity and enabling power to be transmitted across regions and states.

BL reported that on the back of rising high speed diesel fuel bill for the Railways, Mr Lalu Prasad Yadav Railway Minister has called for increasing the pace of electrification. He was speaking at a seminar organized by Institution of Railway Electrical Engineers.

Mr Prasad said that energy accounts for 25% of working expenses of the Indian Railways out of which 15% is spent on diesel and 10% on electricity.

Mr KC Jena chairman of Railway Board said that the total electricity drawn by the Railways is about 2.5% of the total electricity generated in the country.

Mr Jena said that “At current prices, about INR 8,000 crore is spent on diesel oil and INR 5,000 crore on electricity for traction each year.”

As per report, currently 28% of route on Indian Railways is electrified. The Railways moves about half of its passenger traffic and 62% of freight traffic using electric traction.

ET reported that Oil and Natural Gas Corporation has expressed its desire for joint exploration and mining of uranium with the department of atomic energy.

It is learnt that the Uranium Corporation of India a PSU under DAE has received a proposal from ONGC conveying its willingness to enter into a MoU for joint exploration and mining of uranium within the country and overseas.

In a bid to step up uranium production, UCIL is setting up new mines and mills in Jharkhand and Andhra Pradesh and has similar plans for Meghalaya.

Simultaneously, exploration efforts to identify additional prospects by the Atomic Minerals Directorate for Exploration and Research have also been augmented.

It is reported that global crude steel production sank 3.2% YoY in September 2008 to 108.4 million tonnes in the 66 countries reporting to Worldsteel, formerly known as the International Iron and Steel Institute. Output over the first nine months of 2008 remained 4.6% higher than in the same period in 2007.

worldsteel said that "In September 2008, the world crude steel production moving annual total growth rate further slowed to 4.7% from 5.6% in August 2008."

Drops in production in China, North America and the CIS drove the global month on month decrease. Chinese output fell 7% in September compared to August at 39.61 million tonnes, South Korea and India only saw small reductions in production, with 0.9%, 0.8% and 2.4% drops respectively, month on month.

While emerging markets Russia and Brazil reported an increase of 7% and 5% last month respectively, production in the EU edged just less than 1% higher and North America was flat. China suffered a sharp 9.1% decline in output to 39.6 million tonnes. Global production in the first nine months remained up 4.6% to 1.035 billion tonnes.

In the US, crude steel production dropped 9.3% compared to August to 7.86 million tonnes, while Canada and Mexico only recorded marginal decreases of 3.2% and 3.4% respectively.

Ukrainian production fell a dramatic 23% in September compared to August, at 2.48 million tonnes, while Russian output decreased 3.8% to 6.10 million tonnes.

Contrary to expectations following widespread announcements of production cuts, production in the EU-27 increased 9.8% month on month to 17.42 million tonnes.

Turkey's output shed 14% at 2.17 million tonnes in September as compared with August.

Brazil's production dropped 4.2% to 3.01 million tonne.

The World Steel Association represents approximately 180 steel producers including 18 of the world's 20 largest steel companies, national and regional steel industry associations, and steel research institutes. worldsteel members produce around 85% of the world's steel.

Mr Ku Taek Lee CEO of POSCO and also chairman & CEO of worldsteel had said early in October that the industry continued to expect growth in steel demand in 2009 although it was reviewing its forecasts.

UK based consulting firm MEPS sees that the crisis in the financial sector worldwide is now impacting badly on the EU steel market. It said that “The tightening of credit lines and a complete breakdown of confidence has stalled all business activity. For the small amount of orders being placed, prices are weakening, despite efforts by the mills to hold them fast. Several domestic steelmakers have announced plans to curb output due to the substantial slowdown in demand for their products. Many companies are currently destocking.”

MEPS said that “There is a wide range of prices in Germany following recent negotiations for the final quarter. Suppliers from Northern Europe are trying to maintain them at period three levels, especially as discussions with annual contract customers are still ongoing. So, instead of lowering prices to stimulate sales, they are cutting capacity. Mills further south have reacted quickly to the deteriorating situation, offering discounts to German buyers. Third country producers have slashed quotations significantly since August -to a minimum of EUR 100 per tonne below prevailing EU levels but customers are not willing to risk the long delivery lead times in a falling market. There has been no pick up in demand since June and none is expected in the near term. Therefore, clients are purchasing far less steel than in the first half of the year. Service centers and end users all have excess stocks. Distributors may be forced to sell very cheaply in order to generate cash.”

MEPS said that “French values have been dropping substantially since the beginning of September. End user consumption remains weak, having seen no recovery after the summer holidays. Buyers have now adopted a 'wait and see’ approach as prices trend downwards. Distributors have fairly high inventories and are destocking. Mills are also building up quantities of material because of poor sales. There is now a need to regulate supply more in line with demand.”

MEPS said that “In Italy, activity in the market place is described as ‘frozen’ with most consuming sectors affected. In addition to the usual cyclical nature of steel prices, the financial crisis is making things even more difficult. The lack of available credit is becoming a major problem. Market sentiment is extremely low. Stocks have grown because of the decline in sales. Service centers report their business levels are down enormously. Riva has made no announcements so far regarding output cuts. The company has been running late on deliveries because of recent production troubles and customers are now loathe to accept the material at the high prices originally negotiated.”

MEPS said that “UK demand is depressed. Order intake at the mills has reduced sharply as customers live off their inventories. Service centre business has slowed markedly, putting resale values under negative pressure. There is far too much high priced stock in the system which distributors are desperate to liquidate. They are filling any shortfalls by buying from each other. Third country offers are limited but at very low prices.”

MEPS said that “The Belgian market is extremely quiet due to the financial crisis. End users are waiting to see how things develop, whilst stockholders are buying only the minimum tonnages they need because they anticipate further price slippage. Resale values are poor. Buyers purchased before the holidays in the expectation that steel would become more expensive and now have too much material because demand has dropped. Indian and Chinese mills seem to be reducing their price offers daily but are hardly selling anything.”

MEPS said that “In Spain, a significant decline in domestic demand has been further exacerbated by falling international consumption and a severe financial crisis. There is real fear in the marketplace that steel values will collapse. Customers are reluctant to order even small amounts, irrespective of price. Distributors say that stocks have grown in proportion to the current downturn in sales. They are exchanging material between themselves to fill any gaps in their inventories. Credit restrictions are making the situation even worse. Traders have third country steel in the ports, or shortly to arrive, but it is moving out only very slowly.”

Reuters reported that Bulgaria has invited ArcelorMittal to become an operator of its insolvent steelmaker Kremikovtzi.

Mr Petar Dimitrov Bulgarian Economy Minister told reporters “We are offering ArcelorMittal to get again engaged in the operational management of the plant.”

Mr Dimitrov said the government is willing to keep the plant operational and was holding talks with other potential companies, both local and foreign, to take over its management.

Kremikovtzi faces a shutdown after Ukrainian tycoon Mr Konstyantin Zhevago suspended a production deal, blaming the government and the receivers for lack of support.

In July, Kremkovtzi cancelled a production deal with ArcelorMittal and sealed a deal with Mr Zhevago instead to provide it with raw materials and keep it running.

According to data released by Brazilian Steel Institute, bulk steel production in Brazil in the January to September 2008 period reached 28 million tonnes, up by 7.3% YoY. Production in September 2008 reached 3 million tonnes, up by 5% MoM.

IBS said that "The results of accumulated sales show growth in the whole sector, with special attention to long steel products, boosted by the great demand in the civil construction industry."

Although there was retraction in the sale of laminates on the foreign market, due to prioritization of the domestic market, the greater trade of semi finished products caused sales to close the first nine months of the year with expansion of 27.2% over the same period in 2007, having reached a total of 6.97 million tonnes. Exports of products generated revenues of USD 5.86 billion to Brazil.

The figures disclosed by the IBS also show that national production in the month of September was 2.14 million tonnes, representing a reduction of 0.7% due to the scheduled equipment stops in the flat steel mills, in which the reduction was 8.2%. In long products, production reached 967,000 tonnes, representing an increase of 10.3%.

Domestic sales of laminates last month were 10.3% greater than in September 2007, reaching 1.9 million tonnes. In the accumulated result for the year, growth was 15.8%.

Brazil's trade surplus reached USD 334 million in the third week of October and USD 874 million in the accumulated result for the month so far. This year, the surplus up until now totals USD 20.530 billion, a figure lower than the USD 32.956 billion recorded during the same period in 2007.

Last week, exports totaled USD 4.093 billion and imports USD 3.759 billion, which contributed for figures this month to reach USD 10.941 billion and USD 10.067 billion, respectively. In the accumulated result for the year so far, exports reached USD 161.809 billion and imports USD 141.279 billion.

My Iris reported that Oil prices erased earlier gains by falling more than USD 3 a barrel on Tuesday after US dollar gained against Euro, which overshadowed expectations of output cut by OPEC.

Light, sweet crude for November Delivery lost USD 3.36 to close at USD 70.89 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange

In London, December Brent crude dropped USD 2.31 to settle at USD 69.72 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.

The United Steelworkers announced that its members have overwhelmingly ratified a new 4 year contract with ArcelorMittal in a mail in secret ballot vote that concluded at the union’s headquarters recently.

The new contract is retroactive to September 1st 2008, covering about 14,000 USW members employed at 14 ArcelorMittal plants in the United States.

The new contract provides a one time USD 6,000 cash payment, USD 1 an hour general wage increase retroactive to September1st 2008, and 4% wage increases will come in years two, three and four. It improves the existing medical, prescription drug, dental, vision, life insurance and sick & accident benefits for all eligible employees and secures continued funding for a Voluntary Employees Beneficiary Association Trust to provide benefits for retirees who lost their healthcare coverage in bankruptcy court under previous employers.

Retiree premiums for all retirees will be reduced by approximately thirty five percent and will remain fixed for the term of the proposed Agreement. Finally, the agreement requires the company to make significant capital investment in its domestic plants to keep our mills state of the art in order to compete in a global steel market and provides for an 'Energy Efficiency & Carbon Emissions Task Force' where the union and company will work together to protect and benefit the industry and the environment.

Mr Leo W Gerard president of USW International said that "Reaching this agreement was a struggle that required tremendous support and solidarity from our members on the shop floor. The hard work of our members was instrumental in rescuing the industry 5 years ago and putting it back onto the road of profit that it rides today."

Mr David McCall director of USW District 1, who serves as chairman of the USW’s ArcelorMittal negotiating committee, said that he is particularly proud of the negotiating committee’s dedication to fairness at the bargaining table on behalf of the union’s current members as well as retirees. He added that "From the outset of these negotiations, we promised to improve our earnings security, job security and retirement security and we achieved important gains in all three."

JMB reported that ferrous scrap market price drops additionally in Tokyo and Osaka under slower demand at home and abroad. Tokyo Steel Manufacturing reduced the steel selling price sharply to encourage the new order and higher steel demand could impact on scrap market.

However, scrap dealers anticipate scrap price could decrease to less than JPY 15,000 per tonne for H2 at steel makers' purchase price when the offshore scrap market keeps decreasing.

It is reported that ArcelorMittal has launched a new bar rolling mill at its steelworks in Warsaw. Built at a cost of EUR 80 million, the new mill is one of the most modern rolling lines in Europe.

The project is the latest investment project in Poland by ArcelorMittal, which has spent more than EUR 920 million, on various Polish steelworks over the past 3 years. Its projects have involved a sheet mill in Cracow, a continuous steel casting line in Dąbrowa Górnicza, an organic coating line in Świętochłowice and the modernization of a steel wire rolling mill in Sosnowiec. All these facilities are in southern Poland.

The Warsaw steelworks manufactures quality and specialist steel as well as structural steel. The new rolling mill enables the steelworks to develop production based on state of the art technology to meet the needs of Poland's rapidly developing infrastructure sectors.

Reuters reported that POSCO may be able to join a fresh bidding for Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering if a prime bidder is not