- Tatas say BHP’s Rio offer is bad for industry (Live mint.com 4th Dec 2007)Melbourne-based BHP Billiton Ltd’s proposed $134 billion (Rs5.32 trillion) bid for Rio Tinto is bad for the steel industry, said a unit of Tata Steel Ltd, India’s oldest manufacturer of the metal.
The combination would create a mining giant that could vie with Brazil’s Cia Vale do Rio Doce as the world’s largest producer of iron ore, a key steel making ingredient. Iron ore prices have tripled in the past five years on rising Chinese demand, and may rise 50% next year, Macquarie Group Ltd had said last month.
“When two players control 70% of the market, it’s too much for us as a steel producer,” Philippe Varin, chief executive officer of Tata’s Corus unit, said on Monday at a Paris conference. “It’s not good for the steel industry.” - Metal stocks turn red hot (The Hindu Business Line 4th Dec 2007) Expectations of a hike in steel prices coupled with good demand for both ferrous and non-ferrous metals from roaring infrastructure sector boosted the metal index to post sharp gains on Monday. The BSE Metal index gained 550 points to 18,281.24.
Hindustan Copper rose 5 per cent to Rs 436, , Hindalco 3.37 per cent to Rs 191, Hindustan Zinc 2.56 per cent to Rs 830, Tata Steel 1.57 per cent to Rs 838, SAIL 1.57 per cent to Rs 262, Jindal Steel and Power 4.87 per cent to Rs 14,166 and JSW Steel gained 4.58 per cent to Rs 1,058.
Steel Authority of India (SAIL) has plans to invest Rs 12,000-15,000 crore over the next five years in modernisation and technology to sustain its current production capacity. - Jindal Stainless to invest Rs 9,600 cr in Orissa plant (The Hindu Business Line 4th Dec 2007)Expanding capacity
The company hopes to commission a 0.8 mt plant by Dec 2009 and another 0.8 mt in the third phase.
Total production at both the plants is expected to touch 2.5 million tonne by 2010-11 Jindal Stainless Ltd (JSL), the country’s largest stainless steel manufacturer, in the next three to four years will be investing around Rs 9,600 crore in its Orissa project.
The company has already invested Rs 2,250 crore for setting up a greenfield integrated stainless steel plant in Orissa with capacity of 1.6 million tonnes (mt) per annum. - Foundries unite to tackle price hike (Live mint.com 3rd Dec 2007) Foundry units in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, one of India’s leading hubs for the manufacture of castings, are joining hands to collectively import raw materials such as pig iron and scrap steel in an effort to tackle price increases in the domestic markets of these inputs.
Pig iron price has risen to Rs22,500 per tonne from previous year’s Rs17,700 per tonne. In the case of scrap steel, the price is Rs19,300 per tonne against Rs16,000 per tonne last year. A year ago, heavy metal scrap sold for Rs15,500 per tonne but the current price is Rs17,800 per tonne. The price difference between domestic pig iron and scrap steel prices per tonne against the landed cost of the same imported materials is a whopping 20%.
Foundries are coming together as exporters are demanding a minimum order size of 3,000 tonnes, which is higher than the requirement of the biggest foundry unit based in Coimbatore. - RINL clears sale of 25% Govt equity (Livemint.com 28th Nov 2007) The government will soon offload 25% stake in Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited, making it the first disinvestment in a profit-making steel PSU.
“In response to a proposal of the Finance Ministry asking us to consider offloading some stake, the RINL Board has okayed (sale of) 25% stake in the company, of which 5% would go to the employees and the remaining 20% to the public,” RINL chairman and managing director P. K. Bishnoi said.
Steel Minister Ram Vilas Paswan had earlier categorically opposed any dilution of stake in any of his ministry’s PSU.
- ISI marking mandatory for steel products (The Hindu Business Line 30th Nov 2007)The Government has made it mandatory for the manufacture, sale and distribution of 17 steel products to carry the standard mark of the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS).
“On the proposal of the Steel Ministry, the Ministry of Consumer Affairs has issued an order Steel and Steel Products (Quality Control) Order 2007 under which 17 varieties of steel products must have ISI certification to conform to specified standards, failing which the steel producers would be punished under the Bureau of Indian Standards Act 1986,” an official in the Steel Ministry said. - Captive mines, core sector demand give steel stocks a high (Livemint.com 28th Nov 2007)Steel has been one of the best performing commodities in the past year, with up to 10 major stocks gaining more than 100% in prices, compared with the 39% growth of the benchmark index, the Sensex.
Analysts predict that major steel stocks could continue their rally in the future, riding on the back of the building and infrastructure boom. Even as iron ore prices have shot up, some companies have remained unscathed because they source their own ore. The appreciating rupee also has helped balance out rising ore prices.
One advantage for large Indian steel companies, such as Tata Steel Ltd and the government-run Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL), is that they boast their own, or captive, mines, which insulates them from the high prices of iron ore, the main ingredient in making steel. - Bhushan Steel price movements surprise analysts (The Hindu Business Line 28Nov 2007) We do not have a clue as to why the prices have gone up so high: CFO
- Orissa Sponge up on steel plant plans (The Hindu Business Line 28Nov 2007)The Orissa Sponge stock, after having gone into hibernation for a week, spurted once again by 5 per cent on Tuesday. The buzz driving the stock since September was that the loss-making company has not only got a lifeline in the form of financial support from the Unitech promoters, but also moved ahead in operationalising its plan for a one million tonne integrated steel plant. Street talk suggests that it has obtained environmental clearance for its iron ore mines, rights for which was received a couple of years ago, in Orissa. The estimated reserves of iron ore mine is 130 million tonnes, said to be worth on a conservative basis over Rs 75,000 crore. It has also obtained coal mining lease in the State worth over Rs 10,000 crore.
- JSW to invest Rs 40,000 cr in 3 years(The Hindu Business Line 26 Nov 2007)The ‘JSW part’ of the Jindal group, which is managed by Mr Sajjan Jindal, plans to invest Rs 40,000 crore on various steel and power projects, over the next three years. JSW Energy Ltd, a part of this faction of Jindals, will come out with an initial public offering next year, to raise around Rs 5,000 crore, Mr Sajjan Jindal said today.
Addressing a press conference here to disclose the group’s plans for Tamil Nadu, Mr Jindal said that JSW “is willing to invest Rs 7,500 crore” in the State, mainly on two projects — doubling the capacity of Southern Iron & Steel Company Ltd (SISCOL) to 2 million tonnes (Rs 3,000 crore), iron ore mining to feed SISCOL (Rs 400 crore) and a 1,000-MW power plant (Rs 4,000 crore).
Of the Rs 40,000 crore of investments, half would be in the steel sector (including SISCOL expansion). The group has plans to put up integrated steel plants in Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh — 6 mt in each State. Various power projects will consume investments of Rs 12,000 crore. The other Rs 8,000 crore would be spent on the proposed foray into cement making, aluminium and building ports. - Jindals seek to develop mines in Salem, Tiruvannamalai (The Hindu Business Line 26 Nov 2007)The Jindal group today reiterated its request for permission to develop iron ore mines in Salem and Tiruvannamalai to feed the steel units of Southern Iron and Steel Company Ltd (SISCOL). After taking over SISCOL in 2004
- India poised to become net importer of steel (The Hindu Business Line 23 Nov 2007) For the first time ever, India is all set to become a net importer of steel in the current fiscal. During April-October 2007, the country imported 3.6 million tonnes (mt) of steel, an increase of 79 per cent over the 2 mt imported during the corresponding period of 2006. Around 60 per cent of the steel imports came from China, Malaysia and Thailand.
- Two new Directors to Tata Steel Board, one from UK group company Corus. 2 new directors on Tata Steel board (The Hindu Business Line 23 Nov 2007)
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