State-owned steel maker Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL) said it would augment its annual production capacity in a phased manner to 26 million tons by 2014, according to a report.
General Manager (Materials Management) R.N. Rawat said at a conference in New Delhi that the company presently produced around 13.82 million tons of hot metal a year. In the first phase of expansion, the production will go up to 23.46 mtpa and will be further raised to 26.18 mtpa in the second phase.
Presently, SAIL is undertaking a Rs.70,000-crore expansion programme to raise its annual production capacity to around 23 million tons by 2012 from the present 13 million tons.
It had earlier envisaged to double its annual production capacity to 26 million tons by 2012, but later revised the target downwards to 23 million tons due to the global economic meltdown. It had, however, said that the remaining capacity would be added in the second phase of the expansion project.
The second phase of expansion programme is likely to cost the steel maker around Rs.10,000 crore.

Iron-ore shipment from India, the world's third-largest shipper of the steelmaking material, fell for a second straight month in January as demand from China dropped after the South Asian nation imposed an export tax. Shipments in January fell 8 percent to 13.2 million metric tonnes from 14.34 million tonnes a year earlier. India imposed a 5 percent duty on exports of iron-ore fines and doubled the tax on overseas sales of lumps to 10 percent, to increase the supply of the material to domestic steelmakers. The new rates, applicable on all grades of iron ore, came into effect from December 24. India's iron-ore exports increased to 89.3 million tonnes in the ten months ended January 31 from 80.8 million tonnes a year earlier. The spot market price of iron ore delivered to China, the world's largest buyer, rose to US$134.5 a metric tonne, the highest in more than a year, recently.

iIndia's largest steel producer Tata Steel reported selling 5.54 million tonnes of steel during first 11-month of the financial year 2009-10, registering a growth of 22 percent over the same period of 2008-09. The company's production of hot metal, crude steel and saleable steel also rose sharply. Tata Steel completed February with an increase in its hot metal, crude steel and saleable steel production over the corresponding month of last year, the company said in a statement. The firm's total production of hot metal rose by 17 percent to 6.60 million tonnes, crude steel by 18 percent to 6 million tonnes and saleable steel by 22 percent to 5.86 million tonnes. In February, it produced 587,000 tonnes of hot metal compared to 517,000 tonne, crude steel output stood at 527,000 tonnes from 466,000 tonne and 500,000 tonnes of saleable steel as against 498,000 tonnes. The company had recently hiked the prices of its long steel products and flat steel products on the back of a hike in excise duty to 10 percent announced in the finance bill 2010-2011.

Steel majors including clients of the public sector NMDC companies ArcelorMittal, Tata Steel, Essar Steel, JSW Steel have reported subscribing to the iron ore major's follow – on public offer extensively. Reports said that ArcelorMittal has put in bids for about Rs 30 crore, Tata Steel Rs 35 crore, Essar Steel Rs 10 crore and JSW Steel Rs 3 crore. Incidentally, all the steel companies that have invested in the issue have a working relationship with NMDC. NMDC, the country's largest iron ore producer with more than 28 million tonnes, has long-term iron ore contracts with Essar Steel and JSW Steel. With Tata Steel, NMDC signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) in January for exploring possibilities of an alliance in minerals and steel. The alliance is likely to lead to joint ventures for the purpose of acquisition, exploration and development of mines, extraction and processing minerals as well as setting up integrated steel plants. With ArcelorMittal, the company had signed a MoU for an iron ore project in Senegal, which could pave the way for more alliances. Industry sources said, steel companies would evaluate NMDC in a different way than investment bankers. NMDC is the only source of iron ore for many of private sector companies that do not have captive mines. NMDC's mines are in Baildalia in Chhattisgarh and Donimalai in Karnataka. Bailadila happens to have the world's best grade of ore with an iron content of 66 per cent. Steel companies have been facing problems with inordinate delays in mine allocation in India. The country has approximately 23.59 billion tonnes of iron ore scattered in states like Jharkhand, Orissa, Chhattisgarh, Karnataka and Goa. Out of this only 6.31 billion tonnes is proven reserves and the balance probable and possible reserves. Moreover of the 10.68 billion tonnes of low-grade or magnetite ore, 75 per cent lies in the ecologically and environmentally sensitive Western Ghat region.

ArcelorMittal, the world's largest steelmaker, aims to boost iron ore production from its own mines by over 50 percent in the next five years, the company's head of mining said.
The increase will come from an ‘optimization’ of the company's mines around the world to produce more efficienctly and make ArcelorMittal more self-sufficient in key steel-making raw materials like iron ore and coking coal.
"We would like to achieve iron ore production of the order of 100 million tonnes (per year) in 2015," Peter Kukielski said at the Global Mining and Steel Summit. Currently, ArcelorMittal mines produce 60 million to 70 million tonnes.
"Our goal is to expand our level of self-sufficiency (in iron ore) to the order of 70 percent or so," Kukielski said. Europe-based ArcelorMittal has steel-making operations around the world and reached its No. 1 status to some extent by avoiding buying on global ore and coal markets.
For some time now it has been the company's strategy to integrate backward into mining because of the volatility of raw material prices and supply," Kukielski said.
Asked about the iron ore benchmark price currently being negotiated by major suppliers and steelmakers, he said there was “no doubt there will be a substantial increase."
He gave no figure, but with spot iron ore prices trading at double last year's contract price, analysts are looking for rises from 65 percent to 80 per cent.
Kukielski said although ArcelorMittal would never preclude potential mining acquisitions, he nevertheless spent more of his time ‘trying to optimize the assets that we have’.
”There are certain of those mines that have such a large resource base that they are crying to be expanded.
We have assessed all of our mining assets and done life-of-mine planning," he noted.

McNally Bharat Engineering Company has bagged an order worth Rs 245.42 crore from Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL) for infrastructure related works at Rourkela steel plant. The contract is for inter-plant transportation facilities at Rourkela steel plant, McNally Bharat said. The scope of work includes design, engineering and erection of transportation facilities at Rourkela plant. The contractual period of completion is 22 months.

State owned Steel Authority of India (SAIL) is in talks with overseas steel manufacturers to import advanced manufacturing technology, according to Steel Secretary Atul Chaturvedi. The company is in talks with three firms including Japan's Kobe Steel for their technology and with Posco for its finex technology.
"We have realized the importance of new technology and have asked SAIL to actively look into it. The company's heavy dependence on coking coal imports is making it a hostage to international price fluctuation," he said. Chaturvedi sees India's steel production at 115-120 million tonne by 2011-12, backed by expansion plans of both private players and SAIL. "By 2010, we will require 220 million tonnes of steel in India," he said.
Chaturvedi said: "We have asked SAIL to negotiate for new steel making technology after private companies like Tata Steel and JSW Steel have tied up with Japan steel companies for automotive steel products." India's largest steel maker imports 11-12 million ton coking coal every year. According to him, there is a strong domestic demand, which will be the main driver for capacity expansion. "By financial year 2012 end, we should achieve the target. Otherwise, India will become a net importer of steel. The expectations from the infrastructure sector will increase the demand for steel." he said.

Surya Roshni, the largest exporter of GI pipes and flagship company of Rs 2,000-crore Surya Group, launched a consumer awareness programme to educate customers across 250 cities in the country on the hazards of using spurious steel pipes. The company has sent 150 employees across the country for the awareness campaign. The company has launched customer awareness programme to educate millions of consumers, dealers and retailers across 250 cities in India on the hazards of using spurious pipes. At present, sale of spurious pipes comprises over 30 per cent of the total steel pipe market sales, and these are manufactured by using half the quantity of spurious 'Goomati Zinc' coating which reduces the life of the product. Spurious pipes last just 2-3 years, while pipes manufactured as per prescribed norms last for over 30 years or more. At cumulative level, consumers end up paying more if they use sub-standard pipes. The programme aims to educate dealers and 20,000 retailers and consumers on the ill effects and hazards of using spurious steel pipes. It also covers highlighting benefits of using various types of good quality pipes.

The government is considering revising the capacity addition target of steel companies by 2012 after a meeting with private sector producers such as Tata Steel, JSW and Essar Steel shortly. The Steel Ministry is already monitoring the growth projects of its public sector undertakings like Steel Authority of India (SAIL) and Rashtriya Ispat Nigam (RINL). It also occasionally holds meetings with private producers to assess their needs. During 2008, based on the progress achieved by the steel investment projects and based on the projections furnished by the companies, the steel production capacity was projected as 124 million tonnes (by 2012). However, on account of factors such as global economic slowdown in later part of 2008, delay in land acquisitions, allocation of raw material resources, law and order problems etc, there has been some delay in the progress of certain projects. India has an annual steel production capacity of 72.76 million tonnes. The government has set a target of 124 million tonnes per annum production by 2011 - 12. Of the targeted 124 million tonnes capacity, state-run firms like SAIL, RINL and National Mineral Development Corporation (NMDC) would contribute about 40 million tonnes. Steel Minister Virbhadra Singh had earlier said that projected production capacity by 2012 had been lowered to 120 million tonnes. It may be recalled that mega projects of steel giants like ArcelorMittal and Posco in the county have failed to kickstart for over four years now on account of many bottlenecks like land acquisitions, allocation of raw material resources, law and order problems etc. Among domestic private producers, Tata Steel is enhancing the annual production capacity of its Jamshedpur plant to 10 million tonnes by 2011 from the present 6.8 million tonnes. JSW Steel is also increasing the capacity of its plant in Vijaynagar, Karnataka, to about 10 million tonnes from the present about 7 million tonnes by next year.

India's steel consumption rose 8.5 percent to 51.23 million tonne (mt) during April-February period of the current fiscal against 47.24 mt in the year-ago period, on the back of steady rise in demand from sectors including automobiles, whitegoods and construction. However, production rose only 4.5 percent during the reporting period at 54.35 mt over 52.02 mt in the same period last year, says the provisional data released by the steel ministry. Imports also surged by 22 percent to 6.61 mt during the period, thereby putting pressure on domestic prices. But, exports continued to slide and fell by 34.9 percent to 2.62 mt during the period, reminiscent of the fact that the Western markets are still to recover from the economic crisis of 2008-09. Leading steel producers like Tata Steel and Rashtriya Ispat Nigam reported 11.1 percent provisional growth to 4.56 mt and 10.9 percent increase to 2.6 mt, respectively, during April-February over the same period previous fiscal. Production of SAIL, increased a meagre 0.3 percent to 9.19 mt against 9.16 mt during the April-February period. Moreover, in February alone steel output rose 4.8 per cent to 4.97 mt over the year-ago period. But Tata Steel saw output declining 11.4 per cent at 3.5 lakh tonne in the month against production of 3.95 lakh tonne during the same month a year ago. However, SAIL and RINL saw their February production surging by 13.3 percent to 9.29 lakh tonne and 57.6 percent to 2.49 lakh tonne, respectively. Steel consumption in February increased by 8.7 percent to 5.05 mt over the same month last year. In February, imports surged 64.5 per cent to 6.76 lakh tonne against 4.11 lakh tonne last February, while exports nosedived 42.4 percent to 2.32 lakh tonne from about 4.03 lakh tonne shipped in February 2009.

Indian steel maker Bhushan Steel Ltd is planning to invest about Rs 280 billion to set up a value-added steel plant in the southern state of Karnataka. The proposed plant would have a production capacity of 6 million tonnes per annum, Bhushan Steel said in a statement.

Prices in the retail market for hot rolled coil have already gone up by almost Rs 2,000 per tonne and analysts believe a price hike from April is imminent on account of excise duty hike and jump in raw material contract prices
Following in the footsteps of other mills, state-owned steel major Steel Authority of India (SAIL) hiked steel prices by up to Rs 600 a tonne, effective from March 1, on account of increase in excise duty.
According to a report, SAIL chairman SK Roongta said that there would be a price increase of about Rs 500 to Rs 600 a tonne due to the excise duty hike and it would be effective from March 1.
Partially rolling back the fiscal stimulus in the Budget, the government raised excise duty by 2-10 percent across the board. To spur economic activities, the government had earlier initiated massive spending programmes and slashed duties from December 2008 in three stages following the global financial crisis that began in September in the same year. Indian mills have increased domestic commercial hot rolled coil prices for April production on rising international prices and higher costs of production. Prices have risen by at least Rs 1,000-Rs 1,500 (about $21-$31) per tonne ex-mill to Rs 30,500-32,000 per tonne. Prices for end users are also rising because of an increase in excise duty, which has risen to 10 percent from 8 percent. While mills have yet to officially increase the price of cold rolled steel, basic prices, exclusive of taxes, have already risen by Rs 1,000-1,500 per tonne to Rs 36,000-36,500 per tonne.
The price hike from April is imminent on account of excise duty hike and jump in raw material contract prices for major players across the globe. Both iron ore and coking coal contracts for 2010 are expected at 35-45 percent higher levels than last year, and this could push up the cost of production by about US$75 per tonne of steel.
"We believe that companies like Tata Steel and SAIL will be the major beneficiaries of the price jump on account of their backward integration. Global steel demand scenario is also improving with strong last quarter growth in US and Japan. Overall, we remain bullish on the steel sector as a whole and we could see further hike in the next quarter," said Kisan Ratilal Choksey Shares and Securities Pvt Ltd in a research note. On the demand side, improvement is being seen in developed economies particularly in the flat segment on account of pick up in automobile sales. However, long product demand still remains subdued as no major revival is seen in construction activities which are the major consumer of longs.

SMS Meer is organising a symposium on the latest technological development on Long Product Rolling Mills at Hotel Hyatt Regency / Kolkata from April 28-29, 2010. SMS Meer India Pvt Limited is a 100 percent subsidiary of SMS Meer GmbH
(part of SMS Group Germany). SMS Meer is a world leader in the development and manufacture of plants for the whole spectrum of Long Product Rolling Mills which includes wire rod mill, bar mill, section and billet mills.

JFE Steel, a Japanese steel manufacturer signed coking coal contracts at US$200/t, a 55 percent increase from US$129/t last year. The price was fixed for the Apr-June 2010 quarter. The move will benefit the Indian coke manufacturing companies like Gujarat NRE Coke and Austral coke.
Coke is a derivative of coking coal. Coke is one of the major inputs in steel making. This move will hurt domestic steel manufacturing companies like Tata Steel and JSW Steel.
Gujarat NRE Coke is the largest independent producer of met coke in India and only Indian company with coking coal mines in Australia having more than 500 million tons of metallurgical coal with excellent coking properties. Austral Coke is engaged in the manufacture and sale of low ash metallurgical coke and refractory in India.

Once ArcelorMittal sets up its steel plant in Kasmar block, Bokaro will boast of as many as four steel plants.
And, if things work according to plan, it will be contributing around 30 million tons steel to the world market in 10 years from now.
Apart from the existing Bokaro Steel Plant (BSP), the district has Electrosteel Integrated Limited (EIL) in Chandankyari which will begin production soon. Besides, Steel Minister Virbhadra Singh last month announced another new steel plant for Bokaro as part of a joint venture most probably with Posco.
The Minister said the ministry was working on a target to achieve a production of 124 million tonne by 2012 and to achieve that, the participation of both public and private sectors would be needed.
Apart from the number of steel plants, Bokaro will get a cement plant, three power plants and ONGC's coal bed methane production unit. The Jaypee group, along with BSP, will also set up a cement plant in BIADA.
Bokaro Power Supply Corporation Private Limited, a joint venture of Damodar Valley Corporation and BSP, will be coming up with a 450 MW power plant. Besides EIL and Mittal have also come up with power plants.
Most of the people of Kasmar, especially the youth, are in favour of setting up of the ArcelorMittal steel plant. For, they know it will bring about a drastic change in development, growth, lifestyle and living conditions of the area.
The Mittal officials have selected land in Kasmar block to shift its 12 million tonne steel plant project from Karra and Kandara area of Khunti and Simdega, respectively.
The company is willing to acquire around 8,000 acres. But it will start with 2,500 acres initially to set up a 3 million ton steel plant, which will be expanded in future.

Jindal Steel and Power will invest 10 billion dollars to set up a coal-to-liquid plant and a 2,000 MW thermal power plant in the state, the company's Managing Director Naveen Jindal said here Tuesday.
He said an agreement with the Orissa government will be signed in the next two to three months for setting up the coal-to-liquid project. In the plant, different processes and technology will be used to convert coal into liquid fuels such as gasoline or diesel.
Jindal said he met Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and senior government officials Monday evening to discuss the project.
"The state has received an investment proposal of Rs.101,100 crore (Rs.1 trillion/USD 22 billion) from Jindal Steel and Power. About USD 10 billion has been proposed for the new coal-to-liquid project," a senior official of the state steel and mines department said. The project includes the coal-to-liquid plant, the thermal plant and a coal washery.
A coal block has already been allocated to the company in Angul district, over 160 km from here, by the central government. And the steel producer and power utility is now looking for about 2,000 hectares of land for the project, Naveen Jindal said.
"About three sites were being explored and the company prefers a location near the coal block," a senior company official told IANS.
Also, Jindal is building a 12.5 million tonne steel plant, a 1,320 MW capacity power plant and an industrial complex in the same district. The company requires about 4,500 acres land for the steel and the power plant. "About 4,000 acres has already been acquired," the official said.
"The work on the steel and the power plant is going on and we hope to commission one part of the power plant and the steel plant by the end of this year," he said.