Pig iron producer Tata Metaliks is eyeing a 3-5 million ton steel plant in Karnataka, depending on the feasibility. The company is looking at a 900 acre allotment, whenever it comes. Harsh K Jha, managing director, said 900 acres would be absolutely fine for a 3 million ton unit and 5 million ton was also not impossible. The company is awaiting land allocation from the government, however, it is not making any major investments this year. For the year ended March 31, 2009, Tata Metaliks posted a loss after tax of Rs 148.7 crore. It is raising the authorised share capital from Rs 40 crore to 100 crore. Nerurkar said, in an enabling resolution. The Karnataka steel project is also subject to availability of iron ore mines. For a 3 mt unit, the ore required would be 250-300 million tons.
The company had planned a unit in West Bengal, but the state government could not acquire land for the project. This was despite an assurance made in February 2005 by the chief minister. Jha said Bengal was a closed chapter. The company had started pursuing West Bengal and Karnataka at the same time, but decided to focus on Karnataka after the former failed to allot the land. Tata Metaliks is increasingly focusing on value addition and diversification into steelmaking. Earlier this year, the ductile iron pipe plant of Tata Metaliks Kubota Pipes Limited at Kharagpur in West Bengal was inaugurated. This is a joint venture of Tata Metaliks, Kubota Corporation and Metal One Corporation of Japan.

The Essar Group announced the appointment of Malay Mukherjee as the CEO of its steel business, effective October 15, 2009. Mukherjee will take over from current CEO, J Mehra.
Mehra will assume a new role as Director - Essar Group, and will continue to support the Group's Promoter Directors in business strategy, investments, corporate relations and corporate governance. He will also continue to be an active member of the Group Management Committee, as well as the Group Investment Committee, the Risk Management Committee and the People's Committee.
Shashi Ruia, Chairman - Essar Group, said, “Our steel business has grown by leaps and bounds under the stewardship of Mehra. His new assignment will enable Essar to continue to draw on his rich experience.” Speaking on the appointment, he added, “Malay Mukherjee comes with valuable international experience in the steel business and is an excellent addition to Essar Group's dynamic leadership team.” Mukherjee is an alumnus of the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, and holds a master's degree in Mining from the USSR State Commission in Moscow. In a long and glorious career spanning more than 35 years, he has led a variety of technical and commercial functions in the steel industry, including iron ore mining, project implementation, materials management and plant operations.
Until recently, Mukherjee was a member of the Arcelor Mittal Board of Directors. Prior to that, he was also a member of the company's Group Management Board, with responsibility for Asia, Africa, CIS, Mining, Stainless, Pipes & Tubes as well as Technology. Mukherjee joined the LN Mittal Group in 1993 moving from Steel Authority of India where he was Executive Director (Works) at the Bhilai Steel Plant. He was also associated with the Ispat Group in many important capacities, including President and COO of Ispat International, before joining Mittal Steel in 2004 as the COO. He has been awarded a life membership from the Indian Institute of Metals. To aid its global growth strategy, the Essar Group has been strengthening its management team over the last two years by inducting industry veterans to lead its various businesses. Mukherjee's appointment is in line with this strategy.

Bhushan Steel (Australia), part of Delhi-based cold roller, Bhushan Steel group, has acquired a 60 per cent stake in Australian exploration company, Bowen Energy, reports said. Bowen Energy has 2,400 sq km of prime exploration ground in the heart of the Bowen basin, close to major mines operated by BHP, Rio Tinto, Xstrata and Anglo Coal.
Nitin Johri, director (finance), Bhushan Steel, said that the company has four-five licences for thermal and coking coal. Bowen's projects also include uranium, but Bhushan's interest is in thermal and coking coal. In 2006 Bhushan had acquired 15 per cent in Bowen. Johri said this was raised through an on-market offer. The remaining 40 per cent was with institutions. According to a filing with the Australian stock exchange, the Takeover Panel has received an application from Macrae Holdings (WA) Pty Ltd, seeking a review of the Panel's decision to okay the stake sale.
Neeraj Singal, managing director, Bhushan Steel, said he was not aware of the latest review application, but an earlier one had been rejected. Macrae Holdings has 0.318 per cent stake in Bowen Energy. Industry sources said the acquisition would be a major benefit for Bhushan Steel. Some Indian steel companies had reaped major benefits from acquisition of exploration assets, they said. The coking coal could be supplied to Bhushan's steel plant in Orissa; Bhushan also plans a steel plant in West Bengal.
Indian steel companies are increasingly looking at covering their input costs. Coking coal accounts for around half the raw material cost. Its requirement for the Indian steel industry is around 30 million tons a year, against a domestic production of 7.5 mt. More, it has to be blended with imported coal to make it suitable for use. Bowen would take advantage of upgrading of regional coal transport and shipping infrastructure plans being developed by the Queensland government in Australia. The state government is committed to spend $7.2 billion on new infrastructure projects that will support the Bowen Basin coal industry. A further $3.1 billion is planned on upgrade and expansion, as well as additional rolling stock.

The six million ton steel production unit of Tata Steel's proposed facility in Orissa has got extensive support from local people. About 28 peoples' representatives, consisting of local sarpanches and panchayat samiti members, recently urged the Visthapan Virodhi Jan Manch (VVJM), spearheading the agitation against the project, to resolve the problems through talks with the district administration in a peaceful manner, reports said. In a letter handed over to VVJM president Chakradhar Haibru, thsse representatives stated that the all-round development of the Kalinganagar area could be possible with the setting up of this important project if the issues are resolved through mutual discussion.
The people's representatives belonging to Sukinda and Dangadi block pointed out that the emerging steel hub of the country at Kalinga Nagar has been embroiled in violence of late due to discontent over the setting up of Tata Steel project. Taking advantage of the situation, unscrupulous elements are planning to create more trouble in the area. Since agriculture alone can't solve the livelihood problems of the rising population, the area also need industries, they argued. Though the absence of a planned rehabilitation and resettlement system was responsible for the earlier problems in 2005 and 2006, a visit to the village Trijanga, Sanasailo and Gobarghati, the rehabilitation colonies set up by Tata Steel, disproves the apprehensions in this regard.
The standard of living of the people in these rehabilitation colonies has improved, the asserted. In this backdrop, they offered to mediate between the government and the office bearers of the VVJM for a peaceful settlement of the problems.

The district administration of Jagatsinghpur has advised the Essar Steel Orissa Limited to provide a uniform rate for land acquisition for its proposed steel project at Paradip.
Essar Steel proposes to set up a six million ton per annum integrated steel plant at Paradip at an investment of Rs 10,721 core . The company has identified 1925 acres of land for the steel project out of which 1663 acres are private and the rest 262 acres are government land, reports said. The administration suggested that Essar needs to offer a price to the land loser which is comparable to that provided by the Indian Farmer Fertiliser Cooperative Limited (IFFCO).
IFFCO is going for expansion of its fertilizer unit at Paradeep in the same district. The company's land acquisition process has been unable to make any headway for the past two to three years as the rate of private land could not be finalized. The discussions between the district administration and land losers had also fallen through as Essar Steel did not agree to hike the price of private land.
The district administration had convened a meeting recently between the land losers and the Essar Steel officials to settle the rate of private land that needed to be acquired for the company's steel project. The meet was attended by the representatives of five land losers' associations.
The land losers among other things demanded Rs 25 lakh per acre, employment opportunity to the affected families and proper implementation of Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Policy of 2006 of the Orissa government. Essar Steel had agreed to accept the demand of land losers' association on January 31 this year with a condition that each land loser should produce a written declaration that they would not demand more than Rs 25 lakh per acre of land in the future”, said Sanjay Swain, president, Milit Kriyanustan Committee.
More than 750 land losers have already submitted their declaration before the district collector but company has violated the terms of agreement by purchasing the land at the cost of Rs 8 lakh per acre, he alleged. “Both Essar Steel and IFFCO have acquired the land from Bijyachandpur village for their projects. While IFFCO has given Rs 20-22 lakh per acre to the land losers, Essar Steel was buying land at only Rs 8 lakh per acre”, Swain said. 592 families from Nuagarh, Paradipgarh, Udayabata, Bijyachandpur, Pipala, Baldia, Chakradharpur have been identified as displaced families.

The Rehabilitation and Peripheral Development Advisory Committee (RPDAC) meeting for three Angul based industries including the Rs 15000 crore steel project of Jindal Steel and Power Limited failed to resolve issues related to land rate for the Jindal India Power's 1200 Mw project in the area, reports said.
The meeting, held under the chairmanship of J A Khan, the revenue divisional commissioner of northern division, decided to constitute a sub-committee to look into the demand of the land losers for payment of land compensation at the rate of Rs 15 lakh per acre for the project. The sub-committee will comprise of the district collector and superintendent of police of Anugul, the concerned MP, MLA and Zilla parishad chairman. The power plant authorities, who are yet to initiate their construction work at village Derenge at Talcher, agreed to give job to all 480 displaced .The remaining will be offered cash package as decided by the RPDAC. Jindal Steel and Power Ltd announced to absorb all displaced persons on the basis of their eligibility in the first phase. It, however, will consider to offer jobs to other land losers and affected persons in phases as the work on the 12 million ton steel plant, to be put up in two phases, progresses. The JSPL disclosed that the project would generate direct and indirect employment for 18000 when fully completed. The RPDAC rejected demand by section of the JSPL land losers to enhance the ex- gratia on land. The Monnet Ispat and Energy Limited which faces periodical protest from the villagers of Malibrahmani, a project affected village, agreed to give employments to 162 displaced people of the village. It also agreed to send village youths for ITI training on its own cost. The RPDAC rejected villagers' demand for higher compensation for land.

Rashtriya Ispat Nigam, the flagship company of Visakhapatnam Steel Plant (VSP), achieved sales of Rs 1,080 crore in August, 2009, its best for any August since inception, despite recession. Sale of saleable steel stood at 334,000 ton in August 2009, registering a growth of 148 per cent over the corresponding month last year. Similarly, value-added steel registered a growth of 133 per cent at 226,000 tons during the period. During April-August, 2009, the company sold 1 million ton of saleable steel, a growth of 11 per cent over the corresponding period last year while pig iron sales stood at 241,000 ton up 162 per cent over the corresponding period last year. Value added steel grew 10 per cent at 810,000 tons, a company release said..

The public sector steel major Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL) that it is open to partnering National Mineral Development Corporation (NMDC) in setting up a steel plant in Karnataka, primarily catering to sectors like the automobile and consumer durables.
NMDC, the country's largest iron ore miner has proposed setting up a 5-MTPA steel plant in a joint-venture format. However, the proposal is still at a nascent stage. The two PSUs, meanwhile, had recently agreed to jointly develop limestone mines in Himachal Pradesh. SAIL's call for partnering NMDC hints at a shift in the business strategy of local producers as it comes close on the heels of the entry of global steel giant ArcelorMittal in India in partnership with galvanised steel maker Uttam Galva.
SAIL will take its overall capacity for value-added steel products to close to 3-million tons per annum (MTPA) in the next two years. SAIL will commission state-of-the-art 1.2-MTPA Cold-rolled steel mill in Bokaro in mid-2011. Coupled with it's existing capacity at Rourkela and Bokaro Steel plants, the company's overall capacity to produce such items would be 2.7-MTPA. Such products help the company to resist the pressure caused by the slump in off takes amid economic crisis. However, to remain competitive at a time when the markets are still recovering, a slew of cost-cutting measures would be undertaken in the fiscal to save up to Rs 1,000 crore. With the rising demand, SAIL expects its steel production to increase by 8-10 per cent and sales “even a notch higher” in the current fiscal as compared to the year-ago period. The company said expansion programmes at all its plants are going on a “full swing” and the 23 MTPA augmented capacity would be commissioned in phases till 2012. At present the company produces about 14 MTPA of steel.
The company hopes to save about 25-30 per cent of its expansion cost on account of the fall in equipment prices due to slowdown. Talking about raw material security, the company has applied for mining rights for Rowghat iron ore mines in Chhattisgarh, with an estimated reserve of 510 million tons. The company is also hopeful of getting its mining leases renewed in Chiria and Gua areas in Jharkhand.

In its efforts to revive ailing public sector units under the steel ministry, the government today decided to hand over management control of three sick units to steel major Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Ltd. It also decided to wind up operations of Karanpura Development Co and Scott & Saxyby.
The five ailing firms - Orissa Mineral Development Corporation (OMDC), Bisra Stone Lime Co (BSLC), Karanpura Development Co (KDCL), Scott & Saxyby (SSL), Eastern Investments Ltd (EIL) - are known as Bird Group of Companies. The management control of Orissa Mineral Development Corporation, Bisra Stone Lime Co and Eastern Investments Ltd would be given to RINL. Announcing the Cabinet decision, Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni said that the restructuring proposal envisages vesting management control of the three firms with RINL in a subsidiary-cum-holding structure in order to make these companies economically viable and sustainable.
The government loan and accrued interest thereon would be waived off. The commercially unviable companies would be wound up and their employees would be adjusted in other sister companies under the group or would be offered voluntary retirement scheme. The restructuring proposal includes converting Orissa Mineral Development Corp and BSLC into arms of Eastern Investments. EIL would be made a subsidiary of RINL.

The domestic forging industry termed the increase in steel prices as “unjustified” and as the measure can push the equipment manufacturers into losses.
Cashing in on the rising demand and firming global trend, domestic steel firms like SAIL and Tata Steel have increased the prices of some of their products by up to Rs 2,000 in past two months thereby, hitting the forging industry hard. The association said global competitiveness of the domestic industry is under threat and exports would be badly hit. The forging industry has estimated a fall in exports of 40 per cent if such trend continues. Domestic forging companies exported their products worth Rs 3,000 crore during the last fiscal.

Tata Steel has witnessed a 25 per cent rise in its sales to 4.92 lakh tons in August on the back of robust demand from the construction sector.
In the corresponding period last year, the steel major's sales stood at 3.92 lakh tons, the company said in a statement. The company said that in the reporting month there was a 81 per cent increase in the sales of long steel products over the same period a year ago. During the month under review, the company saw its crude steel output rising by 16 per cent to 5.52 lakh tons.
Its saleable steel production increased by 14 per cent to 5.26 lakh tons last month as against 4.60 lakh tons in July 2008. The company's hot metal production too went up to 5.97 lakh tons as compared to 5.18 lakh tons produced a year ago, a growth rate of 15 per cent. Tata Steel added that it was the best hot metal production ever recorded. Besides hot metal, the firm said its one of the steel melting shops too recorded its best-ever production.

Despite a sluggish market, Rourkela Steel Plant (RSP) has once again achieved production levels higher than its capacity in all its major units during August, 2009. By producing 1.77 lakh tons of hot metal, 1.68 lakh tons of crude steel and 1.74 lakh tons of total saleable steel, the steel plant has registered a capacity utilisation of 104 per cent, 104.5 per cent and 122.5 per cent respectively in August. In the rolling mills zone, the plate mill made an outstanding effort by producing 42247 tons of plates thereby utilising 166 per cent of its capacity, a company source said. On the dispatch front, the steel plant recorded best August figure by dispatching 1.81 lakh tons of saleable steel. With this performance, RSP has also carved out a capacity utilisation of 107.5 per cent, 106.3 per cent and 114.4 per cent in the production of Hot Metal, Crude Steel and saleable steel respectively in the first five months of the current financial year. Apart from production, the steel plant also excelled in techno-economic parameters.
In August 2009, the steel plant achieved a Coke rate of 540 kg per ton of Hot Metal which was the best August since inception. This was lower than the previous best August recorded of 552 kg per ton of hot metal which was registered in 2008. The coke rate for April-August period was also impressive with the plant registering 540 kg per ton of hot metal which is the best ever for any April-August period. During August 2009, specific energy consumption was the best August with 7.03 gega calorie per ton of crude steel against the previous best of 7.107 gega calorie per ton of crude steel registered in 2008. Similarly, the specific energy consumption during the period April-August 2009, was 7.03 gega calorie per ton of crude steel which was the best ever for the period as well as a significant improvement over the previous best of 7.145 registered during the corresponding period last year.

Steel Authority of India (SAIL) has taken over state-owned Bharat Refractories (BRL) and merged it with itself. The merger, effective April 1, 2007, has also got approval corporate affairs ministry, a SAIL official said.
BRL makes high temperature-bearing refractory materials used in the inner linings of blast furnaces. “The captive in-house refractory-making capability (through the merger of BRL) would provide strategic advantage to SAIL at a time when the company is expanding its production capacity,” SAIL chairman SK Roongta said.
The merger will help the country's largest steel producer utilise BRL's excess capacity for its present and future refractory needs. Already, the steelmaker consumes about 85-90% of BRL's output. For BRL, the merger will provide an opportunity to upgrade its technology and resource management, he said.
BRL, which produces an assorted variety of refractories used primarily in iron & steel making, has been reeling under losses for many years due to technological obsolescence, ageing plants and equipment and low capacity utilization.

TATA Steel has embarked upon a Rs 1,100 crore program to augment capacity of its iron ore mines at Joda in Orissa and Noamundi in Jharkhand.
The increased production will go to meet the larger ore requirement of the company's Jamshedpur plant.
An estimated Rs 600 crore is being spent on capacity expansion of the Joda mines discovered 100 years ago and the balance Rs 500 crore on Noamundi mines.
On completion of the work, expected in two years, the production of Joda mines will double to 8 million tons annually and it will increase to more than 9 million tons from the present 7million tons annually at Noamundi.
According to official sources, the expansion program of the Joda mines has three components, namely, the purchase of equipment such as excavators, drill machines and dumpers, establishment of a 4million tons per annum capacity new dry circuit plant for the sizing of friable ore not requiring beneficiation and stepping up logistics facilities.
At Noamundi also, there will be a dry circuit plant of the same capacity, bedding blending plant with rapid loading system and acquisition of new equipment. However, unlike Joda, at Noamundi there will be de bottlenecking projects for the existing washery.
TATA Steel's Jamshedpur plant requires 10 million tons to 11 million tons of ore annually to meet the current level of production of about 7 million tons of crude steel and the requirement is met almost entirely by Joda and Noamundi mines. The requirement, it is estimated, will rise to 16 million tons to 17 million tons when the plant will be ready for production of 10 million tons crude steel annually from 2011.

Virbhadra Singh union minister for steel disclosed that MoUs will be signed between the steel companies and National Mining Development Corporation for supply of limestone.
Singh told," NMDC will soon sign MoUs with end users, especially steel plants, as the limestone to be extracted in the Arki region is a vital raw material for making steel.” He added that "NMDC has already reached an agreement with Gujarat Ambuja Cements Ltd to supply limestone to its cement plants. Similar, agreements would be signed with other companies too.”
NMDC has been permitted to extract limestone from the Arki region of Solan district last year by the Himachal Pradesh government. This is one of the biggest mining projects in the state with an investment of more than Rs 5 billion. An annual royalty of Rs 110 million will be provide to the state government and NMDC will generate direct and indirect employment for more than 5,000 people.

The process of disinvestment in Coal India Ltd (CIL) would start soon and in the first phase it would be around 10 percent, the government said
Priority would be given to the employees of CIL and the farmers whose land had been acquired in allotment of shares and only the remaining portion would be sold in the market, said coal minister Sriprakash Jaiswal said.
Underground mining would be given priority, as production through it is better and also has no impact on the environment, he added. Admitting there is a 25 percent shortage of coal, Jaiswal said the target set for 100 days by the government has been completed by his ministry.
Earlier this month, the company had received the coal ministry's approval to reduce the face value of its shares to Rs 10 from Rs 1,000 at present.