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| JANUARY 2007 | |
| From the CEO's Desk | |
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Asia has always been the leader in world steel consumption with around half of the world steel demand generated in Asian markets. The Asian region comprises of developing countries where infrastructural development is at the forefront of the agenda. This is especially true in case of gulf, the region where infrastructure development is on the upswing. One can witness construction activity going on all over the region. This is expected to continue for years to come and thus steel demand in the region will expand rapidly. All this makes gulf one of the most favoured destination for not only steel manufacturers but also to all the allied businesses too. As we all know, gulf region
is a net importer of steel. The sources are Turkey, CIS countries,
Ukraine, China, India etc. With the expected growth in demand for steel,
many business houses have 'Fabrication' has always been of prime importance to infrastructural development. In recent years, this industry has undergone a lot of changes in terms of technology and practices. A lot of automation and robotics is being adopted and utilized, and their role in the future is sure to increase. What are the expectations of the customer specific industry and how the fabrication sector is responding to this ? How quality and composition of steel impact the fabrication process and it's results ? How and to what extent are the growth prospects of 'Fabrication' in the gulf region ? Today, the steel demand of the gulf region is met partly by indigenous supply and partly by imports. As the steel production capacity of a region grows, the import component automatically comes down. Will there be corresponding increase in demand to compliment the imports ? What will be the demand supply scenario of the gulf region by 2010? The viability, longevity and growth of any manufacturing based business largely depends on technology. Technology can be the strongest driver of cost competitiveness and can provide the required cutting edge to overcome the competition. What is the right technology for a particular product ? How local conditions affect the selection and incorporation of technology? How much should be the 'cost of technology '? These and many other prime issues, country profiles, success stories, technology updates will make 'Gulf Iron & steel Conference' meaningful, informative and thus IMPORTANT !! D.A.Chandekar |
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Tata’s New manufacturing Unit in China Tata Refractories Limited has set up a new plant in China to manufacture Magnesia Carbon refractories. With a capital investment of Rs 37 crores and Production capacity of 30,000 MTPA, this strategic initiative has been taken to leverage the proximaty to raw material sources and to avail of low-manufacturing-cost structure of the Chinese economy. This would also facilitate smooth supply of cost effective products to customers across the Globe. This Greenfield Plant located at Bayuquan in Lioning province situated in the north eastern part of China, is the First Greenfield manufacturing unit of TRL as well as of Tata group in China. The Plant was inaugurated by Managing Director of TRL Mr C D Kamath on 28th December 2006, coinciding with the birthday of group chairman Mr Ratan N. Tata. This Plant has been commissioned at a record time of exactly 8 month which is a record in project completion even in Chinese standard. Similarly, TRL has set up a production facility in Gujarat to manufacture Bauxite based refractories. These strategic initiatives, aimed at making TRL a Global Refractories Company, are a part of company's Expansion and Modernization drive launched two years back at a capital investment of Rs 282 crores. This drive has resulted in making the company one of the most modern plants and enhanced its capacity to 250000 MTPA, highest for any Refractories Unit under one roof in the world. |
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Steel Authority of India (SAIL) has achieved record production of 3.318 million tonne of saleable steel, highest-ever sales of 3.014 million tonne, and best-ever techno-economic parameters during the October-December of the current financial year. The company substantially improved its performance over the corresponding period last year by registering a six per cent and eight per cent growth in saleable steel production and sales, respectively. In the first nine months of 2006-07, the SAIL plants operated at an average capacity utilisation of 112 per cent, producing 9.328 million tonne of saleable steel, an increase of six per cent. Production of value-added items like rounds & bars, medium structurals, hot rolled coils and plates recorded a growth of 23 per cent, 15 per cent, 14 per cent and five per cent respectively, during the period. The record third quarter sales took SAIL's ninemonth total sales to 8.412 million tonne an increase of 13 per cent. In the domestic market, the company sold 2.9 million tonne of steel during the third quarter, an increase of 10.4 per cent, and 8.013 million tonne during April-December 2006, a growth of 13 per cent. SAIL's corporate plan was also underway. The SAIL board gave in-principle approval to 13 projects involving investment of over Rs. 10,000 crore during October-December 2006. |
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Record December Production by Durgapur Steel Plant
Durgapur Steel Plant (DSP) of Steel Authority
of India Ltd (SAIL) has broken previous crude and saleable steel records
for the month of December. The unit's blast furnaces led the pack with a
of 1.98 lakh tonne surpassing the previous best of 1.94 tonne achieved in
the month before. Similarly, crude steel production of 1.78 lakh tonne
also surpassed the previous best of 1.73 lakh tonne achieved in the
previous month, while saleable steel production at |
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Sterlite Group Revives Orissa Steel Project
The Sterlite group is gearing up to revive its
steel project in Orissa in partnership with a foreign company. The
project, which was to be undertaken by Sterlite Iron and Steel Co, would
now be under a joint venture company. Anil Agarwal, chairman, Vedanta
Resources (holding company for the Sterlite group) said discussions were
on with potential partners and the deal would be finalised this year.
Agarwal said the company had not pursued the project, but would now take
it up. |
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Jindal South West to Setup Dedusting Plant Jindal South West Steel Ltd. (JSW) has awarded SMS Demag, Germany, a contract for the supply of a meltshop dedusting plant including gas scrubber and BOF gas recovery unit for its Toranagallu, India, works. For the scrubbing and recovery of process gas SMS Demag uses the tried-and-tested “Baumco CO system” which has been installed in more than 200 installations all over the world. This process provides for the primary gas to be cleaned in a twostage, highefficiency Venturi scrubber. The CO gas is obtained with suppressed combustion of the primary gas. Recovery takes place with the help of a special gas change-over station arranged past the high-efficiency scrubber. From the gas change-over station the cleaned gas is routed into a 50,000-m³ gas holder during operating phases which are rich in energy. The gas recovery plant involves considerable energy cost savings, as the cleaned gas is used in the works instead of fossil fuels. |
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JSW Steel Signs MoA with WB Govt. for Steel Plant Kolkata, Jan 12: In the backdrop of the raging controversy over land acquisition for setting up industries, JSW Steel yesterday entered into a Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) with the West Bengal government, for establishing a 10 million tonne steel plant at Salboni in West Midnapore, at an expenditure of Rs 35,000 crore. Vice-Chairman and Managing Director of JSW steel Sajjan Jindal said at an agreement signing ceremony here that the decision to set up the plant was to honour his late father O P Jindal's commitment to put up a steel plant in West Bengal. Initially, the first phase would include a three million tonne plant, which would be ready within four years from zero date. The investment required was Rs 10,000 crore. JSW steel would float a special purpose joint venture company with the West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation (WBIDC), West Bengal Mineral Development Trading Corporation (WBMDTC), where the steel manufacturer would have 89 per cent stake. |
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Steel prices for both long
and flat products was expected to remain stable during the fourth quarter
of the current financial year, Tata Steel Deputy Managing Director T
Mukherjee said in Kolkata. "I cannot comment about steel prices for the
next one year, but can say prices will stay stable for the next three
months," Mukherjee said on the sidelines of a seminar. Demand for both
long and flat steel products would be surpassed in the near term,
Mukherjee said. He said if the economy continued to grow by eight per cent
then additional demand for steel in the domestic market would increase by
four million tonne. Though India was a net exporter of steel the gap was
reducing, he |
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Committee to Monitor Price Movement
The committee, to be headed by Joint Secretary in Steel Ministry, would
not only monitor price movements but also formulate strategy regarding
future prices and recommend plans with regard to steel production,
consumption and trading. Paswan said the state-run steel entities have
almost doubled their profitability under his ministry in the last three
fiscal. He said the combined profit before tax for these companies stood
at Rs 11,569.29 crore in 2005-06 compared to around Rs 5,622.37 crore in
2003-04. |
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Bhilai Steel Gets Okay to Mine Rowghat The Chhattisgarh government
today gave its formal consent to Bhilai Steel Plant (BSP) to mine iron ore
in Rowghat. Approval from the ministry of mines came in two days back. The
state government is also moving fast to get the MoU finalised for laying
the railway line to Rowghat. Now that the state government consent has
been obtained, it |
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Essar ropes in London firm for brand revamp The steel-to-telecom
conglomerate Essar group has roped in London-based creative and
consultancy firm, Start Creative, to create a new brand identity. The
group intends to emerge as a consumer-oriented group, shedding its
existing heavy industries tag. This move is important as the group intends
to acquire the GSM operator, Hutch-Essar, and emerge as a major player in
the Indian mobile telephony segment. Moreover, the company is also looking
at capitalising on the burgeoning consumer market in India. “The new
branding strategy would be unveiled in the next couple of weeks,” a source
close to the development said recently. The appointment of a global agency
is to bring in a global touch to the group companies. This would make the
company compete with international players in all the sectors it has
presence in, starting from steel to oil and gas and telecom, he said. |
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Tata Steel has completed
the first nine months of the financial year with an all-round increase in
hot metal, crude steel production and sales volumes. Hot metal production
was at 4.11 million and crude steel production at 3.7 million tonne were
both higher than the corresponding period of last year. Saleable steel
production at 3.66 million tonne registered a significant increase of 11
per cent The total sales recorded 3.532 million tonne, an increase of
11.70 per cent. The domestic sale of long products has increased by 30 per
cent . |
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ABB wins Rs 250 cr JSW Steel contract ABB has announced that ABB
India has been awarded orders worth around Rs 250 crore to provide turnkey
solutions and a range of power and automation products to the JSW group
for its steel and power plant expansions in Bellary, Vasind and Salem. JSW
is enhancing its steel capacity from 3.8 to 6.8 mtpa (million tonnes per
annum) supported by a 2x300 MW power generation capability. According to a
statement from ABB, its scope of supply includes substation equipment, HT
machines, transformers, SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition),
protection and control systems as well as MV (medium voltage) and LV (low
voltage) switchgear. ABB's power solutions will serve the needs of JSW's
steel plants, enabling the surplus power to be fed into the 400 kv grid
with the control and monitoring equipment to help manage the distribution
network. |
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Record output by Rourkela Steel For the first time since
its inception, Rourkela Steel Plant (RSP), a unit of Steel Authority of
India Limited (SAIL), surpassed the 2 million tonne (MT) mark in hot metal
production in 2006. The steel plant produced 2.16 MT of hot metal from its
Blast Furnaces (BFs), 2.01 MT of crude steel from Steel Melting Shops (SMS),
1.98 MT of saleable steel from the finishing mills and 1.97 MT dispatch of
steel during the calendar year. This represented 108 per cent, 106 per
cent and 119 per cent capacity utilisation for the concerned units while
on a comparative scale the figures were higher by 27 per cent, 26 per cent
and 29 per cent respectively vis-à-vis the performance of 2005. |
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Tata Steel's Kalinganagar project on track : Irani Despite vehement protests
from political and social activists over acquiring land, the Tatas are
confident of going ahead with the setting up of the 6 million tonne steel
plant at Kalinganagar shortly. Speaking to reporters after delivering
Nalco's Foundation Day lecture Tata Group of Industries Director J J Irani
said orders for procuring 25 per cent of the equipments for setting up the
steel plant have already been placed. "It is now for the government to
hand over mines for the supply of ores to the plant. The process of
acquiring the land for the project is over and we are confident of
starting work as soon we get the required clearances from the government,"
Irani pointed out. |
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Govt Sets up Steel Price Monitoring Committee for price stabilization The Government recently
announced that steel prices would be monitored continuously with a view to
keep a check on private producers from raising prices artificially. "We
have set up a joint public-private Steel Price Monitoring Committee (SPMC)
to monitor price movements of various steel products so that small
consumers could get steel at reasonable prices," Steel Minister Ram Vilas
Paswan told reporters. He, however, emphasised that this was not to
regulate steel prices. "PSUs control one-third of steel supply and they
come under pressure always to reduce prices, while the private players
cannot be checked." In the process, even if PSUs reduce prices the
consumers do not get benefit as the private sector accounts for two-third
of the supply. "We have now included private players in the committee so
that a collective decision on prices could be taken and all have agreed to
keep the steel prices stable," Paswan said. The committee will work as an
interface between producers and consumers to stabilise the prices. This is
not the first time that government started monitoring steel prices, even
the previous NDA government had threatened to ban exports to enhance
supply in the domestic market to stabilise prices. Monitoring steel prices
also assumes significance in the wake of rising inflation. |
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Burnpur steel plant expansion plan faces local opposition It appears that Singur has
lent voice to all protests over land acquisition, leaving the West Bengal
government more on hand than just Nandigram. One of Singur's
manifestations is being felt in Burnpur in West Bengal, where IISCO Steel
Plant of Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL) is drawing flak from
displaced villagers over the additional land required for its Rs 9,600
crore modernisation and expansion programme. The project happens to be the
largest one in the SAIL's planned Rs 42,000 crore corporate expansion
programme. A writ petition has been filed by displaced villagers in the
Calcutta High Court and is expected to come up for hearing any day, the
moot point being inadequate compensation and valuation. |
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Tribals Oppose New Steel Plants in Jharkhand Expressing their opposition
to greenfield steel plants proposed to be set up by two industrial groups
in Jharkhand's East Singhbhum district, tribal groups staged a protest
here and resolved they would not allow "a repeat of Nandigram" in the
state. Led by heads of about 30 villages in Potaka block, the tribals,
including children and women, brandished bows and arrows and shouted
slogans like "Madhu Koda ki sarkar, hosh mein aao" (Madhu Koda government,
please come to your senses) and "Jindal, Mittal ko bhagao" (Drive away
Jindal and Mittal) during the protest outside the deputy commissioner's
office. The tribals are opposed to the proposed projects of Jindal and
Bhusan business groups. They demanded immediate cancellation of memoranda
of understanding (MoUs) signed by the state government with prospective
investors, immediate halt to the identification of lands for the proposed
plants, proper arrangements for irrigation facilities, implementation of
the Right To Information Act and action against officials |
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New Steel Firm to Creat 65pc Jobs for Baharainis
At least 65 per cent of workers at the new
United Stainless Steel Company (USCO) in Hidd will be Bahraini, it was
announced yesterday."Bahrainis even now account for 65 per cent of our 61
employees, but more recruitment is on the way and we expect to maintain
this level throughout," said chief executive officer Peter Wildbore.He was
speaking during a ceremony at the Bahrain Ritz-Carlton Hotel and Spa
marking a $153 million Syndicated Debt Financing for the company.Bahrain-based
Arab Banking Corporation (ABC) is the sole underwriter, book runner and
facility and security agent for the facility. Mr Wildbore said the
building of the new $233m plant was complete. "We will start off with a
production capacity of 90,000 tonnes per annum (tpa) but hope to double
that with the setting |
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Darvesh to Setup Dh2b Aluminium Plant in DIC
The Dubai-based Darvesh Group yesterday
announced a Dh2 billion aluminium processing project that will be built at
the Dubai Industrial City. Announcing the three-phased project, billed as
the largest aluminium processing plant in the world with a capacity of
135,000 tonnes, Ahsan Darvesh, Executive Director of the diversified
group, said the first phase of the plant would be commissioned in the
first quarter of 2008. Work on the project will commence in June this
year.He said the aluminium processing plant, Nova Aluminium, will be the
first of its kind in the UAE. . |
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ABC to Raise $555m for Steel Plant Expansion - Bahrain Bahrain's steel industry received a major boost recently when it was announced that Arab Banking Corporation (ABC) has been mandated to underwrite a $555 million financing facility for Gulf Industrial Investment Company (GIIC). The cash will help finance GIIC plans to more than double the output of its iron ore pelletising plant at Hidd Industrial Estate and carry out major infrastructure work. Initially the plant will be upgraded to increase production of iron ore pellets from the current 4.6 million tons capacity to 5 million tons in a project which will cost $15 million and should be completed by the end of this year. The company then plans to build a second pelletising plant along side the existing facility with an additional capacity of 6 million tons a year.
Two international contractors, Kobe Steel and
Siemens have been short-listed for the work which will include stockyard
and jetty extensions and should be completed towards the end of 2009. In
line with the massive expansion, the company has signed a 20 year contract
with MMX of Brazil for the supply of 6.5 million tons of iron a year, with
an option to increase this by a further 6.5 million tons in 2009. Dr Ali
Basdag, Chief Executive Officer of GIIC, said steel consumption in the
Middle east has been growing at a faster pace than production, driven by a
boom in infrastructure and real estate. Growth in demand for pellets was
estimated to rise by 17.5 million tons a year between 2006 and the end of
2008 and then increase by a further 10.4 million a year between 2008 and
2012. |
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El-Fouladh to Increase Capacity Upto 200,000 Tons
Societe Tunisienne D'industrie De L'acier -
El-Fouladh has signed a contract with Concast company for constructing a
second electric furnace in the company with an annual production capacity
of up to 100 thousand tons. It is expected that this furnace will be
operated in the last quarter of 2007. The company had already signed a
contract with the same company for increasing the production capacity of
the existing electric furnace from 65000 tons up to 100 thousand tons. The
expansion project is expected to be put into the production stage in March
2007. Besides, the company had already re-operated the wire rolling plant
in August 2005 after a stop taking place in November 2002. It is the only
plant producing 6mm in Tunisia, increasing thereby the company's actual
production in 2006. |
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New Steel Factory in Jizan to Top 1MT in Production King Abdullah laid, in 4 November 2006, the corner stone for the first phase of a new South Steel Factory in Jizan, which is owned by Trans Kingdom for Investment company (TKI) with an annual production capacity exceeding one million tons of steel ingots and bars. The total cost of the first phase is about SR1 billion. The TKI will soon start civil works at the project that covers an area of one million square meters and is designed with the most modern international specifications. The factory will meet the steel needs of the entire southern region and its excess production will be exported to nearby countries including Yemen, which is just around 140 km away, and African countries including Djibouti, Eritrea and Ethiopia. The first phase is considered to be part of a series of many stages with investments expected to exceed SR3 billion. Currently, the company is negotiating with a number of international strategic partners to participate in various stages of the project. A partner is expected to be selected in due course. The factory is expected to positively impact the national economy as much as the Jizan area. The company is establishing a 'Training center' to train more than 400 workers from the area in technology and administration. It earlier signed a contract with Corus Consulting, which is part of the Corus Group, a giant European entity, for the preparation of engineering designs and documents required for the import of specialized equipment for iron ore processing in Jizan. This factory will cover the needs of the entire southern region of the Kingdom and export its excess production to Yemen and African countries. This is considered to be one of the biggest in the private sector in the area and will have a positive impact on Jizan's investment program and help create job opportunities locally. |
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Steel Smuggled into Indonesia Reaches US$1 Bln. Per Annum About one billion US dollar
worth of steel products which could have been produced at home is smuggled
into Indonesia annually, Director General for Metal Textile Machine
Industry Anshari Bukhari said in Bogor, West Java, on Sunday. He said that
the government learnt the illegal import of steel after they saw the
difference of data on the import of steel at the Central Bureau of
Statistics (BPS) and on export of the products to Indonesia by producing
countries. . |
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Japan & Brazil Come Together for Iron Ore Nippon Steel, the world's
second-biggest steelmaker by output, and Companhia Vale do Rio Doce, the
Brazilian mining company, yesterday said they were considering jointly
developing coal and iron ore projects, writes Mariko Sanchanta in Tokyo.
The decision emphasises Nippon Steel's push this year to forge
international alliances in the wake of consolidation in the industry,
which had been sparked by Mittal Steel's take over of Arcelor. Increased
competition from China the world's biggest buyer of raw materials has
increased pressure on Japanese steelmakers to form long-term contracts
with suppliers. |
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Essar Plans RM1.8B Indonesia Steel Factory PT Essar Indonesia, a
member of India's Essar Group, plans to invest US$500 million (RM1.8
billion) to build a steel factory in Indonesia to strengthen its industry
presence there. “Essar plans to build a pellet factory with a production
capacity of about 2 million tonnes per annum,” Bisnis Indonesia quoted
Ansari Bukhari, a director general at the industry ministry, as saying.
“This means they will be entering the country's upstream industry and
competing directly with Krakatau Steel,” he added. Krakatau Steel is
Indonesia's state-owned steel maker. Essar Indonesia is . |
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Vietnam Revokes Tax Waiver on Filipino Steel Import Over 23,880 tons worth
almost $13 million had been shipped in by the importers, apparently
ASEAN-origin and with the C/O (certificate of origin) Form D. This
certificate is to show that a product has 40% ASEAN-made content which
qualifies it for tax-free import within the Southeast Asian bloc. But Uong
Si Hong, vice head of the Ho Chi Minh City customs department, said the
steel consignment would be taxed over VND15 billion (US$937,500) because
of discrepancies in the Form D certificates. Though issued by the
Philippines' customs, he said, the reference code on the certificates had
only six or seven digits instead of the required 12. An official from
Vietnam Steel Association admitted the products failed to meet the 40
percent stipulation since the Philippines could not produce hot rolled
steel (from which cold rolled steel is made). It had to import it from
India. He also admitted that Malaysia did not waive tax on this product.
Malaysia and the Philippines are both ASEAN members, as is Vietnam. The
customs
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World Steel Output Jumps 9.4% in 2006 World steel production is estimated to have jumped 9.4% to cross 1.21 billion tonne in calender 2006, against 1.1 billion tonne recorded in 2005. With a production of 421.33 mt, China's dominance of world steel production was complete. Output in that country is expected to have risen by a whopping 19.4% against 352.92 mt in 2005. The sheer scale and volume of China's steel output also led Asia to the top of the pile in the global steel production sweepstakes. Asia saw an impressive 13.8% hike in production levels to 648.58 million tonnes (mt) in 2006, as per estimates made by Brussels-based International Iron & Steel Institute (IISI), which compiles figures from 62 steel producing countries that report to it. Asia was followed by
European Union, where production grew by a substantial 5.8% to cross 197.9
mt, while production in North America is expected to go up by 4.9% to
touch 132 mt in 2006. The two regions were followed by Commonwealth of
Independent States (CIS) where production is likely to grow by 5.2% to
118.7 mt, last year. |
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American Steel Production Rises Domestic steelmakers of
America saw their weekly output rise from the previous seven days,
according to data released Monday by an industry group. Production among
domestic steelmakers was about 1.79 million net tons for the week ended
Jan. 6. That was up about 9.3 percent from the 1.63 million net tons
produced for the week ending Dec. 30, according to the American Iron and
Steel Institute. In the Pittsburgh/Youngstown, Ohio, district, steel |
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Midrex Commissions Nu-Iron Plant in Trinidad Midrex Technologies, Inc.
and Nucor Corporation have announced that the newly relocated and expanded
Nu-Iron direct reduction plant in Point Lisas, Trinidad has been
commissioned. Originally owned and operated by American Iron Reduction in
Convent, LA, USA, the Nu-Iron plant started heat-up on December 5, 2006,
and commenced producing cold DRI on December 30. The plant increased
production from 80 metric tons per hour (tph) to 200 tph in six days. The
Performance Guarantee Testing began on January 8, 2007, and was
successfully completed on January 14. |
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Analyst Sees Uptick in Steel Pricing Analyst Mike Willemse at CIBC World Markets believes hotrolled sheet prices have stabilized in the $550-$500/ton range. Since he believes that “steel sector fundamentals are likely to improve throughout the first half of this year,” he projects hot-rolled sheet at a top of $600/ton over the next few months. Although steel prices have stabilized, “average prices are likely to be down in the first quarter relative to the fourth quarter,” he acknowledges. Still, his price forecast is more bullish than the recent Purchasingdata.com outlook of a $495 average in the first quarter versus $597 in the final quarter of 2006. Purchasingdata.com, which suggests a 6% decline for carbon and alloy steel in 2007 prices when compared with 2006 transaction levels, is heavily weighted toward buyers' viewswhich are downright bearish since they are expecting a big influx of low-priced imports. Not so bearish is the CIBC World Markets outlook.“While declining service center inventories throughout the first half should lead to gradual price increases for sheet products,” Willemse writes to clients this week, “we do not believe sheet prices will increase beyond $600/ton.” Reason: Steel producers would likely be concerned over attracting a surge in imports if prices rise too high, “as had occurred in mid-2006 when sheet prices approached $650/ton.” |
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China’s Iron Ore Import Expects to Hit 355mm Tons in 07 In 2006, China's iron ore
import was amounted to 325 million tons in total and the figure is
expected to hit 355 million this year, said China Iron and Steel
Association (CISA). As the largest iron ore consumer in the world, the
nation's demand of iron ore still keeps increasing. As is well known that
the annual iron ore price negotiation with the top three iron ore
suppliers: BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto and Companhia Vale do Rio Doce (CVRD)
has closed. It seems that all sides are satisfied with the 9.5% price
increase final result. Baosteel Group, China's largest steel maker,
represented China's steel industry in negotiations with the miners.
However, the final result shows that China's passive position in the
negotiation as well as the top three iron ore suppliers' monopoly
positions in the world are maintained as usual. |
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Steel Prices Cut Automaker’s Profits in US The chief executive of
Nissan Motor, Carlos Ghosn, said rising steel prices would hurt carmakers'
profits in 2007, adding to pressure on earnings as the company fails to
meet sales targets for the United States and Japan. "Steel makers are
asking for another price increase in 2007," Ghosn said in an interview in
Detroit on Sunday. That will cause "a deterioration of the profitability
of the industry as a whole," he said. |
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