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| APRIL 2004 | |
| From the CEO's Desk | |
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Cricket is a game of glorious uncertainties. So is steel business !!! Till recently, we all were flying high. Domestic as well as international steel demand was strong. Prices were climbing. China was continuing to import huge quantities. User sectors like automobile, white goods and more importantly infrastructure were showing impressive growth rates. What more does one wish for ? But all this may not last long. Iron ore, which was priced at USD 25 started selling at a price more than USD 50. This was said to be opportunistic price rise by mine owners and international traders. The price of coking coal and thus; met coke also increased sharply. China, which is a major producer of these commodities, levied restrictions on export. All this has put the steel manufacturing sector on defensive. Firstly, there is a slight slump in demand due to sudden increase in prices. The domestic availability of steel also has reduced drastically. Further, acute shortage of coking coal and met coke has forced some of the major Indian steel producers to reduce their production by 15 to 20 % in the present quarter. Such a situation is not a healthy one and will surely restrict user industry from freezing a long term purchase plan. All this is bound to have effect on order as well as accounts book. What’s ahead ? While no one can confidently predict, I feel that the situation has started to normalize. The prices of iron ore, coking coal, met coke have softened to some extent and now look more realistic. If this trend continues, consumption will again pick up and justify the massive expansion plans the steel industry is implimenting. I also have a feeling that steel demand and the price will be well above the bottom line atleast for some months and steel companies will ultimately fair good in the current fiscal. D.A.Chandekar
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| Headlines
SAIL implements projects worth Rs.700 crore Board clears BSP’s Rs.1950 crore expansion SS producers explore markets beyond China Tube dealers commemorate 50th year of presence Rane Group signs steel imports deal with China Rising steel prices hit tractor manufacturers hard DSP reports profit after 22 years JSPL passes bearing order to Timken PSL gets $198M steel pipe order from Sudanese Oil Thermex Rebars in limelight in India NSP targets 200MT output by 2020 Essar Steel to supply steel to KRCL sky bus project Dilip Chenoy – The SIAM's new visionary Director General Brazilian pig iron to see further decline Saldanha Bay’s iron ore exports up Moscow not to introduce price control Tokyo Steel leaves May prices untouched US steel industry feels heat of Chinese lower consumption Global crude steel production rises Anti-dumping duty on wire exports to Canada HR coil imports in Iran enjoys five percent duty cut
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SAIL implements projects worth Rs.700 crore The Steel Authority of India Limited, the public sector undertaking under the Ministry of Steel, is implementing, currently, a number of projects accumulating around Rs.700 crore. The most important among the projects under implementation is, long rails facilities at Bhilai Steel Plant, being set up at a cost of Rs.320 crore. This, after completion, would enable the plant to produce 78 meter long welded rail panels up to a length of 260 meter. Similarly, the work to upgrade ERW pipe plant at Rourkela Steel Plant has also been taken up at a cost of Rs.90 crore. The rebuilding of RSP’s Coke Oven Battery number 1 is another important ongoing project. Statutory measures like pollution control schemes have been given the priority in these projects. During the next five years, the emphasis will be augmenting the concast route, energy efficiency and facilitating production of more value-added items. In addition to these ongoing schemes, the company has taken a decision to rebuild the Coke Oven Battery number 5 of Bhilai Steel Plant. This is expected to enable the flagship unit of SAIL to meet the coke requirement for proposed increase in hot metal production by 10 to 12 percent in the next two years. |
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Board clears BSP’s Rs.1950 crore expansion Bokaro Steel Plant (BSP), a part of the state-owned Steel Authority of India Limited, has chalked out Rs.1950 crore expansion-cum-modernization plan, which will be implemented over the next three to four years, reports said. During 2004-05, BSP will be investing around Rs.440 crore, which has already been sanctioned by SAIL’s board. During 2005-06, BSP has proposed to invest Rs.710 crore and another Rs.850 crore in several new schemes during 2006-07. The SAIL board has already approved the modernization of cold rolling mill for Rs.218 crore, rebuilding of coke oven battery No. 5 for Rs.142 crore and another Rs.33 crore for the cast house slag granulation in the fourth blast furnace. In order to ensure smooth and sustained operation of the five blast furnaces, the company is contemplating setting up CDI system, cast house slag granulation plant and coal tar injection. It is planning to modernize the Steel Melting Shop (SMS) besides introducing continuous casting system in SMS-1. With the implementation of the current modernization scheme, the capacity of the plant will be substantially increased to seven million tonnes by 2011-12 and there will be a qualitative improvement in the product mix and remain the market leader. |
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Salem Steel Plant, an arm of the steel giant The Steel Authority of India, wiped out the entire loss this year (2003-04) and is now heading towards profit making. This is worth mentioning that the company had suffered a loss of Rs.120 crore last year. The plant made a profit of Rs.80 crore through own sales and Rs.40 crore through hire rolling of annealed and pickled material. Total turnover during the period under consideration was Rs.554 crore, recording 30 percent growth. For 2004-05, the company is targetting 70 percent rise in production at 1.4 lakh tonne and 40 percent growth in sales turnover at Rs.768 crore, sources said. The overall improvement in the performance of SSP was owing to cost reduction, efficient working capital management, better utilisation of available capacity. This has helped SSP to show improvement in operating profit compared to operating losses in the previous years. With added thrust on marketing, the company is poised to grow further in the coming financial years. The projected production and sales for 2004-05 include 86,000 tonne of stainless steel and 54,000 tonne of carbon steel. The plant is planning domestic sales of 50,000 tonne of stainless steel worth about Rs.438 crore and export of 36,000 tonne of stainless steel valued at Rs.200 crore in 2004-05. The stainless steel products are 13,000 tonne of hot rolled stainless steel, 69,000 tonne of cold rolled stainless steel and 4,000 tonne of coin blanks. China and South Korea are the major export markets for the Plant. The total saleable stainless steel production by the plant during 2003-04 was 84,674 tonne against 82,882 tonne in the previous year. A total sale of stainless steel in 2003-04 was 82,193 tonne. Exports were at 21,000 tonne fetching Rs.128 crore. The production of saleable cold rolled stainless steel in 2003-04 was 57,842 tonne against 38,442 tonne in the previous year. The hot rolling mill produced 2.12 lakh tonne of hot rolled coils in 2003-04 against 1.50 lakh tonne in 2002-03. In the lower thickness segment, the HR mill of SSP produced 1,25,927 tonne of hot rolled stainless steel in thickness below 3mm and 8,552 tonne of carbon steel in thickness of 2.5 mm and less. The cold rolling mill of SSP produced 79,719 tonne of annealed and pickled material for hire rolling orders during 2003-04. |
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SS producers explore markets beyond China Continued demand of stainless steel in overseas market mainly in China has forced Jindal Stainless Ltd. to rethink its growth level in excess of 8-10 percent. The company, which is expected to end the 2003-04 fiscal with a 14 percent growth in its topline to Rs.2300 crore, perceives a growing market for stainless steel at least for the next 2-3 years, company release said. Chinese demand for stainless steel, has been growing at around 25-30 percent. It's production is not able to keep pace with demand. For a market that requires 4.2 mt of stainless steel, it imports almost three mt. Jindal Stainless’ Chinese exports account for 90 percent of the company’s total exports in a year. At the same time the company has been exploring other exports possibilities also in other markets in the Southeast Asian region. For the fiscal that has just ended, the total exports to China have come down to 82 percent from 90 percent earlier. The company is also looking at Eastern Europe and West Asian countries. However, China will be an important market as new capacities in that country will take at least another 3-5 years. Jindal Stainless has now been focusing on exports. From a level of 10-20 percent, stainless steel exports for the company have risen to 45-48 percent for the year ended March 2004. Yet at the same time, domestic demand is also growing. The proposed Rs.950 crore investment in the greenfield project in Orissa to produce ferro chrome, ferro manganese, silico manganese and coke oven battery would help the company address the growing domestic demand. According to the Additional Secretary to Union Steel Ministry, Dr. Quraishi, India’s stainless steel production will cross the two million tonnes mark in the next four to five years. A number of small and medium-scale units are already adding their capacities by way of greenfield expansion. |
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Tube dealers commemorate 50th year of presence Tata Steel’s Tube SBU (Special Business Unit) organised Tube Dealers’ Meet to commemorate 50th year of tube manufacturing which saw presence of the tube dealers from all over the country. Tubes SBU (Special Business Unit) of Tata Steel is the largest manufacturer of tubes in the country with an annual production capacity of 2 lakh tonnes. The road ahead appears even more challenging and exciting with new initiatives on the anvil. These include modernisation of plants, expansion of capacity, new approaches to channel management and development of new business and product lines. Tata Pipes, which is part of the Tubes SBU, is a market leader with applications of tubes ranging from plumbing, irrigation to cold storages as also in closed structural applications both rectangular and square hollow sections. The company, which launched a new brand campaign to celebrate the 50 years of Indian tube making, seeks to bring higher visibility in the target markets. With ‘Janjhat Free’ or trouble free punch line, the Tata Pipes SBU brand campaign seeks to build a communication strategy. |
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Rane Group signs steel imports deal with China India has been a significant manufacturer and exporter of steel. Especially, since the preparation of 2008 Olympic Games in China started, the country has managed to export steel to China substantially. But, at the same time there is a company which depends solely on imported steel from China. Yes! Rane group has recently contracted for ‘a substantial quantity of steel from China. The group is on the look out for some options of importing the commodity from some CIS countries as well. This will help the group companies to bring down the cost of steel, reports said. The group mainly produces steering columns and components and engine parts — all of which are steel-intensive. The rising prices of steel were a cause for concern, but the group is confident that auto component producers would get price increases from the vehicle manufacturers. The group’s sales would have increased by about 25 percent last year (accounts are being finalised). The group expects total net sales to be in the region of Rs.800 crore. Of this, about Rs.80 crore would be from exports. The group expects export to contribute 25 percent of the turnover in about 3-4 years. |
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Rising steel prices hit tractor manufacturers hard Farmers sensed heat of rising steel prices through tractor manufacturers. Rising pig iron and alloy steel price is expected to have a cascading affect on farmers. Tractor Manufacturers Association (TMA) said that it could no longer absorb the increased costs and would be forced to pass on the burden to its customers. While there has been an overall increase in prices of steel and iron-ore, pig iron prices have risen much more steeply than HR steel and is a cause of major concern to TMA and the Foundry Industry as well. The prices have risen by about 60 percent in 2003 and by a further 74 percent in the first 3 months of 2004. Pig iron and alloy steel are major inputs in the manufacture of tractors constituting around 67 percent of total material cost. The impact on account of pig iron and alloy steels is estimated to be about 75 percent of the total impact on account of iron and steel prices in 2004. |
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DSP reports profit after 22 years Durgapur Steel Plant (DSP) has succeeded in turning out its future and entering into profit zone after a deadlock of 22-year with an estimated profit of over Rs.100 crore for 2003-04, company sources said. This was possible because of the ongoing bull run in the global steel sector, DSP management officials hold a different view. For them, high steel prices were just a catalyst in changing DSP’s fortunes. ‘Better communication among the workers and all grades of employees did the trick. Now everyone here is feeling proud of being a member of the DSP family’, company sources said. DSP last registered a net profit of Rs.4.52 crore in 1981-82. During the period under consideration, turnover is expected to touch Rs.3000 crore, from Rs.2400 crore in the corresponding period of the previous year. In 2003-04, DSP’s crude steel production went up to 1.76 million tonnes from 1.71 million tonnes. Similarly, hot metal production increased to 1.98 million tonnes from 1.94 million tonnes. Production of continuous casting plant operated at 30 percent above the rated capacity to produce one million tonnes. The total saleable steel production was 1.61 million tonnes. Exports went up from 1.19 lakh tonnes to 2.75 lakh tonnes. The plant exported its goods mainly to Nepal, Myanmar, the Philippines and East Asian countries. |
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JSPL passes bearing order to Timken Jindal Steel & Power Ltd., one of the world’s largest coal-based sponge iron plants, will import bearing from Timken Co., Canton, Ohio. The order in this regard has already been passed, which, the company said, is worth more than $700,000. The order calls for Timken to provide Jindal Steel’s Raigarh plant with two types of cylindrical roller bearings. Jindal Steel placed the order to meet the growing demand for iron and steel in India. The bearings will be used on six new sponge iron kilns planned for the facility. The plant currently is in the process of setting up four of the new kilns, and recently launched a universal beam rolling mill designed to produce 120-meter (394-foot) rails—the longest manufactured in India. In addition to supplying the new bearings, Timken is providing repairs and worker training for Jindal Steel, drawing upon the expertise of its global engineering and research facility in Bangalore. |
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JV overseas Vizag Steel Plant is exploring the possibility of setting up a joint venture overseas with a view to owning some coalmines abroad. Talks in this regard have already been initiated with 2-3 companies in Australia, according to B.K. Panda, Chairman and Managing Director. Speaking to newspersons, Panda said that the move to own iron ore and coal mines in India and coalmines abroad was aimed at combating the problem of serious shortage of raw material faced by the steel plant. The company’s board of directors has already cleared a proposal for a joint venture abroad to own coalmines. The green signal from the Centre is awaited. Vizag Steel Plant is faced with an acute shortage of coal and coke. While an order for import of coke has been firmed up, a request has been made to the Union Ministry of Steel for acquisition of iron ore and coal mines. On account of a shortage of raw material inputs, production has been curtailed in major production units. Efforts are being made to source raw material from both indigenous and imported sources. However, such a move would impact the profitability as input costs are expected to go up by about Rs.1,200 crore in the current fiscal. The board has also cleared a proposal to expand the steel plant’s capacity to five million tonnes of liquid steel per annum by 2007-08. The proposed expansion would entail an expenditure of around Rs.3,100 crore. |
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The total production of finished steel in the year 2003-04 has been provisionally estimated at 36.15 million tonnes as against 33.67 million tonnes during the previous financial year, showing an increase of 7.4 per cent. The total production of pig iron during the financial year has been estimated at 5.22 million tonnes as against 5.28 million tonnes during the year 2002-03 showing a marginal fall of 1.2 per cent. Apparent consumption of finished steel during the year was 30.4 million tonnes, higher by 5.2 per cent over 28.89 million tonnes during 2002-03. Consumption of finished steel during the year improved by 1.2 percent to 4.76 million tonnes from 4.64 million tonnes in the previous year. |
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PSL gets $198M steel pipe order from Sudanese Oil PSL Ltd., India’s largest steel pipeline maker, has received an export contract worth $198 million from Sudanese Oil & Gas Co, company sources said. PSL in a statement to the Bombay Stock Exchange said the contract is for the supply of steel pipes to Sudan. Further details are awaited. |
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Thermex Rebars in limelight in India The adherence of German quality and norms has helped the SPS Group of Kolkata to bag an export order from Singapore for 4,300 tonnes of grade 500 Thermex rebars. The first lot of 2,300 tonnes has just been shipped. The period from Oct '03 to Apr '04 witnessed a large number of the Licensed Thermex Systems commissioned at various rolling mills in the country which brought ultimately the production capacity of the company at 2 million tonnes. Thermex systems in the Indian Region comprising India, Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka are supplied by H&K Rolling Mills Engineers Pvt. Ltd., Mumbai under exclusive collaboration with Hennigsdorfer Stahl Engineering GmbH. During the entire last year and the current year so far, the Thermax rebars have been in limelight which forced the company to commission more units throughout the country. The most recent commissioning, with another six in pipeline, was in April 2004 at the new rolling mill of Rajuri Steels at Jalna in Maharashtra. |
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NSP targets 200MT output by 2020 n persuasion with details asked for the future plans of the primary steel producers in the country the National Steel Policy (NSP) is all set to streamline the domestic industry in order to gear up for the next set of global competition. The National Steel Policy is being prepared by the steel ministry, is believed to have set a domestic production target of 60 mt by 2010 and 200 mt by 2020, up from the present 32 mt. Sources involved in drafting policy said that the policy was being formulated keeping in view the growth of the economy and increased demand from various infrastructure activities such as road construction. The steel manufacturers’ body, the Indian Steel Alliance (ISA) consisting of Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL), Tata Iron and Steel Company (Tisco), Essar Steel, Ispat Industries and Jindal Vijaynagar Steel Ltd (JVSL), has provided its inputs to the government. According to ISA President Moosa Raza, the industry body has proposed the expansion of existing capacities as well as the setting up of new plants. However, it has pointed out that improved infrastructure like power, roads, railways and water and availability of raw materials like coal and limestone was required to substantially increase steel production in the country. |
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Essar Steel to supply steel to KRCL sky bus project ssar Steel Ltd. ( ESL) has signed an MOU with Konkan Railway Corporation (KRCL) for supply of steel plates for their prestigious sky bus projects to be executed both in India and abroad. KRCL has received an LOI for building a 17 km sky bus project in Goa and many such similar projects are in advanced stages of finalisation. Initially, KRCL will lay a test track of 1.6 km at Madgaon which will be ready shortly. As per the terms of the agreement, ESL shall be a preferred steel supplier and Konkan Railway would source at least 50% of their requirement of steel plates for all sky bus projects. |
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Dilip Chenoy – The SIAM's new visionary Director General Dilip Chenoy has been appointed as the Director General of Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers, President, Jagdish Khattar, announced in an executive committee meeting recently. Dilip succeeds Rajat Nandi who retired from the post after attaining the age of 60. The decision continues the tradition of cooperation between CII and SIAM and was arrived after discussion between the office bearers of these two bodies. Mr. Chenoy joined CII in 1985 and was a member of the CII Senior Management Team. He graduated in Chemistry from Delhi University and strived for the Industry before joining CII. He had been heading the Associations Council (ASCON) work in CII. ASCON, consists of 129 Industry specific Associations affiliated to CII and 23 Industry Divisions and 14 National Sectoral Committees representing major segments of the Indian economy. His work included consensus building across industry sectors and promoting the growth and development of these sectors. He was also the spokesperson for CII. Mr. Chenoy, therefore, brings rich and varied experience to SIAM. |
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Brazilian pig iron to see further decline Brazilian pig iron prices are all set to fall a further $40 a tonne fob in forthcoming negotiations for the material to be shipped from September onwards thanks to dwindling world scrap prices, industry sources said. There will be hardly enough new orders for September - October shipments. “Negotiations on Brazil’s next round of sales to the USA were supposed to start by the end of April, early May and the general feeling is that prices will decline. A few orders have already been closed at $280 a tonne fob Brazil, around $20 lower than their recent peak, and there is talk of a further fall to $240 a tonne. Around two months ago Brazilian pig iron spot market export prices hit peak levels of more than $300 a tonne fob for material from Carajás, with prices of over $280 being reported for material from the southeast. |
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Saldanha Bay’s iron ore exports up Saldanha Bay terminal in the Western Cape of South Africa hit a record 25.9 million tonnenes of iron ore exports in the year ending March 31 as against 25.3 million tonnenes in the corresponding period last year, terminal sources said. This shows a gain of 2.4 percent from the previous year’s same period. Increased iron ore volumes for export as well as higher ore transfers and pellet volumes means that the terminal handled a total of 28.5 million tonnenes of ore for the 2004, beating the previous year’s total figure of 27.07 million tonnenes. Competitors Kumba Resources and Assmang export iron ore from their Northern Cape operations around Sishen by rail to Saldanha. Anglo American-owned Kumba exported a total of 20.94 million tonnenes of iron ore in 2003 through Saldanha terminal out of total ore production of 28.55 million tonnenes, sources from Kumba said. Assmang exports roughly five million tonnenes through Saldanha. World number four iron producer Kumba and Transnet are in talks to agree additional rail line and iron ore export capacity through Saldanha, aimed at meeting a planned 8.5 million tonnenes increase in iron ore production within five years. |
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Moscow not to introduce price control The Russian government has decided not to introduce any price controls or export restrictions to the domestic steel industry following the request of steel consumers in the oil and gas and automotive industries. After considering the price situation in the sector, the government reached the conclusion that recent price hikes announced by major mills were legitimate. Domestic prices for steel products have increased by 80 percent since 2000, but price rises for energy and raw material have been even more substantial at between 95 and 135 percent. The consumer’s demands for limiting steel prices or introducing export duties on steel products have been shrugged off. Steel consumers were disappointed with the government’s decision. |
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Tokyo Steel leaves May prices untouched Tokyo Steel Manufacturing has decided to keep almost all its sales and list prices for May contracts unchanged thanks to uncertainty in steel markets around the world plus marked contrast to the aggression shown in previous months. Announcing its new price list, Japan’s maverick mini-mill only tweaked the ‘size extra’ component in its hot coil price, adding ¥1,000 ($9.24) to its 1.5-1.7 mm gauge product to take this to ¥66,000 a tonne on truck, net. The price of standard gauge HR remains at ¥64,000 a tonne. |
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US steel industry feels heat of Chinese lower consumption hinese slow in steel consumption has a cascading impact on the US steel industry. The latter has started feeling the heat of slowdown on Chinese steel movement. The consequence: the curb on US steel prices. US steel imports during the Q1 rose 4.1 percent from the same period in 2003, according to preliminary data from the Commerce Department. U.S. steel imports in March totaled 2.4 million net tons, which is up 22.4 percent from February and up even higher among certain products such as wire rods, hot-dipped galvanized sheet and certain steel bars, all of which were up more than 70 percent from February. These figures annualized for the year could reach nearly 27 million tons, up 16 percent from last year and moving toward pretariff levels in 2001, when imports totaled 30 million tons. Until now, China’s voracious appetite for steel was consuming much of the supply from the global spot market. But the Chinese government has tried to curb investment in the steel industry and experts say buying in China has slowed down a bit, if only temporarily. Some analysts also believe an expected rise in US interest rates and a strengthened dollar could lead to a further increase in foreign imports and would result in lower steel prices by year’s end. Since January, prices of key products such as hot-rolled coil have jumped 50 percent to more than $600 a ton and have boosted the bottom lines of domestic steel makers. Major domestic steel companies have been reporting strong first-quarter results and are predicting their pricing power will continue into the second quarter and perhaps through the rest of the year. But some analysts disagree and say high U.S. prices have drawn steel products from other countries. |
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AK Steel Corp managed to report profit in the first quarter of the current mainly on the back of sale of subsidiary. This is worth mentioning that the company had shown hefty loss in the comparable period the last year. The company earned $165.4 million for the quarter ended March 31, compared with a loss of $40.8 million. The sale of Douglas Dynamics LLC last month resulted in an after-tax gain of $174.9 million. Sales were $1.1 billion on steel shipments of 1.51 million tonnenes. A year ago, the steelmaker had sales of $985.3 million for shipments of 1.37 mt. Even without the benefit of the Douglas Dynamics sale, there were signs of improvement at AK Steel, which has reported losses in eight of its last nine quarters, including a $560 million loss for all of 2003. The company, which has begun increasing prices as demand for steel has increased, reported a loss from continuing operations of $16.4 million in the current quarter compared with losses of $42.4 million a year ago. |
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Global crude steel production rise World crude steel production for the 62 countries reporting to the International Iron and Steel Institute stood at an estimated 85.9mmt in March, putting global production at 5.9 percent higher compared to March 2003 and 8.7 percent higher year-to-date (YTD). China performed strongly again in March, with production of 21.8 mmt of crude steel. This is 23.1 percent higher compared to March 2003 and 26.4 percent higher YTD. Total production in Asia reached 39.4 mmt in March, up by 11.3 percent on the same month in 2003. Crude steel production in Brazil has reached eight million metric tonnenes for the first three months of 2004. This is an increase of 6 percent YTD. Brazil produced a total of 2,7 mmt of crude steel in March. Russian crude steel production rose by 5.2 percent, to 5.4 mmt, in March. YTD production stands at 15.6 mmt, up 6.2 percent on 2003. Total production in the CIS region is up by 10.1 percent YTD and 9 percent compared to March 2003. Crude steel production in India showed a slight drop of 0.6 percent in March. However, Indian crude steel production for 2004 is now 8,2 mmt, a 6.2 percent rise YTD. |
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Anti-dumping duty on wire exports to Canad The Canada Border Services Agency has imposed provisional anti-dumping and countervailing duties of up to 108 percent on imports of certain stainless steel wire products from the US, India, South Korea and Switzerland. The preliminary results of an agency investigation found that imports of stainless wire were dumped into Canada at margins that averaged 108 percent for South Korea and Switzerland and 100 percent for the United States. The investigation also showed that imports from India were subsidized by amounts that averaged 6.2 percent. The agency ruled that the volume of dumped imports from Taiwan was negligible and that imports from India weren’t dumped. The agency terminated its investigation into dumping from these countries. The preliminary decision follows an investigation that started last November based on a complaint by Central Wire Industries Ltd. of Perth, Ontario, the largest Canadian producer of stainless steel wire. The company alleged that low-priced imports suppressed domestic prices and harmed Canadian production by decreasing sales and market share. |
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HR coil imports in Iran enjoys five percent duty cut Looking at high rise in consumption and failure of domestic producers to supply the required quantity of HR coils, the government has eased the problems faced by them with regard to high import duty. Iran has cut import duty on hot rolled coil to 10 percent with a retrospective effect of March 21 from the previous 15 percent. “Because of great hot rolled coil demand in the market, local mills can’t supply 100 percent, and Iran must import,” said an importer of Russian material. The cut was agreed as part of the annual budget recently set by Iran’s new government, said traders shipping to Iran. For most other steel products, the import duty was kept at last year’s levels. The exception is on angles up to 80mm, where last year’s import duty has been raised from 10 percent to 15 percent. This is aimed at protecting Iran’s producers of small angles including Esfahan Steel Co and Insig, which belong to government holding National Iranian Steel Co, plus one or two smaller private producers. In the private sector, the largest mill is Avangan Co, rolling roughly 40,000 tpy. For slab, billet and other semi-finished products, Iran’s import duty remains at 4 percent. For other finished products the duty is 10 percent, with the exception of rebar, which remains at 20 percent. |
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This is a compilation of news from
various dailies, magazines, trade publications and Press Releases. |
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