Stock Watch

One of India's and world's largest steel producer, Tata Steel has said that it is in talks with various banks for raising $5.4 billion as loans for its UK units.

There are four main banks that have been approached by the company, said sources close to the development. These four banks are BNP Paribas SA, Credit Agricole CIB, HSBC Holdings and Royal Bank of Scotland Group.

Besides this, there are 11 other banks and it is expected that the loan is to be paid back in five years time.

The environment ministry has appointed a panel to look into the matter of 12-MTPA steel plant project. The Rs 51,000-crore project was proposed by the South Korea steel major Posco in Orissa’s Jagatsinghpur district.

The panel will be meeting with Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh on August 18 and it would have to submit its report to Ramesh by September.

Ramesh said in a statement, “I want to make it amply clear that the provisions of Forest Conservation Act and Forest Rights Act have to be strictly adhered to”.

On Friday the Posco-India expressed that it is now feeling at ease related to its projected Rs 51,000 crore steel projects in Orissa, which is a day subsequent to its reimbursements package which was accepted by the committee set up by the state government in order to iron out land attainment subject matter linked to the project.

Posco-India director Gee-Woong Sung on the sidelines of a MoU-signing ceremony expressed his sigh of relief and said that now they are comfortable.

The second largest steel producer in the private sector TATA steel continues to fight the state – owned NMDC over the control of the iron ore mines in Chattisgarh. The dispute is expected to be settled soon, however. The NMDC gad dragged the steel magnate, TATA steel to court for intruding into the Bailadila iron ore mines in Chattisgarh.

The TATA steel group contested the accusations, claiming that they also had the legal right to mine from the Bailadila iron ore mines. The MoU has decided to join hands with TATA steel in order to give the steel magnate a bigger playing field.

JSW Steel had reported that it plans to enhance its capacity from the present 7.8MT to 32MT by 2020, and for that an investment 0f Rs750billion is being planned. They want to expand their brownfield and Greenfield capacity to
32MT.

The Ruias-owned Essar Steel has announced that it has acquired the UK-based Servosteel. Servosteel is the largest independent steel processor in UK. The firm has per annum processing capacity of 500,000 tonne.

However, the financial aspects of the deal have not yet been disclosed. According to the Essar Steel officials, this move has been a part of the distribution strategy of the company and the company has denied disclosing the buyout amount.

UK-based Servosteel (Oakside Solutions) has been acquired by Essar Steel International BV, a subsidiary of Essar Steel Holdings. Servosteel is the largest independent steel processor for an undisclosed amount.

Servosteel can process steel which amounts to 500,000 tonnes a year. It is capable of processing the entire flat product range including hot-rolled coils, cold-rolled coils, hot-rolled pickled, galvanized and co lour-coated products.

One of the sectors where the stocks ran zigzagged and not straight this year is the iron ore industry. Initially it boomed but it has begun to slack. Compared with the prices that were there early this year of the stocks of companies like NMDC and Sesa Goa it has now come down

The opening price of NMDC was Rs. 426.60 early this year and it reached a high of Rs. 556.05 on Thursday but the closing price was Rs. 254.05 a fall of 39%.

In case Sesa Goa, the stocks opened at Rs. 413.80 and rose as high as Rs. 490.75 but now the price has come down to Rs. 378.95 which is a fall by 9%.

The reports about ArcelorMittal eyeing stakes in Ramsarup Industries augmented the former's shares in the market. These reports have claimed some discussions going on between the two Companies. Up from Rs. 7.05 or
9.06% on the BSE, the scrip read the figures at Rs. 80.50, today at 12:05 pm.

The Indian manufacturer of steel wire, Ramsarup Industries Ltd., has two iron ore leases in Orissa. One of them was acquired in the year 2008, loaded with iron ore, limestone and dolomite mines and is called the Balasore Minerals.

Under the supervision of new Chairman, SAIL is all set for an expansion in order to produce more specialty steel for nuclear power plants, defense and the space industries.

Chairman CS Verma, 51, said that the Rs. 40,550-crore Maharatna public sector unit is also planning some global purchases of raw material resources.

He was addressing the reporters on Friday after he became SAIL Chief.
He added that the first and the foremost thing is that SAIL should be capable of making all types of steel and that the power sector, defense and space sector requires it the most.