Odisha iron ore fines (Fe 62%) weekly index from SteelMint increased by 100/t w-o-w to INR 5,100/t ex-mines on October 21, 2023, compared to the previous assessment on October 14. In this publishing window, there was no deal reported from merchant miners for the high grade.

According to sources, the iron ore demand remained low due to the festival season, but prices started to rise after the OMC auction that was held earlier this week. The majority of buyers only placed material bookings at the OMC auction. The market will be more clear in the following week following the festival because the merchant miners have not yet opened the offers for iron ore.
On October 18, the Odisha Mining Corporation (OMC) held an auction for 3.046 mnt of iron ore, consisting of 2.159 mnt of fines and 0.887 mnt of lumps. The auction saw active participation from the steelmakers, and the total amount of fines was booked at INR 4,150-5,250/t ex-mines. Except for a few minor lots that fetched bids higher by INR 800-1,000/t, bids for fines increased by up to INR 600/t. In contrast, 839,000 t, or 95% of the total material, was purchased at INR 4,300-7,800/t in the lumps auction. There was an increase in lump bids of up to INR 500-1,050/t. The miner reduced the earlier base prices for fines and lumps by up to INR 100/t and INR 1,700/t, respectively.

However, according to some market sources, miners are under pressure to lower their iron ore offers because the cost of raw pellets, sponge iron, and finished steel has fallen due to weak demand and sales at lower prices in India's central and eastern regions. Most of the miners were not given access to superior raw materials.

With a higher rate of loss of 1.31 percentage points from the previous week, the blast furnace (BF) capacity utilization rate among the 247 Chinese steelmakers included in Mysteel's regular survey decreased for the third straight week to reach 90.62% from October 13–19.

Accordingly, the survey results showed that the daily average output of hot metal among these mills also decreased 1.4% week over week to 2.42 million tonnes/day.

According to Mysteel's analysis, 10 blast furnaces in the nation were shut down for maintenance during the most recent survey period, and their combined capacity was greater than that of the 11 furnaces that were restarted this week.

As a result, domestic hot metal output decreased overall, despite the studied 247 mills' operational rate.

Sajjan Jindal-led JSW Steel Limited reported an INR 2,773 crore net profit for the September quarter against a net loss in the same quarter last fiscal. In an exchange filing, the Mumbai-based steel manufacturer reported a 6.71% YoY increase in its consolidated revenue from operations to INR 44,584 crore.

’s ministry of steel is exploring options to mitigate the impact of the Carbon Border Adjust Mechanism (CBAM) levy proposed by the European Union (EU) on steel exports from the country, secretary to the ministry of steel, N N Sinha, said in a statement on Thursday, October 5.

import traffic through all major ports in the country in the April-September period of the fiscal year 2023-24 has been provisionally estimated at 30.04 million mt, up 6.14 percent over the corresponding period of the previous fiscal year, according to data sourced from the Indian Ports Association (IPA) on Friday, October 6.

BHUBANESWAR: The State government on Monday informed the Assembly that 12 new steel plants are coming up in the State. Replying to a question of Druba Charan Sahu of BJD, Steel and Mines Minister Prafulla Mallick said there are 51 steel plants in the State with annual production capacity of 33.12 million tonne and another 12 plants with a production capacity of 60.4 million tonne per annum (MTPA) are in the pipeline. Of the 12 projects, JSW Utkal Steel Limited has proposed to set up a mega steel project of 12 MTPA capacity plant at Gadakunjanga near Paradip port.

The Jindal Steel Odisha Ltd has received the State government approval last year for establishing a 19.2 MTPA steel project at Banarpal in Angul district while Arcelor Mittal Nippon Steel India Ltd has proposed to set up 24 MTPA project at Mahakalpada in Kendrapara. The Beekay Utkal Steel Industries Ltd is coming up with a 2.245 MTPA plant at Kalinganagar in Jajpur. Of the remaining six projects, three are coming up in Sundargarh district while one each Dhenkanal, Jajapur and Jharsugida districts. Besides, the State government has given necessary approval for capacity expansion of 12 steel projects

Ship-breaking melting scrap prices in Alang, Gujarat, came down further by INR 500/t d-o-d on 25 Apr'23. HMS (80:20) prices opened at INR 38,700/t exy. A drop in semi-finished steel prices in all the key markets in the yesterday's session and limited trade activities in the scrap market dragged down prices.

JSW Steel's US unit raised $182 million long-term debt from Italy's Intesa Sanpaolo and Banco BPM to upgrade its plate mill in Baytown, Texas.
About $100 million of the equipment like cutting line, rolling mill, grinding machine and water treatment system for upgrading the facility will be supplied by three Italian firms.
JSW Steel said in a statement Thursday that out of the total financing, $70 million is covered under SACE guarantee provided by the Italian government with the intention of promoting Italian exports. The rest of the capital is a term loan.JSW Steel has significant operations in the USA and Italy.
The investment announcement comes at a time when the World Steel Association predicted steel demand in the US won't contract during the year contrary to other major consumers.
Last quarter, JSW Steel's plate and pipe mill in the US reported earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) of $25 million, up 88% year-on-year, but down sequentially. However, the company's Ohio unit reported a $40-million EBITDA loss after sales halved.
 

Rishi Sunak was recently announced as the new Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. As the new UK PM begins his day, Larry the cat has stolen his thunder once again. For the unversed, Larry the cat is a tabby who lives in Downing Street. The cat has maintained his position as mouser-in-chief for almost 11 years. The cat kept his composure, and proceeded on with his morning stroll as Rishi Sunak made his way through a road. In a video shared on Twitter, Larry the cat can be seen strolling down the sidewalk as Sunak enters the house for the first time as prime minister. Sunak, however, didn't acknowledge the cat and continued walking without turning to look at him. The video was shared by Twitter user @GeorgieProRadio. In the caption, they wrote, "How did Larry know Rishi Sunak was coming?! @Number10cat."

#Infantry Day 

Infantry Day is celebrated to commemorate the arrival of Indian Army at Budgam airfield on October 27, 1947, to protect Jammu and Kashmir from Pakistani forces. It was the first military operation of Independent India.

The country recorded 1,594 recoveries today, taking the total number of recoveries to 4,24,89,004. 

New Delhi: India recorded 1,225 new Covid-19 cases, 28 deaths in the last 24 hours, pushing the total death toll to 5,21,129, according to the data released by the Ministry of Health on Thursday (March 31, 2022). The active cases stand at 14,307.

A decrease of 397 cases has been recorded in the active Covid-19 caseload in a span of 24 hours. The country also recorded 1,594 recoveries today, taking the total number of recoveries to 4,24,89,004. 

The active cases account for 0.03 per cent of the total caseload, while the national Covid-19 recovery rate has further improved to 98.76 per cent, the ministry said.

Additionally, the cumulative doses administered in the country so far under the nationwide Covid-19 vaccination drive have exceeded ????184.06 crore. As many as 6,07,987 tests were conducted in the last 24 hours to detect the presence of the virus.

Meanwhile, the global coronavirus caseload has topped 486.8 million, while the deaths have surged to more than 6.13 million and vaccinations to over 10.94 billion, according to the Johns Hopkins University.

The US continues to be the worst-hit country with the world`s highest number of cases and deaths at 80,057,126 and 979,870, according to the CSSE. India accounts for the second highest caseload at 43,023,215.

Nifty Metal index has been trading in a falling channel since the past two years and is currently at the lower end of the same. 

Where are we: The Nifty spot collapsed more than 20% during the week to retest 8,500-mark. Eventually, it closed near 10,000-mark with a weekly change of -9.5% following the sharp recovery on Friday. On the other hand, the Bank Nifty has lost around 23% to retest 21,000 and closed above 25,000 levels. 

What is in store: On Friday, the index almost tested 8,500 mark and bounced back sharply. In addition, 8,500 is the 161.8% Fibonacci retracement level (Golden Ratio) of the move from the low of 10,004 (October 2018) to the peak of 12,430 (January 2020). There is a long term-rising trend line placed near that support zone. We are of the opinion that for the coming weeks 8,500 could be a strong base for the markets. Now since the pullback was sharper, some more hiccups can be witnessed in the coming sessions. In such a scenario, 9,400–8,800 could be intermediate support and thus it can be a fresh buying area for conservative traders. On the upside, 10,300-mark, which is a gap area, would be the real test for the bulls.

What traders can do: Nifty Metal index is looking most lucrative. It has been trading in a falling channel since the past two years and is currently at the lower end of the same. Also, there is a positive divergence in weekly RSI which indicates that metal stocks could bounce sharply. Although we witnessed a recovery in stocks like Tata SteelNSE -4.81 %, SAIL, HindalcoNSE -1.96 %, JSW Steel etc. during the previous session, they can be again bought on dips for the coming week. Apart from metals, we like stocks such as ITC, RelianceNSE -3.82 % and Tata Motors which too can be traded with a positive bias on some dip.

Besides the job cuts, which would be less than half of what the company had announced last year, Tata Steel said it will not replace employees who have retired or left the company. 

Tata Steel Europe is planning to cut 1,250 jobs as it faces "challenging circumstances" and "needs to urgently improve profitability", said its Chief Executive Officer Henrik Adam in an internal memo seen by Reuters on Tuesday. 

"Our financial situation is serious and there's an urgent priority to improve the performance of the business and our cash position," Adams said in the memo. 

Besides the job cuts, which would be less than half of what the company had announced last year, Tata Steel said it will not replace employees who have retired or left the company. 

It had decided to cut 3,000 jobs across its European business in November. 

The company has outlined details of a transformation programme and continues to be in talks with its European works council to minimise job losses, according to the memo. 

"Although it's good news that we are able to minimise the impact on our current employees, we need to progress with speed to secure the future for the business," Adam said. 

Read more at:

https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/jobs/tata-steel-europe-to-cut-1250-jobs-in-turnaround-push/articleshow/74568410.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst

Consumption is almost equally distributed among both retail and MSMEs. “Our branded steel business is growing at 10 per cent even though the sector is expanding by only 5 per cent,” Tata Steel chief marketing and sales (branded products) Sanjay S Sahni said.

Tata Steel expects its branded steel sales to retail and MSME sector to grow by 10 per cent in the current fiscal, amid slowdown in the economy, officials said on Friday. 

The company's branded products, about 4.4 million tonne, are sold through distributors and dealers network. 

Consumption is almost equally distributed among both retail and MSMEs. “Our branded steel business is growing at 10 per cent even though the sector is expanding by only 5 per cent,” Tata Steel chief marketing and sales (branded products) Sanjay S Sahni said. 
 

“We will finish the year with a 10 per cent growth in FY'20 and we expect similar growth in the next year also,” he said. He was speaking on the sidelines of Manufacturing & MSME Conclave, organised by The Bengal Chamber of Commerce.

Approximately 8,000 Tata Steel MSME customers consume 2.4 million tonne of steel per year. 

Sahni said the total distributed (branded) steel business is worth Rs 20,000 crore and the company is continuously deepening product portfolio to suit customer demand. “We will be adding three more products in the coated segment as the demand is rising,” he said. Sahni said the coronavirus scare should end by March.

This would be the second steel plant that has been proposed in Kadapa district in the Rayalaseema region of the state. As the Centre allegedly did not come forward to set up the steel plant in Kadapa as per the AP Reorganisation Act, 2014, the state government decided to establish one on its own and the Chief Minister laid the foundation stone for it on December 23 last. 
Swiss major IMR Metallurgical Resources-AG has proposed to set up a steel plant in Kadapa district of Andhra Pradesh at an investment of over Rs 12,000 crore and an annual production capacity of 10 million tonnes. 

IMR chief and other officials came up with the proposal during a meeting with the Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy here on Thursday, a press release said. 

This would be the second steel plant that has been proposed in Kadapa district in the Rayalaseema region of the state. 

As the Centre allegedly did not come forward to set up the steel plant in Kadapa as per the AP Reorganisation Act, 2014, the state government decided to establish one on its own and the Chief Minister laid the foundation stone for it on December 23 last. 

The state government also entered into an agreement with National Mineral Development Corporation for supply of iron ore for the proposed steel plant, with a capacity of three million tonnes. 

Now, the Swiss firm has come up with a new proposal for setting up the steel plant that could be the second in the district, official sources said. 

The Chief Minister told the visiting industrialists that the steel plants could spur industrial growth in Kadapa district and increase employment opportunities. 
 

The state government was ready to provide all the basic infrastructure for the plant, he said, adding that connectivity to Krishnapatnam port, railway and highways was readily available. 

IMR officials said their activities in iron ore, coal and gold mining extended to Indonesia, South Africa, Mexico, Columbia, Italy, Ukraine, besides India. 

The company was into power and steel production as well. 

Chief Secretary Nilam Sawhney, Industries Special Chief Secretary Rajat Bhargawa, IMR-AG chairman Hans Radolf Weld, director Anirudh Misra, project president Arindam De and other officials attended the meeting.