The State-run National Mineral Development Corporation (NMDC) and Russian steel maker Severstal are likely to sign a final agreement to set up a steel plant in Bellary by the end of this year.

“Both companies have appointed legal consultants to study the project structure, and based on inputs, both firms will sign an agreement,” N K Nanda, Chairman and Managing Director, NMDC, told Deccan Herald on Thursday.

Bid to prevent captive mine owners from selling byproducts; make them add value to ore. The Centre has moved to clear any ambiguity that could be misused by captive mine owners to sell iron ore fines in the open market. The move comes after the Jharkhand High Court in February stayed the State from banning exports, but relaxed it later to allow a one-time domestic sale of iron ore fines from the captive mines of Usha Martin and Steel Authority of India (SAIL).

Chennai: State-run iron ore miner NMDC’s decision to increase ore prices by 10% has put the steel industry in a corner, most of whom were expected to announce price increases over the next few days. NMDC has said the prices of iron ore lumps have been increased by 10 % and fines by about 8% ranging from Rs 250 to Rs 400 per tonne. Higher grade ore lumps with 65% iron content are now priced at Rs 5,400 a tonne, while the fines with 64% iron are priced at Rs 2,800. Iron ore is a key raw material for steel production.

Mumbai: South Korean steel major Posco has sounded out unlisted Essar Steel for an alliance to build the planned $12 billion (12 million tonnes) steel plant in Orissa, which has run into repeated hurdles since the world’s fifth largest steel maker signed the construction agreement with the state government in 2005.

“They (Posco) have approached us (Essar Steel) through a third party to revive the Orissa steel plant,” a person with direct knowledge of the development, but doesn’t want to identified, told FE. “We are yet to respond to Posco’s proposal,” the person added.

NEW DELHI: The government has invoked special powers under the Electricity Act and directed the central and state regulators to implement a long-pending reform to allow industrial consumers to buy cheaper power from the open market.

Villagers living in Singrauli district of Madhya Pradesh have written to the ministry of environment and forests (MoEF) contending that handing over a sizeable section of the forests of Mahan will mean a loss to both the individual and community forest rights.

The letter was written on March 15, 2012, and was submitted to the local divisional forest officer. A decision on the allocation of the Mahan coal block to Mahan Coal Ltd, a joint venture company of Essar and Hindalco power plants, is awaiting a green signal from the environment ministry.

New Delhi: The Chhatrasal coal block in Madhya Pradesh is in the eye of a storm again, with the group of ministers (GoM) forcing the ministry of environment and forests (MoEF) to review its decision to deny forest clearance. The allocation of the block had evoked the CAG’s ire, and the top auditor has said it gave an undue Rs 4,875-crore benefit to Reliance Power Limited against its Sasan UMPP.

New Delhi The recent freight rate hike announced by railways and the increase in excise duty from 10% to 12% are likely to make domestic steel costlier by over R1,000 per tonne.

Major steel companies including Jindal Steel and Power (JSPL), Essar and Rashtriya Ispat Nigam (RINL) on Wednesday announced their plans to go for a price hike next month.

Buoyed by its Hazira complex becoming the country's largest single location flat steel maker with 10 million tonne per annum capacity, Essar Steel is set to commission a pellet unit in a week in Odisha to pave the way for setting up of its proposed 6 million tonne integrated steel plant.

"Our proposed 12 million tonne pellet plant is likely to start production in about a week in Odisha's Paradip where we want to replicate ths success story of Hazira complex," Essar Steel India's MD and CEO Dilip Oommen said.

Though the Orissa government is quite prompt in signing a number of memoranda of understanding (MoUs) with different MNCs and corporate houses for execution of different mega projects in the state, somehow due to the cumbersome procedure of the state administration in acquiring the land as well as handling issues arising out of the working in forest and non-forest land have stalled the progress of many big ticket projects like POSCO, Vedanta and Essar.