December 10, 2009: Indian state-run Hindustan Copper Ltd plans to outsource processing of 55,000 tons of copper concentrates into copper cathodes, to help it retain its position in the refined metal market even as its largest smelter remains shut, its chairman said.

December 9, 2009: A new reserve of about 300,000 tons of bauxite ore has been found in Chhattisgarh's Maoist stronghold of Bastar, mining officials said Wednesday.

December 3, 2009: Jayprakash Associates Limited (JAL) has chalked out plans to set up three cement plants in Gujarat with an overall capacity to produce about 12.2 million tons per annum (mtpa). For this, the company is likely to invest close to over Rs 6,500 crore over the next few years.

December 2, 2009: The government could mop up close to Rs 3,000 crore from the sale of its residual stake in Bharat Aluminium Company (Balco) to Sterlite, if it is able to sell its holding at the price suggested by an independent valution of the company's shares.

December 2, 2009: Leading cement manufacturers have reported growth in dispatches during November, compared with the same month last year.

December 1, 2009: State-run aluminium producer Nalco will spend about Rs 22,000 crore in setting up two mega projects, one each in Andhra Pradesh and Orissa, the Lok Sabha was informed today.

November 27, 2009: Aluminum consumption in Asia may continue to grow next year

November 27, 2009: BHUBANESWAR: Vedanta Aluminium Limited (VAL) is expecting early nod from the Union government to mine bauxite for its Lanjigarh refinery in Orissa's
Kalahandi district.

November 26, 2009: Navratna aluminium giant National Aluminium Company (Nalco) has decided to give cash incentive for disposal of fly ash, about 7,000 million tonnes (MT) of which is generated at its 1,200 Mw thermal captive power plant here everyday.

November 25, 2009: National Aluminium Co (NALCO) the largest state owned aluminium producer and Hindustan Copper the country's only copper mining company are jointly scouting for acquisition of copper reserves in Namibia.

November 24, 2009: The Tamil Nadu Chamber of Commerce and Industry (TNCCI) has urged the Union Finance Minister, Pranab Mukherjee and the Railway Minister, Mamata Banerjee, to allot funds required for the early completion of all ongoing Railway projects in the State.

November 20, 2009: Leading Indian integrated zinc and lead producer the Hindustan Zinc Limited (HZL) has revised its zinc prices upwards

October 25, 2009: Cement production of India, the world's second largest producer, is estimated to rise by over 10 percent to 200 million tons (mt) in 2009-10, according to industry's projection.

October 17, 2009: UltraTech Cement, the country's largest cement maker capacity-wise, has posted a 53 percent rise in its profit after tax

October 4, 2009: The $28-billion Aditya Birla Group said that it was spinning off the cement business of Grasim Industries into a wholly-owned subsidiary Samruddhi that will eventually be merged with the group's Ultratech Cement to maximise shareholder value and consolidate its cement business.
 

September 26, 2009: Getting back its momentum, India's cement production rose by 17.6 percent in August over the same month last year due to robust demand from the construction sector.

September 26, 2009: Scrap importers were in for a shock when as many as 600 heavy metal scrap (HMS) containers were found empty at Indian ports Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT) and Chennai. Although, the Indian importers are yet to be identified, they are believed to have incurred losses to the tune of millions of dollars following the fraud.

September 16, 2009: Copper climbed in London, ending a four-day losing streak, before a report expected to show stronger retail sales in the US, adding to indications of an economic rebound.

September 13, 2009: The government is mulling a joint venture between National Aluminium Co and Hindustan Copper Ltd as one of the options to revamp the state-owned copper producer, a senior mines ministry official said.

September 12, 2009: Adhunik Metaliks' subsidiaries, Orissa Manganese & Minerals Ltd and Adhunik Power & Natural Resources, will be investing Rs 3,350 crore in mining and power over the next two years.

September 6, 2009: Cement demand seems to have tapered off in August

August 20, 2009: Iron ore mining firm Rungta Mines (RML), the flagship company of SR Rungta group, plans to set up a 1-million-ton cement plant in Orissa with an investment of around Rs 600 crore, a top company executive said.

August 20, 2009: The cement industry that saw rural demand driving its impressive 12% growth last fiscal does not foresee any significant impact of a weak monsoon on demand.

August 20, 2009: Sterlite Industries and Grupo Mexico continued their seemingly endless rounds of bid and counter-bids for Asarco, with the Indian company matching its rival's $2.2-billion offer for the US-based copper miner.

August 20, 2009: The government is not considering further disinvestment in aluminium major Nalco and Hindustan Copper even as operations of the copper producer are set to be revamped. Industry observers were anticipating further divestment in the two public sector companies.

August 20, 2009: The proposed aluminium park of the public sector National Aluminium Company (Nalco) at Angul in Orissa, which was mired in uncertainty, is finally set to see the light of the day.

August 18, 2009: The natural rubber (NR) market, which on August 17 quoted Rs 102 a kg for RSS-4 grade

August 18, 2009: The weak monsoon has taken its toll on cement prices which are down Rs 8-10 a 50-kg bag in the southern market and by Rs 3-5 in the western and eastern regions.

August 16, 2009: Copper futures hit its highest level in 11 months on August 14

August 15, 2009: The physical rubber prices ruled steady on August 15. The market failed to improve further

August 14, 2009: Heavy engineering and equipment maker Larsen & Toubro, the state-owned Bharat Heavy Electricals (BHEL) and South Korea's Doosan Heavy Industries & Construction are some of the firms that have bid for the boiler-turbine-generator (BTG) supply order for Maharashtra State Power Generation Company's (Mahagenco) proposed 1,980-mw thermal power plant at Koradi in Nagpur.

August 14, 2009: Base metals on MCX surged on Thursday tracking London Metal Exchange prices, which gained led by the dollar's weakness against the euro, encouraging Euro zone gross domestic product data, and news of likely supply disruption in nickel, analysts said.

August 13, 2009: Being positive about Vedanta Resources's possible acquisition of remnant government stake in its group firms Balco and Hindustan Zinc (HZL), the company's chairman, Anil Agarwal said that the deal may be struck by next year.

August 13, 2009: National Aluminium Company Ltd's (NALCO) greenfield projects in overseas markets like Indonesia and Iran are in limbo because of political and policy hurdles in those countries.

August 13, 2009: India's nickel imports are expected to rise 15-20 percent in August-December as against last year, because of robust demand for steel, particularly from the infrastructure sector, said traders and importers.

August 13, 2009: The production of copper concentrate at public sector Hindustan Copper Ltd's Malanjkhand mines in Madhya Pradesh was severely affected by water scarcity in first three months of the current financial year.

August 13, 2009: The numbers for the June quarter of FY10 have brought some cheer to metal companies, especially steel producers. Higher domestic demand, improved prices compared to previous quarters coupled with a fall in input costs have helped the sector report better numbers.

August 12, 2009: Hindustan Copper has announced its un-audited results for the first quarter ended June 30.

August 12, 2009: Public sector National Aluminium Company (Nalco) has come under fresh threat of naxal attack with the red rebels issuing an ultimatum to the company authorities to fulfill certain demands relating to the contract labourers and peripheral development.

August 12, 2009: The battle for US copper mining firm Asarco is expected to be over by the end of this month with the bidders, Sterlite Industries and Grupo Mexico, revising their offers.

August 11, 2009: Cement companies seem to have benefited the most in the first quarter of financial year 2009-10 from the slew of infrastructure projects announced by the Government.

August 11 2009: Cement major JK Cement, which has a presence in both grey and white cement segments, is expecting to commission its grey cement plant at Bagalkot, north Karnataka within the next few months, and expand operations to more locations. The Karnataka plant is being undertaken through the company's subsidiary, Jaykaycem.

August 10, 2009: National Aluminium Company Ltd's (NALCO) greenfield projects in overseas markets like Indonesia and Iran are in limbo because of political and policy hurdles in those countries.

August 9, 2009: National Thermal Power Corporation Limited (NTPC), country's largest power utility, is likely to set up power plants in Nigeria and Sri Lanka, a top NTPC official said.

August 9, 2009: GAIL (India) Ltd has signed a gas sales and transmission contract (GSTC) with Rajasthan Rajya Vidyut Utpadan Nigam Ltd (RRVUNL) for supply of natural gas for 160 MW plant of RRVUNL at Ramgarh.

August 9, 2009: In the face of Oil Minister's comment that RIL gas to NTPC could be given at a government-approved price, the state-owned power major today said it will continue to fight legally for the fuel's contracted price and seek Power Ministry's help.

August 05, 2009: Cement makers have come up with a mixed show in July with several players registering a decline in month-on-month growth, while others showing an increase.

August 05, 2009: Sterlite Industries, the flagship firm of London-listed Vedanta, may get the support of rival bidder Harbinger Capital Partners in its takeover plan for the bankrupt US copper mining firm, Asarco. Harbinger has decided to withdraw from the race, informing the bankruptcy court that its plan to restructure Asarco should not be considered.

August 5, 2009: Larsen & Toubro has won orders worth Rs 853 crore for setting up two coal handling plants.

The orders are from UP Rajya Vidyut Utpadam Nigam and Neyveli Lignite Corporation, it said in a statement to the stock exchanges.

Source: The Economic Times

August 04, 2009: The civil construction of the Rs 5000-crore alumina refinery project of Utkal Alumina International Limited (UAIL), a subsidiary of the Aditya Birla Group (ABG), near Kasipur in Orissa's Rayagada district has resumed after being stalled for about two months.

August 04, 2009: If the IMF forecast of the world economy contracting 1.4 percent this year comes true, the shrinkage will occur for the first time since 1945. How then, in this recessionary environment, the base metal copper could see a rally of over 80 percent since January with its price at one point hitting a year high of $5,645 a ton.

August 4, 2009: Cement major, Ambuja Cements, on Monday said that its production for the month of July stood at 14.39-lakh tonnes as against 13.95-lakh tonnes in the year-ago period.

August 4, 2009: National Aluminium Company Limited (Nalco), the navratna PSU and India''s leading producer and exporter of alumina and aluminium, has registered a 20.46 per cent increase in aluminium production in the 1st quarter ended June 30.

August 4, 2009: Expanded production capacity and entry into new markets have contributed to India Cements' monthly dispatch in July exceeding a million tonnes.

August 2, 2009: Jaiprakash Associates Ltd (JAL), the flagship company of the diversified industrial conglomerate Jaypee Group, has inked a MoU with state-owned Assam Mineral Development Corporation Limited (AMDC) for setting up a 2 million tons per annum capacity cement plant.

August 2, 2009: Public sector steel major Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Ltd (RINL) has entered into a joint venture with Manganese Ore India Ltd (MOIL) to form 'RINMOIL Ferro-Alloys (Private) Ltd', to produce ferro alloys.

August 1, 2009: Hindalco Industries, the lowest cost aluminium producer in the country, has reported better than expected performance during the quarter ended June 2009.

August 1, 2009: Anil Agarwal-run Vedanta Resources Plc today reported an increase in production of aluminium and zinc, copper, iron ore from its operations for the first quarter of 2009-10 financial year.

August 1, 2009: Ruias-owned Essar Oil today announced acquisition of 50 percent stake in a 4 million-ton oil refinery in Kenya. The company acquired 50 percent stake of western energy majors Shell BP and Chevron in Kenya Petroleum Refineries Ltd, Essar said.

Source: Business Standard

August 1, 2009: The government has given ONGC its approval to partner Lakshmi N. Mittal for buying 25 percent stake in Kazakhstan's prospective Satpayev oilfield in the Caspian Sea.

July 28, 2009: Ess Dee Aluminium is in advanced talks to buy Comital, an Italian firm almost five times its size, for $125 to $150 million.

July 26, 2009: Physical rubber prices turned weak on25 July. According to observers, the market fell on buyer resistance following favourable weather.

July 25, 2009: National Aluminium Co Ltd (NALCO) sold 4,500 tons of primary aluminium ingots at a premium of $84.66 per ton to the LME cash price on a CIF basis, a senior company source said.

July 24, 2009: India Cements only partially benefited from strong demand conditions in the June 2009 quarter. The company's operating margin declined 160 basis points year-on-year to 30.5 percent despite a 9.6 percent rise in total income to Rs 960.25 crore.

July 24, 2009: Binani Cement Ltd (BCL) plans to invest $125 million for expansion of its cement manufacturing capacity from 0.50 million tons (mt) to 3 mt at its Chinese subsidiary, Shandong Binani Rong'An Cement Co Ltd.

July 21, 2009: Vedanta Resources, billionaire Anil Agarwal's metal and mining company, has planned large expansions and acquisitions to enter the top five league in the global production of aluminium, copper and zinc by 2013.

July 18, 2009: The Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (ADAG) has forayed into the cement business by announcing its plans to set up a five-million tons integrated plant and a grinding unit in Maharashtra with an investment of Rs 2,250 crore.

July 18, 2009: Hindalco Industries has shut down an aluminium alloy manufacturing plant located at Silvasa in Gujarat having a total capacity of three lakh wheels per annum.

July 17, 2009: Gas Authority of India Limited (GAIL) will lay down a 600-km long gas pipeline from Jhabua to Kailaras in Madhya Pradesh at an estimated cost of Rs 3,000 crore, a top company official said today.

July 17, 2009: Gas Authority of India Limited (GAIL) will lay down a 600-km long gas pipeline from Jhabua to Kailaras in Madhya Pradesh at an estimated cost of Rs 3,000 crore, a top company official said today.

July 11, 2009: Vedanta Resources Plc will begin bauxite mining for its alumina plant in eastern India by October and will invest $1.23 billion to expand its capacity six-fold by 2011, a top company official said.

July 11, 2009: The National Aluminium Co (Nalco) has moved a step forward in its effort to obtain bauxite mining leases in districts of Visakhapatnam and East Godavari in Andhra Pradesh.

July 5, 2009: The cement industry is hoping as much for clarity and consistency in excise duty as abatement and concessions, according to a cross section of manufacturers.

July 4, 2009: ACC, one of the country's largest cement producers, has reported a marginal rise of 1 percent

July 3, 2009: Hindalco Industries, the Aditya Birla group flagship, has decided to raise up to $500 million (around Rs 2,400 crore) through a qualified institutional placement (QIP) of equity shares.

July 2, 2009: The Aditya Birla group flagship Hindalco and its Canadian subsidiary, Novelis are planning to relocate some of its European plants to India. The rising cost of operations and declining sales in Europe and a booming Indian market for Novelis' products are driving the relocation initiative.

June 29, 2009: Cement prices are expected to soften Rs 3 to 5 per 50-kg bag next month due to the twin effects of excess supply and lower demand, according to industry officials and dealers.

June 27, 2009: The consortium formed by Gujarat Alkalies & Chemicals Ltd (GACL), Gujarat State Fertilisers & Chemicals (GSFC) and Gujarat Narmada Valley Fertiliser Company (GNFC) is in talks with ONGC Petro Additions Ltd (OPAL) for sourcing raw materials.

June 27, 2009: Grupo Mexico has revised its offer to outbid rival Sterlite Industries in the race to acquire US-based copper miner Asarco.

June 27, 2009: This investment might well be all about timing. With grandson Kumar Mangalam now on course to assuming the reins at Kesoram Industries, what could be more befitting for the 89-year Birla patriarch and doting grandfather than to pump in a cool Rs 1,550 crore into the group flagship to ensure GenNext is well taken care of.

By Rajkumar Mitra

June 26, 2009: Cement companies are importing clinker from all over the world at the same import price, in an example of high level of awareness of purchasers.

June 26, 2009: Purchasers are always on the look out to buy at prices lower than their previous purchases, provided market conditions are conducive for doing so. Obviously, this does not apply fully for project procurement which is generally a one-time buy, but would definitely apply for all commodity type items which he buys regularly.

June 25, 2009: Commodity prices are expected to be stable and are expected to ease in near future.

June 25, 2009: The Aditya Birla group, the country's second largest cement maker, is looking at consolidating its cement business, following the exit of Larsen & Toubro (L&T) from UltraTech.

June 24, 2009: Chettinad Cement Corporation has reported a loss of Rs 4.21 crore in the year ending March 31, 2009 against a net profit of Rs 163.77 crore in the previous year.

June 22, 2009: State-run National Aluminium Co Ltd (Nalco) has added 120 MW capacity at its captive power plant under the ongoing second phase of expansion.

June 22, 2009: Ess Dee Aluminium, which recently acquired India Foils (IFL), has firmed up plans to pump in nearly Rs 200 crore to add fresh capacity at the latter's Hoera unit.

June 21, 2009: Based on a petition filed by Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL), the Designated Authority in the Commerce Ministry has recommended imposition of provisional anti-dumping duty on imported polypropylene (PP) from Oman, Saudi Arabia and Singapore.

June 20, 2009: Heavy Engineering Corporation (HEC) is hopeful of achieving positive net worth during this fiscal itself as the Centre and the State have agreed to submit affidavits to the Jharkhand High Court in July, committing themselves to implementation of the final part of the debt restructuring and capital infusion plans.

June 19, 2009: The Ministry of Commerce has issued a notification recommending a provisional anti-dumping duty on polypropylene (PP) imported from Saudi Arabia, Oman and Singapore.

June 18, 2009: Domestic cement makers have expressed strong reservations to any move to increase excise duty on cement. They said it would be unfair for the government to target an industry which has managed to do so well in these troubling times.

June 18, 2009: Hindalco Industries is close to acquiring a coal mine in Queensland, Australia, in a deal estimated at $70 to $80 million (about Rs 336-385 crore).

June 15, 2009: Cost reduction efforts are now just another routine activity at Rourkela Steel Plant (RSP). The plant has taken several different steps - both short term and long term - in its efforts.

June 15, 2009: China has launched the "Tianjin Far-East Ferroalloys Exchange Centre" at a capital investment of CNY 100 million.

By Gilbert Lobo

June 15, 2009: Manganese alloy producers are seeing better days as price of ferro manganese is now over Rs 42,000 to Rs 43,000 per ton, and silico manganese has also edged up to Rs 37,000 to 38,000 per ton ex works free of taxes.

By Gilbert Lobo

June 15, 2009: High carbon ferro chrome producers are seeing better days with domestic prices moving up to Rs 44,000 to Rs 45,000 per ton ex works, without taxes.

June 14, 2009: Bullion and crude oil prices are likely to trade in a range with a positive bias next week, while base metals are likely to extend last week's gains.

June 13, 2009: Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (BHEL) has bagged a Rs 4,015-crore order from Hindalco Industries for supplying boilers, turbines and generators at its 900 mw captive power plant in Orissa.

June 12, 2009: Rising commodity prices typically lead to a fall in demand from the user industry. Not so in the case of polyvinyl chloride (PVC), which has risen to Rs 36,500 per ton, from Rs 28,000 at the end of the last year.

June 12, 2009: The domestic cement industry has asked for a 50 percent subsidy on freight on the logistics cost for cement and clinker for exports in the upcoming budget in July.

June 11, 2009: Larsen & Toubro (L&T) is close to pulling out of Aditya Birla Group firm UltraTech Cement by selling its entire 11.5 percent stake, bringing the curtains down on a six year old acrimonious relationship.

June 7, 2009: London-based Vedanta Alumina Ltd (VAL) has ruled out any slowdown on investment on its projects and retrenchment of employees even as it's production has been hit tremendously by the current global meltdown.

June 7, 2009: The proposed aluminium park of the public sector metal major, National Aluminium Company (Nalco) at Angul in Orissa has run into uncertainty, with the state unwilling to join the project as a joint venture partner.

June 6, 2009: Rio Tinto is right to scrap plan A and pursue plan B.

June 6, 2009: Rio Tinto Group, the world's third-largest mining company, scrapped an investment from Aluminum Corp of China in favour of raising $21 billion from a share sale and an iron ore venture with BHP Billiton Ltd.

June 6, 2009: Aluminium rose in London, heading for the biggest weekly gain in 21 years, as inventory figures signaled a possible pick up in demand for the lightweight metal.

June 2, 2009: If the production and sales figures for cement companies in May are anything to go by, the industry could be emerging from the slowdown.

May 31, 2009: The government may soon increase the royalty rates on extraction of minerals like copper, iron ore and zinc to enrich the exchequers of states possessing these resources.

May 30, 2009: The Orissa government has put on hold Hindalco industries and Vedanta Aluminium's expansion plans of their refineries in the state even as it approved investment of Rs 2,859 crore in steel sector, official sources said.

May 27, 2009: National Aluminium Company Ltd (Nalco) has cut prices of its products by up to Rs 5,000 a ton.

May 26, 2009: Vedanta Resources group firm Hindustan Zinc said it has cut the prices of zinc, used for producing galvanised steel, by Rs 1,100 to Rs 89,200 per ton.

May 24, 2009: The Baltic Dry Index which measures the cost of moving dry cargo by sea gained by a 79 points on a single day to record 2786 points on 22 May.

May 24, 2009: With steel industry making a mad scramble for top grade iron ore amid depleting reserves, there's an urgent need to improve ore quality at reduced costs to ensure steel makers remain profitable.

May 20, 2009: Metal producers are selling their surplus power to compensate the losses from production cuts due to slowing of demand.

May 19, 2009: Vedanta Resources - which is setting up an alumina refinery at Lanjigarh in Orissa's Kalahandi district - will invest about Rs 42 crore this year on peripheral development around the plant as part of its corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiative.

May 18, 2009: Oversupply in cement in 2009-10 could depress prices and squeeze margins by 2 to 5 percent, estimate research analysts.

May 16, 2009: Oil prices were up in Asian trade after US stocks rebounded from a heavy sell-off as investors looked ahead for an economic recovery.

May 16, 2009: GTL Ltd has entered the domain of distribution and transmission networks for power utilities. It has been awarded contracts worth Rs 324 crore from Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Co Ltd (MSEDCL).

May 16, 2009: The Finance Ministry has imposed definitive anti-dumping duty on caustic soda (sodium hydroxide) imports from the European Union (excluding France) and Indonesia. This duty would be effective for a period of five years, unless revoked earlier.

May 15, 2009: Chettinad Cement Corporation Ltd plans to add a 2-million tons per annum (mtpa) cement production line at its Dindigul unit in Tamil Nadu.

May 15, 2009: Elecon Engineering Company Ltd - one of the leading players in material handling equipments space - seem to be constantly scouting for new areas of growth.

May 14, 2009: Ultratech Cement - the second-largest manufacturer after Holcim's ACC in terms of sales and capacity - does not intend to rein in expansion plans even though the domestic market is likely to see over-capacity in the next few quarters.

May 13, 2009: National Aluminium Company (Nalco) has resumed full-fledged operations at its Panchpatmali mines, about 16 km from its alumina refinery plant at Damanjodi in Orissa's Koraput district.

May 11, 2009: Cement production capacity and its utilisation will be doubled in the next five years, according to Cement Manufacturers Association (CMA) secretary-general N.A. Viswanathan.

May 10, 2009: Despite an economic slowdown and slump in the housing sector, the cement sector continues to be steady with another 50 million tons capacity to be added this year, a top industry official has said.

May 10, 2009: NMDC is likely to float a joint venture firm with South Africa's Kopano Ke Matla Investment Company by July to scout minerals like iron ore and manganese in African nation.

May 8, 2009: Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Ltd (RINL) and Manganese Ore (India) Ltd (MOIL) have inked a joint venture agreement for setting up a ferro alloy plant at Bobbili Growth Centre in Vizianagarm district of Andhra Pradesh.

May 7, 2009: A mountain of scrap metal imported into the country from across the world has been held up for the past one month at Nhava Sheva customs area.

May 7, 2009: Cement prices could fall up to 10 percent in the coming months, pushed lower by new supply and slower construction activity during the monsoon season.

May 6, 2009: If the production and sales figures of cement companies for April are anything to go by, the industry could be emerging from the slowdown.

May 4, 2009: Port Pipavav has once again demonstrated operational excellence on Nedlloyd Tasman which is operating on Maersk Line's ME1 service.

May 2, 2009: Copper rose in London, adding to its longest monthly winning streak in three years

May 2, 2009: Bharat Aluminium Company (Balco), subsidiary of Sterlite Industries, is planning to close its plant-1

April 29, 2009: Sharp decline in base metal prices, lesser volumes delivery and higher cost of production in some business segments worked against the Sterlite Industries during March 09 quarter.

April 29, 2009: NRI billionaire Anil Agarwal-led Sterlite Industries will compete with any rival bidder to buyout America's third-largest copper producer Asarco, for which it has already offered $1.7 billion, and said it sees the deal getting sealed in the next 3-4 months.

April 28, 2009: Wilson Sandhu Logistics (India) Ltd (WSL) is an ISO 9000: 2001-certified international freight forwarding company, which was founded in 1990.

April 28, 2009: The IT sector, which had once brought the Indian economy on to a rapid growth path, has come to the aid of the domestic mining sector in tackling the current industrial downturn by offering 'smart solutions' to cut cost.

April 26, 2008:India's Jindal Steel and Power expects to start producing gas in Bolivia in June for export to Argentina, company representatives told the Andean nation's president here.

April 25, 2009: Binani Cement has said it recorded a 13.89 percent drop in net profit for the quarter ended March 31 to Rs 20.07 crore.

April 25, 2009: Tyre manufacturer JK Tyre & Industries has said it will invest Rs 270 crore for expanding its production capacity of off-the-road (OTR) tyres by 2011.

April 23, 2009: Hindustan Zinc has reported a 53.35 percent dip in net profit to Rs 551.47 crore for the fourth quarter ended March 31, 2009.

April 22, 2009: A better-than-expected demand in the domestic cement market helped UltraTech Cement beat street expectations for its March 2009 quarter performance.

April 21, 2009: German auto parts maker ThyssenKrupp is exiting the sheet metal business in India by selling its 74 percent in joint venture (JV) ThyssenKrupp JBM (P) to Indian partner JBM Auto for an undisclosed amount.

April 21, 2009: If the recession and falling prices put the seller of resources in a bind due to potential defaults by buyers, the reverse is also beginning to take shape as prices of various metals have begun to climb sharply.

April 20, 2009: The joint venture (JV) Company formed between the state owned Orissa Mining Corporation (OMC) and Sterlite Industries India Ltd (SIIL) for mining of bauxite in the Niyamagiri hills in Kalahandi district will be incorporated as a private limited company soon.

April 19, 2009: Price of nickel, which is used in stainless steel, moved up by 16 percent this week against the previous week due to production cuts and investment buying.

April 19, 2009: The steel and cement sectors are recovering on the back of demand from the small constructions, but price of steel in the coming months is expected to remain stable at the current rates, said S.K. Roongta, Chairman, Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL).

April 18, 2009: The Cement Manufacturers' Association, apex body of cement- makers in India, has released figures for March, triggering significant appreciation of cement stocks.

April 17, 2009: Vedanta Resources is leading the race for Zambia's Luanshya Copper Mines (LCM).

April 17, 2009: The Rubber Board has asked market regulator Forward Markets Commission (FMC) to reverse the price fluctuation limit to 2 percent to curb volatility in rubber prices in the futures markets.

April 16, 2009: The Pithampur auto industry is seeking incentives from the government to tide over difficult times. During the year, the auto town witnessed a downward trend, with production declining 40 percent.

April 16, 2009: National Aluminium Company (Nalco), India's second largest producer of the base metal, avoided a production cut by offering discounts to its key clients that helped it boost sales and trim rising inventory.

April 16, 2009: The Builders' Association of India has called for a total ban on exports of cement, as shortages in the local market were leading to frequent price hikes.

April 15, 2009: Adhunik Metaliks, part of the Adhunik group, plans to set up an all weather commercial port at Barunei Muhan in Kendarapara district of Orissa. It will be located near Jambu, 30 km north of Gahirmatha.

April 15, 2009: With the troubled global economy driving down prices, metal companies are not expected to do well in the March 2009 quarter but they can take heart from the fact that sales volumes do not indicate any deterioration in fundamentals.

April 15, 2009: The fight to take over US-based copper mining company Asarco, which had appeared to be settled in favour of Anil Agarwal-controlled Sterlite Industries, could start all over again.

April 15, 2009: The tug of war between cement manufacturers and construction groups has reached a flash point, with construction players seeking fresh government interference in alleged cement cartelisation move and high cement prices.

April 14, 2009: JK Lakshmi Cement Ltd has commenced commercial production of its plant located at Motibhoyan near Ahmedabad.

April 14, 2009: With the auto industry showing signs of recovery, the demand for rubber by tyre companies has increased.

April 12, 2009: Firm Chinese demand may push up copper prices in the coming week as the procurement agency in that country may take advantage of the current low prices to build the metal's stockpile needed for the 4-trillion-yuan ($585 billion) stimulus programme.

April 11, 2009: Nalco, the country's second largest aluminium producer, reported a 20 percent decline in the export of the metal in 2008-09 amid slackening demand in the wake of the industrial downturn.

April 11, 2009: Cement despatches in India recorded a growth of 9.98 percent at 18.06 million tons (mt) during March, compared to the 16.42 mt reported during the corresponding month of last year.

April 11, 2009: With a view to strengthening its footprints in Gujarat, JK Lakshmi Cement Ltd, one of the leading cement manufacturers in the country, commenced commercial production of its plant located at Motibhoyan near Ahmedabad.

April 11, 2009: Commodity prices, after slumping the most in at least a half century, have probably reached the bottom and should rebound over the next several years as demand outpaces supply, Credit Suisse said.

April 10, 2009: The growth rate of the domestic cement industry has hit a five-year low, in terms of both production and despatches, in FY09. The industry registered a growth of 7.75 percent and 7.91 percent in production and despatches respectively.

April 10, 2009: Amid concerns of the economic slowdown, the government has launched the eighth round of New Exploration Licensing Policy (Nelp-VIII) offering 70 blocks, the highest so far.

April 9, 2009: Domestic Indian companies are flooded with enquiries for high carbon ferro chrome from the Chinese market for the past 10 days.

April 9, 2009: Holcim - the Swiss promoter of the country's two major cement makers, ACC and Ambuja Cements - has said it may shut down plants in case of poor demand.

April 9, 2009: ACC Ltd, India's largest cement maker, will spend Rs 29 billion ($575 million) on capacity expansion in 2009 and 2010, according to chairman N.S. Sekhsaria.

April 9, 2009: The addition of new production capacities are expected to stabilise cement prices in the middle of this year, according to ACC deputy chairman Paul Hugentobler.

April 8, 2009: Noble ferro alloy prices dipped substantially as manufacturers sought to sell off their inventory quickly.

April 8, 2009: The drop in alumina and aluminium demand and prices in recent months has led Rio Tinto Alcan to slow down expansion at the Yarwun alumina refinery in Gladstone. It will now be completed in the second half of 2012.

April 7, 2009: Low demand for ferro alloys and a high rate of input materials is preventing ferro alloy manufacturers from selling their produce at breakeven prices.

April 6, 2009: Deals for manganese ore imports have been signed this month with a South African party at $3.5 per manganese content.

April 6, 2009: Cement manufacturers have put the onus to rein in cement prices on the government.

April 5, 2009: Mr Sarthak Behuria, Chairman of IndianOil, on Saturday inaugurated the Paradip-Haldia crude oil pipeline system at Paradip.

April 5, 2009: Ambuja Cements, which is setting up two grinding units at Bhatapara in Chattisgarh and Rauri in Himachal Pradesh, said the project cost would shoot up by 10 per cent from earlier estimates of Rs 1,600 crore due to increased commodity prices.

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April 5, 2009: Power equipment maker BHEL on Sunday said its boiler auxiliaries plant here had achieved an all time high turnover of Rs 2,000 crore in 2008-09.

April 4, 2009: Indian ferro alloys producers have raised their capacity utilisation in a major way since the second fortnight of February on a revival in demand for steel, which started in the fourth quarter of the last financial year.

April 4, 2009: State-owned Gail India and Gujarat State Petronet Corporation (GSPC) have submitted proposals to build a 1,400 to 1,500 kilometre pipeline connecting the Krishna Godavari basin in the eastern coast to central India.

April 4, 2009: World's third largest earthmoving and heavy machinery maker JCB, plans to make India its largest global manufacturing hub to meet its worldwide export commitments, a top company executive said.

April 4, 2009: The government has warned cement manufacturers that it will not extend any stimulus package to the industry unless they reduce the price of the building material.

April 2, 2009: Buoyed by improved demand, cement makers have raised prices by Rs 3 to Rs 7 7 per 50-kg bag across the country from April 1.

April 1, 2009: Cairn Energy Plc, the UK based parent of Cairn India, reiterated its commitment to commence the commercial production of crude oil from its Rajasthan fields from September 2009, when it published its results for year 2008 on March 31, 2009.

March 31, 2009: China's ferro chrome import prices have fallen another cent per pound in the week beginning on March 23.

March 30, 2009: ACC Ltd has said cement should be sold at Rs 300 per bag in the retail market if it needs to progress with its expansion plans for 2010.

March 29, 2009: Copper may advance early in the week beginning on March 30, 2009 on the positive US economic data, which, many feel, would improve global demand for the metal used by the housing and automobile sectors.

March 29, 2009: Zinc moved up by 6.7 percent in the week ended March 28, 2009 compared to previous week following a significant jump in Chinese buying. Zinc along with other metals was also supported by the positive data from the US on new home sales and consumer confidence.

March 28, 2009: Aluminium prices may soften a tad in the short-term as most companies in China, which were shut after production costs rose above sales realisation, may resume operations soon, according to analysts with broking houses.

March 27, 2009: Public sector oil companies have prepared a mega plan to help re-fuel a sputtering economy without any burden on the exchequer by spending Rs 57,000 crore next year on expanding supplies and building new transportation networks for oil and gas, a government official here said.

March 27, 2009: Cement maker ACC, which has seen a decline in exports for the first time in seven years, expects only state-led consumption to benefit cement firms in an era of high costs and soft demand.

March 27, 2009: The production and exports of ferro alloys, the major ingredients of raw materials for steel making, are likely to decline by 25 percent this year on poor demand from global consumer industries, according to experts.

March 27, 2009: The National Aluminium Company (Nalco), India's leading aluminium producer, is in discussion with the government to have at least a 10 percent safeguard duty on import of primary aluminium.

March 27, 2009: The over Rs 85,000-crore domestic cement industry is set to see some relief in the March quarter.

March 25, 2009: Society of Geoscientists & Allied Technologists (SGAT), a professional body dedicated to promotion of mineral development activities in the country, will submit the vision mineral development plan 2020 for Orissa in April this year.

March 25, 2009: The Central Board of Excise & Customs has imposed a safeguard duty of 21 percent on aluminium flat-rolled products, 35 percent on aluminium foils and 28 percent on dimethoate technical, a chemical used in manufacturing products like insecticides.

March 25, 2009: Shree Cement has commissioned an additional 1 million tons (mt) of clinker capacity.

March 24, 2009: The National Highway Builders Federation (NHBF), a lobby body of highway developers, has alleged that cement manufacturers have been consistently increasing prices in the past few months instead of passing on duty cuts to customers.

March 24, 2009: ACC, which has seen a decline in exports for the first time in seven years, expects only state-led consumption to benefit cement firms in an era of high costs and soft demand.

March 24, 2009: ACC has decided to put on hold plans to expand its ready-mix concrete (RMC) business due to a slowdown in construction activity.

March 24, 2009: Vedanta Resources Plc plans to pay $34 million to boost its stake in Madras Aluminium Company Ltd (Malco) to 93 percent from 80 percent, after an offer to minorities shareholders.

March 23, 2009: Srei Infrastructure Finance Ltd and the Netherlands-based bilateral private sector development bank FMO have signed a letter of intent for external commercial borrowing (ECB) of $100 million.

March 21, 2009: Power supply and problems of coal availability have hit cement production capacities and supply, which has helped to keep prices stable. According to manufacturers, though installed capacity has increased, consumption has matched the growth, contrary to expectations.

March 21, 2009: Rising inventories and lacklustre demand have set the bearish tone for base metals such as copper. However, despite base metals trading down on the London Metal Exchange (LME), depreciation of the rupee has actually played in favour of the metals on domestic bourses such as MCX.

March 20, 2009: Cement prices in the south may come under pressure, with 12.3 million tons (mt) of additional capacity scheduled to go on stream by 2009-end.

March 20, 2009: Binani Cement is considering getting listed on the London Stock Exchange to attract international investors.

March 20, 2009: Users of aluminium - such as the food packaging industry, which includes carbonated drinks, foil wrappings and bottle tops - are expected to benefit significantly from a further reduction in their input costs in 2009.

March 18, 2009: Dirk India (DIPL), which specialises in making cement replacement products with fly ash, has invested Rs 45 crore in expanding capacity at its Nashik plant.

March 18, 2009: In the wake of the cement demand being hit by the sluggish real estate sector, mini cement plants owners in Gujarat have demanded relief in value added tax (VAT). Higher VAT on cement is taking a toll on these manufacturers.

March 17, 2009: During January 2009, global zinc mine production declined by nearly 12 percent to about 994,000 tons as compared to the same period a year ago, revealed recent data released by the International Lead and Zinc Study Group (ILZSG).

March 17, 2009: The public hearing for the proposed Rs 6,000-crore expansion of Vedanta Aluminium's (VAL) alumina refinery at Lanjigarh will start soon.

March 16, 2009: Cement companies which have signed memoranda of understanding (MoU) with the Orissa government for setting up of cement units in the state will be asked to utilise 25 percent of the fly ash generated by them in various forms.

March 15, 2009: Peru exported 4,30,000 tons iron ore in January, a decrease of 35.8 percent against the same month last year.

March 14, 2009: The domestic cement market will see oversupply in the second half of this year, according to ACC, the country's largest manufacturer of the product.

March 14, 2009: With plummeting commodities prices, frozen credit markets and diminishing demand, many metals manufacturers are being forced to take drastic measures in order to survive.

March 13, 2009: Central Warehousing Corporation (CWC) has decided to go slow over its earlier plan to launch three inland container depots (ICDs)/container freight stations (CFSs) at Kannaur, Pipavav and Kochi in the current fiscal.

March 13, 2009: The domestic cement industry has continued to perform well, with demand sustaining at over 8 percent for four successive months since November.

March 12, 2009: The Rs 11,500-crore expansion plan of Vedanta Aluminium (VAL) at Jharsuguda in Orissa may be delayed due to environmental issues.

March 10, 2009: A much lower sales consideration than originally expected, a phased payment schedule and the fact that Sterlite will assume no fresh debt for this buyout make Sterlite's acquisition of Asarco a good deal for the Indian company.

March 10, 2009: National Aluminium Company (Nalco) - which regularly supplies surplus power to Grid Corporation of Orissa Ltd (Gridco) from its 960 MW captive power plant (CPP) - has declined to sell power to the state-owned bulk power trader, stating that it has no surplus power.

March 10, 2009: After clinching Asarco's buyout deal at $1.7 billion, NRI billionaire Anil Agarwal-led Vedanta Resources is looking at more acquisitions in mining in view of lower valuations of these assets due to slowdown.

March 9, 2009: Delhi-based Dalmia Cement (Bharat) Ltd has commenced commercial production at its 2.5-million ton (mt) greenfield cement plant at Chinnakomerla village in Kadapa district of Andhra Pradesh.

March 9, 2009: Cement makers will shortly hike prices by Rs 5 per 50 kg bag in a couple of weeks across the country, according to dealers in Mumbai and Gujarat. The move comes on the back of improved demand as well as despatches.

March 8, 2009: Sterlite Industries, a subsidiary of London-listed miner Vedanta Resources Plc, has agreed to acquire the assets of US-based copper mining firm Asarco for $1.7 billion, substantially less than the $2.6 billion that it had bid last year.

March 7, 2009: Dalmia Cement (Bharat) Ltd is scouting for land to set up three new cement production units of 2.5 million tons capacity each.

March 6, 2009: Madhya Pradesh may find it difficult to attract cement companies with limestone reserves on the decline.

March 5, 2009: The south is a key market for Ultratech Cement but in a market that saw good growth, the company wasn't able to increase volumes.

March 5, 2009: Shree Cements Ltd has raised prices of cement in the past month by Rs 2 to 4 per bag because of rising costs.

March 4, 2009: Adani Enterprises has plans to foray into the cement sector. It is aiming to set up a 5-million tons per annum (mtpa) cement and clinker unit in Kutch at an estimated investment of Rs 1,800 crore.

March 4, 2009: Vedanta Resources sees its profit plunging over 30 percent this fiscal on the back of a slump in demand and falling metal prices.

March 4, 2009: Over six months after putting its corporate restructuring plan on hold, Vedanta Resources plans to resume the task, aimed at realigning its structure into three commodity-focused verticals.

March 4, 2009: Improved demand has led cement makers to increase prices by Rs 5 to 8 per 50-kg bag in Mumbai and Gujarat from March 1. This has defeated the government's purpose behind cutting excise duty.

March 3, 2009: The Vedanta Group has decided to pump Rs 70,000 crore into India by 2011-12, a move expected to make it the world's fifth largest metal and mining entity, rubbing shoulders with the likes of BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto.

March 2, 2009: Cement production is expected to grow 8.1 percent and demand for the same is likely to rise by a healthy 7 to 7.5 percent in 2009-10.

February 27, 2009: Delhi-based Surya Roshni (SRL) is planning an entry into the cement sector and expansion of its steel making business.

February 27, 2009: The joint venture (JV) formed between SAIL's Bhilai Steel Plant (BSP) and Jaypee Cement for a slag cement plant is likely to start production by the end of this year. The JV company is called Bhilai Jaypee Cement Limited and is loacted in Bhilai itself.

February 26, 2009: Vedanta Aluminium (VAL) plans to invest a Rs 60,000 crore in the aluminium, alumina and power sectors in Orissa by 2013.

February 25, 2009: Arshiya International Ltd has announced that it has received the formal approval from Board of Approval (BOA) of the SEZs for setting up its Free Trade and Warehousing Zone (FTWZ) in Khurja in Uttar Pradesh.

February 25, 2009: Cement prices are expected to lose Rs 4 to 5 per 50-kg bag from March 1 on the back of the excise duty cut announced by the government.

By Rajkumar Mitra

February 24, 2009: The IISCO Steel Plant (ISP), a 100 percent subsidiary of Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL) till 2006, plans to increase its crude steel manufacturing capacity six times from the present figure of 0.4 million tons to 2.5 million tons.

February 24, 2009: The IISCO Steel Plant (ISP) has shortened its time of issuing a goods receipt note (GRN) from 14 days earlier to about five to six days now.

February 24, 2009: The IISCO Steel Plant (ISP) is using way bills as an effective tool to regulate inventories.

February 24, 2009: The IISCO Steel Plant (ISP) is increasingly turning to buyjunction, an arm of mjunction services, for their vendor base needs. Looking to increase their quality vendor base, ISP is using buyjunction as their existing vendor base could not meet all their needs and there was a distinct need for improvement.

February 24, 2009: A vendor registered in one SAIL plant may get automatically registered in other SAIL plants, and a corporate guideline to this effect is under consideration.

By Rajkumar Mitra

February 24, 2009: With global meltdown affecting ISP's performance from September 2008, information technology (IT) has turned out to be a key area for the plant to improve its bottomline.

February 24, 2009: There is a big impending changeover at the Burnpur works of ISP, while they shift from the twin hearth ingot making route to the basic oxygen furnace and continuous casting route (BOF CCS) of steel production.

By Rajesh Ray

February 24, 2009: Reverse logistics is the process of flow of materials and related information from the point of consumption to the point of origin for re-use, re-sell or simply destroying.

By Arnab Mallick

February 24, 2009: Zinc prices remained weak during January, declining more than 11 percent on the London Metal Exchange (LME). As forecast in the last issue of Sourcing Insights, zinc failed to maintain its northward rally from December.

February 24, 2009: In January China's imports of refined copper have declined by 14.7 percent to 180,490 tons as compared to December when the imports were 211,527 tons revealed the country's recently published customs data.

February 23, 2009: Primary Aluminium production in China has declined to 922,000 tons in January from 946,000 tons produced in December, as per a recently published data by the International Aluminum Institute.

February 23, 2009: Andhra Pradesh Industrial Infrastructure Corporation has given land to UAE-based Anrak Aluminium Pvt Ltd for its proposed aluminium refinery and smelter plant in Visakhapatnam.

By Nudrat Alim

February 23, 2009: The correction in prices which was noticed last month has slowly waned. In line with what was estimated in the January issue of Sourcing Insights, prices were reined in the latter half of January and the first week of February. Natural rubber prices in the domestic market have been falling but not indiscriminately.

By Arusha Das

February 23, 2009: The polymer market sustained its improvement in January as feedstock prices recovered, triggered by the limited supply in the market and depleting inventories. Moreover, rising crude oil and naptha prices supported the rise.

By Arnab Mallick

February 23, 2009: Like most of the base metals, nickel lost quite a bit this January. Cash official price at the London Metal Exchange declined by around 14.50 percent from $12710 per ton on January 2 to end the month at $10870 per ton.

February 22, 2009: A lack of demand had led export prices of China's electrolytic manganese metal (EMM) to drop to around $2,550 per ton fob China.

February 22, 2009: The worsening sentiment in global economies could bring down demand for industrial metals.

February 22, 2009: The past few months have seen the prices of synthetic rubber falling on account of the drop in crude oil prices. The decline is common to all types of synthetic rubber.

February 21, 2009: Hindustan Zinc expects its low cost operations and strong cash position to help it during the current slump.

February 20, 2009: As an after-effect of the economic meltdown, Oil India Ltd (OIL) has scrapped its plan to set up a Rs 400-crore pilot coal-to-liquid (CTL) project at Digboi in Assam in a joint venture with Coal India, IndianOil and Engineers India Ltd (EIL).

February 20, 2009: Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (HPCL) is going ahead with its plan for bio-fuels in a big way with ethanol mix and jatropha.

February 20, 2009: The National Aluminium Company (Nalco) may incur losses for the first time in its history in 2009-10 if the current global economic slowdown continues, said chairman and managing director C.R. Pradhan.

By Gargi Sahai

February 19, 2009: LME lead cash official price in the month of January 2009 gained 21.39 percent from the end December price of $949 per ton and stood at $1152 per ton on January 30. The LME 3-month cash official price also gained 24.43 percent from $925 per ton on December 31, 2008 and stood at $1151 per ton on January 31, 2009.

By Chandrika Bose

February 19, 2009: India is all set to become the second-fastest growing economy in the world after China, mainly because the bulk of her investment is led by domestic growth and advance estimates of growth are positive.

February 19, 2009: Buyers of high-value projects prefer to place repeat orders to suppliers who have commissioned a full set-up for them successfully, and this comfort factor creates a unique situation in the client's mind, where it finds it difficult to opt for any other product or service.

By Nudrat Alim

February 19, 2009: Specialised services as well as products procured by a company from a particular service provider are sometimes characterised by such uniqueness that for their future maintenance the companies have to turn back to the same vendors. The signing of a yearly agreement between the vendor and the client for this purpose is called the annual maintenance contract (AMC).

February 19, 2009: The proposed Rs 140-crore capacity expansion of the Toshali Cement plant at Ampavali in Koraput district remains uncertain.

February 19, 2009: The average domestic price of cement has decreased to Rs 234 per bag in January, from Rs 237 per bag in April last year.

February 18, 2009: Furnace oil buyers in the eastern region are losing out big time as they are not getting any discounts from furnace oil producers, unlike their counterparts in other parts of the country.

By Neha Prasad

February 18, 2009: Monopoly seems an obsolete word in today's competitive world but it is not as uncommon as we would believe. Such scenarios exist - on large and small scales - because they benefit a few. However, as a monopoly negates the very principle of free markets, it is inherently destructive to the dynamics of trade.

February 18, 2009: Sterlite Industries will buy US copper miner Asarco at nearly half the earlier agreed price of $2.6 billion, after discounting 'goodwill' and liabilities, due to the economic meltdown and fall in commodity prices.

February 18, 2009: India's state run as well as private companies have together produced about 1.10 million tons of aluminium during April 2008 to January 2009, as compared to the 1.02 million tons of aluminium produced during the same period in the previous year, revealed recent data published by the country's ministry of mines.

February 18, 2009: The Aditya Birla group will now face an A$112 million outgo in Australia, due to forward sales in copper.

February 17, 2009: Copper has moved in a range-bound manner in January, with alternate price spikes followed by profit booking that pulled down the price. It touched a month high of $3390.5 per ton during the month and the lowest price was 3050.5 per ton.

February 17, 2009: Increasing arbitrage opportunity from the US supported the caustic soda market in Asia and in the Mumbai chemical market the price of caustic soda lye for end January 2009, stood at Rs 32,500 per ton. This was an increase of 16.07 percent from the end December 2008 price of Rs 28,000 per ton.

February 17, 2009: The domestic crude oil basket rose to $43.99 a barrel in January 2009, from $40.61 a barrel in December 2008. This may indicate a U-turn from a scenario where it had bottomed out.

February 17, 2009: Benzene lost around 3.23 percent in January 2009 in the Mumbai chemical market and stood at Rs 30 plus VAT per litre in end January, a marginal drop from the end December 2008 price of Rs 31 plus VAT per litre.

February 17, 2009: Ammonia markets started showing signs of recovery from the second week of January from its unhealthy state with positive indications both on the demand and supply side.

February 17, 2009: Aluminium has lost quite a bit during January on the back of weak fundamentals, profit booking, sharply lower crude oil prices, a strengthening dollar and rising inventories.

February 17, 2009: Cement prices, which had fallen sharply in December due to higher production and low demand, remained largely stable in January despite higher production, as low prices pushed up demand.

February 17, 2009: Turkish minerals producer Zirve Krom Madencilik plans to build a new plant to raise production of ore concentrate and expand chrome ore capacity.

February 17, 2009: The lack of demand and growing inventories in Japan have pushed copper to its lowest in more than a week on February 16.

February 17, 2009: The world's refined zinc market was in a surplus of 195,000 tons in the 2008 revealed data recently released by the International Lead and Zinc Study Group (ILZSG).

February 17, 2009: Norilsk Nickel of Russia has decided to temporarily shut down its Black Swan and Lake Johnston nickel operations in Western Australia, its last two active mines in that country.

February 16, 2009: GAIL Ltd will take another six months to decide on its proposed investment of Rs 10,000 crore for setting up overseas petrochemical projects, said chairman and managing director, GAIL, U.D. Choubey.

February 16, 2009: The global credit crisis may cast a shadow over the greenfield projects of Hindalco Industries, the flagship company of the Aditya Birla group, as the aluminium maker is yet to conclude its debt-raising programme.

February 15, 2009: The passing in the US House of Representatives of a critical economic stimulus package brought some confidence to commodity markets on February 13, 2009, helping oil rise an unexpected 10 percent and copper snap three days of losses in New York.

February 14, 2009: China has made a strategic $20-billion investment that will enable it to take advantage of the downturn in commodity prices and stock up on essential minerals.

February 13, 2009: Orissa is expected to gain through generation of an additional 5 million tons per annum (mtpa) of fly ash by thermal power plants once independent power producers (IPPs), who have signed memoranda of understanding with the Orissa government, commission their projects.

February 12, 2009: Chinalco and Alcoa have declared their intention to expand their relationship in order to help both companies build up the bauxite, alumina and aluminum segments, according to a media report.

February 12, 2009: UltraTech Cement has said it would open four more outlets of its construction materials retail chain, UltraTech Building Solutions (UBS), in Maharashtra.

February 9, 2009: Xstrata Nickel has decided to restructure its Sudbury operations to match the current market conditions.

February 8, 2009: Cement companies continued to reel under the high cost of production besides drastic fall in demand due to delay in execution of infrastructure and housing projects on the back of liquidity crisis in the third quarter of the financial year.

February 9, 2009: Cement makers are expected to increase prices by Rs 5 per 50 kg bag in a couple of weeks on the back of improved demand and despatches.

February 7, 2009: Hit by high input prices and a slowing economy, the country's largest cement maker ACC has suffered a 23 percent drop in consolidated net profit to Rs 1,099 crore for the year-ended December 2008 from Rs 1,427 crore in the same period previous year.

February 6, 2009: Sterlite Industries, the country's largest copper producer, is close to signing a contract to buy Asarco llc.

February 5, 2009: Ashapura Minechem - a diversified mineral group with interests in bauxite and bentonite mining and exports - is planning to rope in a partner for its Rs 4,200-crore mega alumina project in Maharashtra.

February 4, 2009: The US automobiles market has fallen below the Chinese market for the first time with a 27-year low.

February 4, 2009: The Maharashtra government has signed five memoranda of understanding (MoUs) worth Rs 6,120 crore to attract investment in sectors like mining, steel, iron, textiles and alumina.

February 4, 2009: The three major cement producers - ACC, Ambuja Cement and Aditya Birla Group - registered a leap in dispatches as demand stayed up in January.

February 4, 2009: Consolidation appears to be the byword for the domestic cement industry at present.

February 2, 2009: Soda ash player GHCL is targeting a growth rate of 25 to 30 percent for the financial year ending March 31, 2009.

February 1, 2009 : Grasim Industries has posted a drop of 36.26 percent in consolidated net profit for the quarter ended December 2008 to Rs 459.55 crore, compared to Rs 720.99 crore in the corresponding previous quarter.

February 1, 2009 : Base metals are likely to remain under pressure this week as the global economic slowdown cuts demand, resulting in a huge buildup of inventories in the benchmark London Metal Exchange-registered warehouses.

February 1, 2009 : Lanco Infratech has plans to commission 2,000 MW of power projects in 2009.

February 1, 2009 : Hindalco Industries has posted a alight rise in net profit, at Rs 545 crore, in the third quarter of the financial year ended December 31, against Rs 543 crore in the corresponding year ago period.

February 1, 2009 : Concrete technology needs to be made environment-friendly.

January 31, 2009 : Larsen & Toubro has reported a 216 percent rise in net profit at Rs 1,520 crore for the third quarter of financial year ended December 2008 on the back of an extraordinary income of Rs 916 crore from sales of its ready-mix concrete business.

January 31, 2009 : France has said it is willing to take back uranium for reprocessing if India is not in a position to reprocess the entire amount.

January 30, 2009: Domestic cement dealers and companies may freeze cement imports from Pakistan.

By Nudrat Alim

January 27, 2009: Production of calcined petroleum coke (CPC), used largely by the aluminium industry, is extremely limited in India, which is the reason why the Indian consumers have to depend heavily on imports.

By Rajkumar Mitra & Arusha Das

January 27, 2009: The recession scenario has presented a tricky situation for both refractory manufacturers as well as steel companies in terms of both uniform quality as well as mode of payment.

By Chandrika Bose

January 27, 2009: The present crisis facing the world has made the economic outlook extremely uncertain and overall growth may hover around just 2 percent in 2009.

January 26, 2009: Petronet LNG Ltd (PLL) will sign a gas supply contract with Australian consortium Gorgan Projects in February for supply of LNG to its 2.5-million-tons-a-year terminal in Kochi to be commissioned by March 2012.

January 26, 2009: In a repeat of the trend witnessed during the September quarter, cement players experienced contrasting fortunes in the quarter ended December 31, 2008.

January 26, 2009: Oil prices eased in Asian trade on January 25, following a report that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) will further lower its world economic growth forecast.

January 25, 2009: The domestic cement industry, which performed dismally during the July-September quarter (Q2), is set to post better profits for the October-December quarter (Q3) on account of higher sales volume, lower fuel and packaging cost.

January 25, 2009: Chennai Petroleum Corporation, a group company of Indian Oil, has reported a record loss of Rs 1269 crore in the third quarter ending December 31, 2009 against a net profit of Rs 225.62 crore in the same period last year.

January 25, 2009: What started as slowdown in western countries soon turned into recession, impacting prices of a wide range of commodities including base metals.

January 24, 2009: Faced with a global shortage of offshore drilling rigs, the Government may this month decide on giving a three-year drilling holiday or moratorium to firms such as state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corp and Reliance Industries.

January 24, 2009: The indigenous crude oil and gas production saw a marginal dip in December 2008.

January 24, 2009: ONGC Videsh (OVL), the foreign investment arm of Oil & Natural Gas Corp (ONGC), has found two significant hydrocarbon (oil and gas) leads in a Cuban deepwater exploration block where it has a 30 percent stake.

January 23, 2009: National Aluminium Co (Nalco) is gearing up to start preliminary work on its second aluminium project, a Rs 16,000-crore greenfield venture for a smelter-cum-power plant, in Orissa.

January 23, 2009: Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries said in the Bombay High Court that a higher price of $4.20 dollar per million British thermal unit (MmBtu) for gas from the KG basin, as decided by the Empowered Group of Ministers (EgoM), would lead to a gain of Rs 16,000 crore for the government.

By Neha Prasad

January 22, 2009: Fiscal transactions have always been the crux of import-export trade mechanisms; thus ease or discomfort in payment has a considerable effect on smoothening the path of trade or posing hurdles.

By Rajkumar Mitra

January 22, 2009: Bogged down by delivery and quality related problems, companies are thinking of new ways to ensure that their interests are not hampered in any procurement process. One of the ways is to introduce various clauses in the payment terms.

By Rajkumar Mitra

January 22, 2009: While in most cases, the Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software helps to coordinate and manage all data, in some cases ERP at the vendor's end may hold back generation of delivery orders. That happens in case of defaulting buyers who have not made payments on time to the vendors.

January 22, 2009: Payment terms mentioned in the purchase order have a direct relation to the price of items being bought. If the payment terms offered by a vendor are renegotiated by the buyer and a higher number of days of credit are sought, the offer price for the item increases automatically.

January 22, 2009: With an eye on solving delivery-related problems, Durgapur Steel Plant (DSP) of Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL) is turning to local ancillary units for faster and reliable supply of services and spares items.

By Rajkumar Mitra

January 22, 2009: The Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL) has insulated one of its critical units, the Alloy Steels Plant (ASP), from market risks by not exposing the plant to the open market.

January 22, 2009: The Durgapur Steel Plant (DSP) in West Bengal, operated by the Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) currently produces 2.2 million tons (mt) of hot metal.

By Rajkumar Mitra

January 22, 2009: Durgapur Steel Plant's (DSP) material management team of SAIL has been proactively working to mitigate the effects of the economic downturn and is achieving results even before being asked to do so by the top management.

By Rajesh Ray

January 22, 2009: These are difficult times and sourcing executives of companies are identifying innovative ways to optimise every dollar being spent on behalf of their organisations. Indirect service categories typically represent half a company's indirect spend.

By Neha Prasad

January 22, 2009: Procurement is in the spotlight as officials are rolling up their sleeves to take on the international downturn.

By Rakesh Dubey

January 22, 2009: Cement prices across the country fell between 15 to 18 percent in December due to higher production and despatches in the previous month.

By Arnab Mallick & Sarbani Haldar

January 22, 2009: Zinc moved in tandem with most of the base metals during the month. Initially, the official cash price declined considerably on back of poor market conditions.

By Nudrat Alim

January 22, 2009: In times such as these, when demand for finished steel products is low, prices of ferrous scrap which is one of the significant raw materials in most developed nations, has been witnessing an upward trend. The reason has been the lack of availability.

By Nudrat Alim

January 22, 2009: Rubber growers are following the wait and watch policy after the way prices moved in the last one month. The month of December witnessed prices of natural rubber slipping till the second week and then picking up pace, and the same trend has been on since then.

By Arusha Das

January 22, 2009: The polymer market witnessed some improvement in December 2008 as prices sustained its upward recovery. This was partly supported by rising crude oil and naphtha prices and partly by the limited supply in the market and depleting inventories.

By Sarbani Haldar & Arnab Mallick

January 22, 2009: Nickel ended the year on a better note. After prices declined for the last several months, nickel finally closed the year with a monthly gain.

By Gargi Sahai

January 22, 2009: The LME lead cash official prices saw a mixed trend in December 2008.

By Nudrat Alim

January 22, 2009: Iron ore prices have not been stable for long, but that has not come as a surprise. The very fact that Chinese mills continued to buy despite prices moving up constantly, was an indication that buying would stop soon enough. In fact in the last week of December, spot offers in China witnessed a decline of almost 9 percent.

By Arnab Mallick

January 22, 2009: Copper has been seeing a bit of action since December. During most of the month, copper declined at the London Metal Exchange (LME) primarily on the back of weak market sentiment, strengthening dollar during first two weeks of December and speculation around auto bail out decision.

By Gargi Sahai

January 22, 2009: In the Mumbai chemical market, the caustic soda lye and flakes prices showed signs of stability when the lye prices remained at Rs 28,000 per ton on December 27, 2008 and the flakes prices remained at Rs 27,500 per ton, unchanged from the prices on November 29.

By Gargi Sahai

January 22, 2009: In the Mumbai chemical market, benzene lost a huge 39.22 percent in December 2008, falling from a level of Rs 51 plus VAT per litre on November 11, 2008 to Rs 31 plus VAT per litre on December 30, 2008.

By Chandrika Bose

January 22, 2009: Ammonia markets went through a slump period towards the end of 2008 when Yuhzny did not report any prices due to lack of trade owing to low demand for ammonia resulting from global recession.

By Arnab Mallick

January 22, 2009: Aluminium moved in a range bound manner in December at the London Metal Exchange (LME). The cash official price primarily moved within $1420 to $1545 per ton in December thereby averaging $1490 against our forecast of $1410 to $1430 per ton.

By Rajkumar Mitra

January 22, 2009: The domestic crude oil basket has taken a beating of 20 percent on a month-on-month basis and fallen from $50.91 a barrel in November to $40.61 a barrel in December 2008.

January 20, 2009: The mandatory Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) certification on imported tin plates has been opposed by tin can makers.

January 19, 2009: The Xstrata-Merafe Chrome Venture announced temporary suspension of 11 ferrochrome furnaces on December 1, 2008, according to a company announcement.

January 19, 2009: Anglesey Aluminium Metal - jointly owned by Rio Tinto Alcan (51 percent) and Kaiser Aluminum (49 percent) - expects it will finish smelting operations by the end of September 2009, when its current power contract expires.

January 18, 2009 : Base metals are expected to increase next week on the back of stimulus packages announced by China and the US - the world's two largest base metal consumers. They may revive demand for metallurgical commodities.

January 17, 2009: The international slowdown has prompted the Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (ADAG) to rethink its new ventures in shipping and steel sectors, even as its plans for cement business are yet to take off from the blueprint stage.

January 17, 2009: National Aluminium Co (Nalco) will maintain its target for aluminum production for the year ending March 2009 due to steady domestic demand.

January 17, 2009: Larsen & Toubro and Nuclear Power Corporation of India are at an advanced stage of talks for setting up a joint venture for producing forging materials.

January 17, 2009: Larsen & Toubro (L&T) has inked a memorandum of understanding with US-based nuclear power firm Westinghouse Electric Company (WEC) to manufacture modular nuclear power reactors.

January 15, 2009: Countervailing duty on cement imports has put a near stop to imports from Pakistan, much to the relief of domestic cement companies.

January 14, 2009: Stokes Group, Mahindra Forgings' UK subsidiary, has announced its decision to close its Walsall plant in West Midlands due to falling demand.

January 13, 2009: OZ Minerals has announced that it would be putting Scuddles mine at its Golden Grove operations in Western Australia on care and maintenance.

January 13, 2009: Work has restarted at the Rs 4,000-crore Utkal Alumina International Ltd (UAIL) project at Kashipur, in Orissa's Rayagada district. It had stopped for about 20 days due to an agitation over land issues.

January 10, 2008: Lafarge has said that the contribution of emerging markets to its bottomline from countries such India may be bigger in two years than previously estimated.

January 8, 2009: Aditya Birla Minerals Ltd has informed that it was putting its Mt Gordon copper mine in Queensland, Australia on care and maintenance owing to the low prices of copper.

January 7, 2009: Chinese company Jinchuan Group has plans of increasing production of nickel, copper and cobalt in 2009 informed the company.

January 7, 2009: Gujarat Mineral Development Corporation (GMDC) has invited international bids for the valuation of its mining assets and mineral ore reserves at Ambaji.

January 7, 2009: APGenco will soon enter a joint venture agreement with Nuclear Power Corporation of India (NPCIL) to set up a 2,000-MW nuclear power generation unit in Andhra Pradesh.

January 4, 2009: The cement sector has expressed its wish for a better deal from the Centre, though it welcomed the second stimulus package.

January 4, 2009: Ambuja Cements announced that its shipments in December 2008 had increased 11.8 percent to 16.62 million tons (mt), from 14.86 mt a year earlier.

January 4, 2009: Domestic miners want the government to remove the export duty on chrome and its concentrate, used in processing of steel products.

January 4, 2009: Vedanta Resources has declared its intention to complete all its projects in Orissa despite the credit crunch.

January 1, 2009: The Cement Stockists & Dealers Association will form guidelines to regulate the business and the safety of cement dealers' capital.

December 31, 2008: The cement industry - which had started the year with soaring demand - has been badly hurt by the slump in the real estate segment.

December 30, 2008: There may be fresh bidding after Sterlite's revised offer for Asarco as the valuation of the bankrupt US copper miner has dropped in line with the commodity prices.

December 30, 2008: Total world aluminium inventory has declined in November to 2.928 million tons (mt), as compared to 2.961 mt of aluminium inventory in October revealed the recent data published by the International Aluminium Institute (IAI).

December 30, 2008: RSB group subsidiary RSB Metaltech has reportedly signed a memorandum of understanding with the Orissa government for a Rs 6,800 crore integrated light metal aluminium complex.

December 30, 2008: National Aluminium Co (Nalco) has estimated a 25 percent increase in the cost of an aluminum smelter in Sumatra.

December 30, 2008: The Binani Group has decided to put Rs 1,000 crore into the 'Vibrant Gujarat' meet on January 12.

by Rakesh Dubey

December 29, 2008: JK Lakshmi Cement Ltd, the cement manufacturing arm of the multi-faceted J K Group, expects that the company's fourth grinding unit at Kalol will be in operation by January 2009 and that will help it increase cement making capacity to about 5 million tons per annum (mtpa) from the current level of 3.8 mtpa, a senior official of the company told Coal Insights.

December 29, 2008: The Vedanta Group will commence work on its Rs 12,000-crore aluminium project in Bidhanbag (Asansol).

December 29, 2008: The continuing slump in demand may force ACC to shut down more plants, after it kept its Himachal Pradesh unit temporarily idle this month.

December 28, 2008: The domestic cement industry may not keep its promise of adding 32 million tons (mt) as new capacity in FY09 and end up adding over 25 percent less capacity to a maximum of 25 mt.

December 27, 2008: Cement prices are expected to soften by about Rs 7 to Rs 12 per bag in the first week of January, due to a slowdown in the housing sector and cheap imports of cement from Pakistan.

December 27, 2008: The Vedanta Group has decided to start work on its Rs 12,000-crore aluminium project in West Bengal, one of the first major investments in the non-ferrous metals sector in the state.

December 27, 2008: Vedanta Resources group firm Hindustan Zinc Limited (HZL) said it has hiked the prices of zinc, used in producing galvanised steel, by Rs 1,800 to Rs 63,400 a ton.

December 26, 2008: Hindalco Industries plans to continue with its expansion programme as scheduled despite the international slump.

December 26, 2008: German auto component maker Bosch is expected to down the shutters on its Bangalore manufacturing facility for eight days to prevent stocks from piling up.

December 24, 2008: Nalco has decided on a cost-cutting initiative as the international price of aluminium on the London Metal Exchange (LME) plummeted to $1,430 per ton, against $3,000 per ton in July.

December 24, 2008: Peru has reported a production increase of its major metals in November as compared to the same month a year ago, stated the Energy and Mines Ministry recently.

December 24, 2008: Chelyabinsk Zinc Plant of Russia has revised its 2009 forecast. This is the second time in this year that the zinc producer has revised the forecast after the plant reported a loss during the first nine months of this year.

December 23, 2008: The total aluminium production from India's private as well as public companies have added up to 844,489 tons in the April-November period, against the target of 851,789 tons, revealed recently published data by the Ministry of Mines.

December 23, 2008: World output of aluminium declined by 105,000 tons in November revealed a recently published data by International Aluminium Institute (IAI).

December 23, 2008: Shree Cement has always been a dominant player in the northern markets but now it has been forced to dispatch to the Mumbai markets on the back of inventory pileup and declining realisations.

December 22, 2008: Ess Dee Aluminium plans to reopen the Hoera facility by March 31, 2009. The unit belongs to India Foils (IFL), which Ess Dee acquired recently.

December 22, 2008: Vedanta Aluminium will ask the West Bengal government for 1,200 acres more for its proposed greenfield plant.

December 22, 2008: National Aluminium Company (Nalco) and Rak Minerals & Metals Investments (RMMI) have entered an agreement for the latter's Rs 14,000-crore Indonesian project.

December 22, 2008: Lack of demand has forced ACC to hold back the Rs 600-crore expansion programme planned for its readymix concrete (RMC) business, ACC Concrete.

December 21, 2008: The government on 20 December relaxed the ban on export of cement in the backdrop of waning demand for this crucial construction input from the real estate sector.

December 21, 2008: Hovering below the cost of production, base metals are likely to move in a close range next week on need-based fresh buying from cable and housing sectors.

December 21, 2008: National Aluminium Company (Nalco), singed an agreement with Rak Minerals and Metals Investments (RMMI) for its Rs 14,000-crore Indonesian project.

December 19, 2008: Pushed to the wall by cheap imports from China and tapering demand, tyre manufacturers have decided to cut production to protect their bottomline.

December 19, 2008: The government has told ONGC and Oil India Ltd not to extend any discounts with effect from last week of November to public sector oil marketing companies (OMCs) - Indian Oil Corporation, Bharat Petroleum Corporation and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation - on the sale of crude oil.

December 19, 2008: McNally Bharat Engineering Company Ltd has informed that it has received two orders from the Vedanta Group.

December 19, 2008: Major tyre producers are currently supplying some 70 percent less to automakers due to the slowing demand for new cars.

December 19, 2008: Australia's third largest diversified mining company OZ Minerals has announced that it will be putting the Avebury nickel mine on care and maintenance until further notice.

December 19, 2008: The government's package and lower interest rates on housing loans is unlikely to help the cement industry regain its previous pace of growth, which has slowed to below 7 percent this financial year.

by Rajesh Ray

December 17, 2008: Radio frequency identification (RFID) is a most-talked about technology in supply chain management today. It was originally developed to identify friendly aircraft during World War II.

by Neha Prasad

December 17, 2008: Just as buyers classify their vendors to identify who should be their strategic and tactical partner, suppliers also follow a buyer segmentation model to determine who is fit to be a partner and who would be more of a nuisance. Thus, a study of supplier mindset and motivation should be made in addition to other evaluation parameters before selection.

by Arusha Das

December 17, 2008: With the price difference between cross-linked polyethylene (XLPE) low tension (LT) cables and poly vinyl chloride (PVC) cables gradually declining, it is good news for the consumers of the former.

December 17, 2008: Shesh Narayna Singh, the executive director (works) of Durgapur Steel Plant (DSP), has taken over as the managing director of Rourkela Steel Plant (RSP), a unit of the Steel Authority of India (SAIL).

December 17, 2008: India seems to be becoming an equipment manufacturing hub of sorts, with some globally renowned manufacturers setting up shop in the country.

by Neha Prasad

A combination of better export prices for bulk commodities and higher volumes resulted in a 22 percent increase in earnings from energy and minerals exports for Australia in the September quarter. The figure rose to $42.6 billion.

December 17, 2008: In a volatile market scenario, the purchase manager's job becomes really challenging.

by Rajkumar Mitra

December 17, 2008: Hindustan Copper (HCL) will not have to import copper metal in concentrate (MIC) to manufacture copper cathodes any more, as they will shortly close down their smelter at Khetri, Rajasthan and run only their other smelter at Indian Copper Complex (ICC) at Ghatsila in Jharkhand. For this one smelter, domestic MIC will be enough.

by Chandrika Bose

December 17, 2008: In an effort to minimise the impact of the shrinking global economy on the Indian front, the government opted for a string of stimulus packages.

by Chandrika Bose

December 17, 2008: With the global financial meltdown creeping into the Indian economy, the RBI and government are rolling out all possible monetary and fiscal measures to counter this situation and to sustain consumer confidence that has taken a toll following the Mumbai terror attacks.

December 17, 2008: Falling commodity prices and shipping freight rates might be good for Indian buyers but timely delivery is also a major challenge in the current market scenario. Thus, it is party time for third party logistics (3PL) service providers, which are providing dedicated services to customers.

by Rajkumar Mitra

December 17, 2008: The current price volatility has taken a heavy toll on industrial buyers who thought they could use inventory to shield production when input material was scarce in the market.

December 17, 2008: Project companies have been severely affected by the economic downturn. The sudden squeeze of funds has hit most project purchases. However, these companies had effective strategic procurement processes and with a long term vision, they hope to tide over the current problem.

by Rajkumar Mitra

December 17, 2008: It is a fact that the bargaining power of a purchaser increases if an industry has more manufacturers from the small & medium (SME) sector than from the large sectors. However, it is also true that the greater the number of SMEs, the greater is the price volatility.

December 17, 2008: With domestic consumer confidence hitting rock bottom after the near collapse of the western economy, industries across the country have taken a severe hit, not only in their topline but also in their bottomline growths.

December 17, 2008: In order to strengthen its distribution system, CESC, the flagship company of RPG Enterprises, will invest Rs 2,000 crore over a period of three to five years.

December 16, 2008: National Aluminium Company (Nalco) has reportedly deferred its Saudi Arabia plans after it did not manage to secure coal for the project.

December 13, 2008: The government has cancelled exploration licences for 166 coal blocks as the entities with exploration rights have failed to start work.

December 13, 2008: National Aluminium Co Ltd (Nalco) said that it has signed an agreement with Rio Tinto Alcan to increase its global presence.

December 12, 2008: The Orissa government has decided to complete prospecting Tangarapada chrome ore mines within the next two to three months.

December 11, 2008: At least 60 percent of domestic exploration activities has yielded no promise for commercial mining of metals and minerals.

by Rajkumar Mitra

December 10, 2008: Hindustan Copper Ltd (HCL) will shortly close down their smelter at Khetri, Rajasthan and run its other smelter at Indian Copper Complex (ICC) at Ghatsila, Jharkhand from domestic copper concentrate.

December 10, 2008: The Indian Railways has increased freight charges on cement by about 8 percent.

December 10, 2008: Ambuja Cements has lowered prices up to Rs 6 per bag after the government reduced Cenvat by 4 percent.

December 9, 2008: Few cement producers are willing to reduce prices in the aftermath of the 4 percent cut in central excise.

December 8, 2008: South Korean zinc refiner Young Poong has announced that it plans to slash production of zinc by 10 percent from 8th December on the back of decreasing prices and weak demand.

December 6, 2008: US-based Thorium Power and Punj Lloyd have decided to form a joint venture (JV) to provide thorium fuel technology for light water reactors (LWR). India predominantly generates nuclear power using LWRs.

December 5, 2008: Lafarge and Grasim Industries are going ahead with their ready-mix concrete (RMC) expansion plans in India.

December 5, 2008: Cement makers are upset about the continually shrinking coal linkages from Coal India to below 50 percent, as production costs keep rising.

December 5, 2008: Export demand has picked up a bit, along with sales in the south, for the likes of ACC, Ambuja Cement and Aditya Birla Group. Inventories came down marginally in November.

December 3, 2008: Dalmia Cement (Bharat) Ltd has announced the commissioning of a 2.25-million ton greenfield cement project in Kadapa, Andhra Pradesh.

December 2, 2008: Kolkata-based Bagaria group is in talks with the Gujarat government for setting up a cement unit in Kutch.

December 1, 2008: Xstrata-Merafe Chrome Venture announced a 52 percent cut in its ferro chrome producing capacity today.

December 1, 2008: Iran would be increasing its production of steel, copper and coal from now to 2012, informed Industry Minister Ali Akbar Mehrabian recently.

December 1, 2008: China is likely to remove export taxes on refined lead while reducing them on primary aluminium and aluminium alloy informed analysts on November 28.

November 29, 2008: Binani Cement is facing land acquisition problems for its grinding unit in South Africa.

November 29, 2008: Leading nickel producer Norilsk Nickel said on 28th November that nickel output for the first nine months of the present year was 218,474 tons, mainly in line with about 219,000 tons produced during the same period last year.

November 29, 2008: Aluminium headed for its worst losing streak since 1999 in London on speculation increased shipments from China, would exacerbate a global oversupply of the metal.

November 28, 2008: Holcim has decided to continue with its $2-billion expansion in India till 2010.

November 28, 2008: Mittal Energy Investments will hold funds slated for the proposed Rs 50,000-crore joint venture refinery project at Visakhapatnam.

November 27, 2008: Terror attacks in Mumbai have led the Multi Commodity Exchange (MCX) and the National Commodity & Derivatives Exchange (NCDEX) to stay closed for the day.

MCX currency futures exchange, MCX SX, is also closed.

Source: The Economic Times

by Rajesh Ray

November 26, 2008: A leading technology solution that is increasingly becoming popular among sourcing professionals is supplier relationship management (SRM).

by Sourcing Insights Bureau

November 26, 2008: According to a recent Central Electricity Authority (CEA) report, total energy generation in the country for September 2008 stood at 59120.24 GWH.

November 26, 2008: Sterlite Industries expects to lose 23,000 tons of copper production for a month after damage to a cooling tower closed its 400,000-ton smelter in Tuticorin.

by R.K. Singh

November 26, 2008: Inventory control and easy procurement of spares might pose a challenge to organisations which stick to the classical rules of inventory classification.

November 26, 2008: The world's largest oil company, Saudi Aramco, is likely to step in as the new joint venture partner in one of India's largest oil and gas projects, the over Rs 50,000-crore refinery-cum-petrochemical project at Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh.

November 26, 2008: The Designated Authority in the Commerce Ministry has recommended continuation of the existing definitive anti-dumping duty on caustic soda imports from China and South Korea.

November 26, 2008: Tata Chemicals, leading manufacturer of caustic soda and fertilisers in the country, said that it had bought a 35 percent stake in JOil Pte, a Singapore-based jatropha seedling company.

November 25, 2008: Diversified Australian mining company OZ Minerals has informed that it would output at its Century mine by 20,000 tons per year (tpy).

November 25, 2008: The Jaypee Group will invest about Rs 1,600 crore in a new cement plant near Jaggaiahpet in Krishna district.

November 25, 2008: Hindalco Industries is going ahead with its new project plans despite odds.

November 25, 2008: JK Cement's 2.2-million ton (mt) cement plant was scheduled to go onstream in the UAE by the middle of 2010.

November 25,2008 - Hindalco Industries is going ahead with its new project plans despite odds.

November 25, 2008: Titagarh Wagons' memorandum of understanding with Freight Car America (FCA) is expected to show results by the middle of next year.

November 25, 2008: IDEB Projects Ltd has been permitted by the Centre to export cement to Maldives in a phased manner till February next year.

by Rakesh Dubey

November 24, 2008: The Indian cement industry sees a "gloomy" picture ahead, amid apprehensions of a slowdown in demand from the real estate sector.

November 24, 2008: Chinese calcined petroleum coke (CPC) used by the aluminium and steel industries, which are not only cheaper but better in quality is arriving at the Indian port recently.

by Arusha Das

Spectrum allocation as well as spectrum fee, are two issues currently plaguing the Indian telecommunication industry.

by Nudrat Alim

November 24, 2008: Indian industry is slowly but steadily becoming environment conscious.

by Chandrika Bose

November 24, 2008: International economic conditions have worsened and the global recession is adding to economic woes worldwide.

November 24, 2008: The government is trying to help National Aluminium Company (Nalco) get on with its expansion plans by asking Orissa to quickly grant the mining lease for Potangi bauxite mines.

November 24, 2008: Union mines secretary Santanu Consul discussed several issues at the state secretariat meeting with Orissa chief minister Naveen Patnaik.

November 24, 2008: Mining company Rio Tinto reduced production by a third at its 180,000 tons Lynemouth smelter in northern England from the beginning of November, informed a spokesperson of the company recently.

November 24, 2008: In the first nine months of 2008 the world nickel market recorded a greater surplus as output surpassed demand by about 43,000 tons, the World Bureau of Metal Statistics (WBMS) revealed recently.

November 23, 2008: Cement prices in the eastern part of the country have softened by as much as Rs 10 - Rs 12 for a 50-kg bag over the last fortnight.

November 22, 2008: Aditya Birla Minerals, a subsidiary of aluminium giant Hindalco Industries Ltd engaged in the exploration, mining as well as marketing of copper in Australia, has suspended work on the Ezperanza South Project at its Mount Gordon operations in Australia.

November 22, 2008: National Aluminium Company (Nalco), which was on the brink of a major coal crisis till a couple of weeks back, has adopted a new strategy to ensure coal supplies.

November 22, 2008: Close on the heels of 5 percent customs duty on steel, Binani Cement has urged the government to impose import duty and countervailing duty to bail out the distressed cement companies.

November 22, 2008: Hindustan Copper Ltd (HCL) is expecting a 10 percent fall in production in the fiscal year to end-March 2009, a senior company official said.

November 21, 2008: While India is still striving for crafting as well as compliance of its own national standardisation process, Europe has gone one step ahead and has conceived of uniform standards for the entire European Union.

by Rajkumar Mitra

November 21, 2008: Both manufacturers and buyers in India often dodge standards on the pretext of improved productivity, but this often results in wastage of valuable natural resources.

by Rajkumar Mitra

November 21, 2008: Buyers are often misguided by Indian Standards (IS) as some procurement, if benchmarked on these standards, can give undesired results.

by Rajkumar Mitra

November 21, 2008: Several manufacturers are cashing in on the perceived weakness of standards being set by the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS), and are increasingly using it to strengthen their own competitive advantage.

by Arusha Das

November 21, 2008: Crushed refined soda (CRS), a recently found substitute for soda ash by Tata Chemicals, has set an example of sorts on how innovation can be amalgamated with business. For this, the company managed to bag the much coveted JRD QV Award for innovation.

November 21, 2008: Crude oil touched its lowest level since May 2005, after declining almost $100 a barrel from its peak in July on the back of slowing demand as factories cut output.

November 21, 2008: ONGC Videsh (OVL), the overseas arm of state-run Oil and Natural Gas Corporation, will make an offer to acquire shares of UK-listed Imperial Energy Corporation at £12.50 a share by December 9.

November 20, 2008: The search for new mineral reserves may be affected by the Ministry of Environment & Forests' (MoEF) stand against exploration in forests. Global majors such as Anglo American, BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto -- who have invested in exploration for minerals -- may have to restrict expansion.

November 20, 2008: GMR Infrastructure Ltd has decided against acquiring 50 percent in South Africa's Homeland Mining Energy.

November 20, 2008: Ess Dee Aluminium has bought Kolkata-based India Foils from Madras Aluminium (Malco). Ess Dee will soon restart India Foils' closed foil stock and rolling plant in West Bengal.

November 19, 2008: Vedanta Aluminium Limited (VAL), currently setting up a 0.5-million-ton (mt) aluminium smelter and 675 MW captive power plant at Jharsuguda in Orissa, has chalked out a massive $4.6-billion expansion for the project.

November 19, 2008: ONGC Videsh (OVL), the overseas investment subsidiary of the country's largest oil producer Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), has won two onshore oil and gas exploration blocks in Colombia.

November 18, 2008: Huge inventory both at producers and consumers end is leading the ferro alloy industry to a grinding halt.

November 18, 2008: World refined zinc production during January-September stood at 8.825 million tons (mt) as compared to the consumption of 8.713 mt, revealed data released by the International Lead and Zinc Study Group (ILZSG).

November 18, 2008: India's state run and private companies together produced 631,901 tons of aluminium during April-September 2008.

November 17, 2008: Public sector oil companies have for the first time in more than a year started making profit on sales of petrol and diesel, strengthening the case for a fuel price cut soon.

November 17, 2008: West Australia-based India Resources Limited (IRL) is looking at forming more alliances with Indian private and public sector units in the mining sector especially in base metals, copper, gold and diamond category for carrying out extensive exploration and mining activities based on the outsourced model.

November 17, 2008: Inflationary pressures in the domestic arena and lower import duties have boosted import of tyres from China, which comes at a much cheaper price compared to Indian tyres.

November 17, 2008: Tata Chemicals (TCL), a part of the $28.8-billion Tata Group and the world's second largest manufacturer of soda ash, is planning a massive expansion near its chemical complex in Mithapur region of Gujarat for an investment of Rs 700 to Rs 1,000 crore.

November 16, 2008 : Mechel's Chelyabinsk Metallurgical Plant and Russian Railways have signed a pact for supply of rail products.

November 16, 2008 : Iran wants India 's multi-crore railway project undertaken there on build-operate-transfer (BOT) basis, whereas India wants to build-lease-transfer (BLT).

November 15, 2008: Capacity utilisation for cement sector has slipped to a four-year low on the slowdown in demand from construction and other sectors. Addition of new capacity has not helped the situation.

November 14, 2008: An increase in exports have brought some respite to the recession-hit cement industry.

November 14, 2008: NTPC is likely to launch a special purpose vehicle (SPV) in two months for its foray into cement manufacturing. The company will have a 26 percent share in the SPV.

November 14, 2008: Paradip Port Trust (PPT) has sought approval from the Shipping Ministry for constructing a second oil berth at an estimated Rs 70 crore.

November 13, 2008: ONGC Videsh (OVL), the overseas arm of public sector oil explorer ONGC, has bagged an oil block in Colombia. OVL, as part of a 50:50 consortium, has been awarded the block through an auction.

November 13, 2008: The country's oil and gas producers have been forced to bear a higher-than-expected subsidy burden for selling fuel to the oil marketers in the fiscal second quarter, as the government has issued less oil bonds than earlier projections.

November 13, 2008: Companies are stuck with huge inventories. The crash in commodity prices is hurting companies as many are carrying huge inventories of raw material, and in some cases, finished goods made with raw material bought at higher prices.

November 12, 2008: The country's largest power generation company, National Thermal Power Corporation's (NTPC), move to foray into cement making in a joint venture has aroused interest among the domestic cement players.

November 11, 2008:

By Gilbert Lobo: Prices of the bulk ferro alloys industry are seeing a sharp fall after reaching dizzy heights in July-August 2008.

November 11, 2008: Consumers in Andhra Pradesh can look forward to getting natural gas through pipelines by December this year.

November 10, 2008: Xstrata Alloys and Merafe Resources Limited have informed that it was closing six furnaces temporarily.

November 10, 2008: Russian exports of aluminum have dropped 10 percent to 2.625 million tons (mt) during January-September this year as compared to the same period a year ago.

November 10, 2008: The Dubai Aluminium Co (DUBAL) has a production target of 1 million tons for 2009, up 4 percent from this year, but may review it due to the global financial crisis, the state-run company's chief executive, Abdulla Kalban has said.

November 10, 2008: Jindal South West Aluminium's investment plan of Rs 9,000 crore to establish a 1.4-million-ton alumina refinery and 0.25-million-ton aluminium smelter in Andhra Pradesh, has run into rough weather.

November 9, 2008 : Nine major cement companies having a market share of 65 percent have reported a 17 percent jump in cost of production to Rs 138 for a 50 kg bag in the second quarter of the financial year ended September 30.

November 7, 2008: Rio Tinto will develop bauxite mines before investing nearly $2.2 billion in a greenfield alumina refinery and a 2.5-million tons (mt) per annum smelter plant in India. Total investment is pegged at around Rs 8,200 crore for the entire project.

November 7, 2008: Vedanta Resources has joined the list of names planning to decrease production due to the dip in demand and prices. It will also invest $5.1 billion less in India after an over 9 percent drop in profits for the first half of 2008-09.

November 7, 2008: The cement sector's valuation has taken a big hit from the manufacturing slump. Current average valuation has dropped to $50 a ton, from $200 a year ago.

November 7, 2008: Copper prices are likely to pick up next year said the chairman and managing director of Hindustan Copper Limited (HCL), S.C. Gupta.

November 6, 2008: Copper prices on the London Metal Exchange stood at 270.34 cents per pound on October 3, from 362.79 cents per pound in the same month, last year.

November 6, 2008: Aluminum Corp of China (Chalco) is close to completing work on its aluminum smelter in China's eastern Shandong province.

November 6, 2008: Copper cathode production in Zambia increased 12.9 percent to 3,77,598 tons for the eight months to August, compared to last year's output during the same period.

November 6, 2008: The downfall in prices since July has forced more than 40 percent of China's refined copper capacity to cut back production.

November 6, 2008: Dubai Aluminium Co's (Dubal) production has been hit by "an interruption in the power supply."

November 6, 2008: United Company Rusal has decided to stop production at the Zaporozhye Alumina & Aluminium Complex in Ukraine.

November 6, 2008: Consumers may not benefit by the recent fall in prices of cement raw materials as excess capacity has brought the sector under pressure.

November 5, 2008: Infrastructure problems and the industrial slowdown may prompt India Cements to put its proposed 2-million tons (mt) unit in Himachal Pradesh on hold or set it up elsewhere.

November 5, 2008: Orissa Mining Corporation (OMC) plans to outsource operations and maintenance of its Daitari ore handling plant (OHP). It will float a tender for this soon.

November 5, 2008: China's biggest aluminum and alumina producer Chalco, has informed that construction of the $ 61 million aluminum smelter in China's eastern Shandong province is nearly completed.

November 4, 2008: Cement companies earnings may be driven down by the increased costs of power and fuel, coupled with high coal prices.

November 3, 2008: Russia's OAO Chelyabinsk Zinc plant has joined the growing number of companies planning to reduce production activities in face of the world economic crisis.

October 31, 2008: Inventories of refined zinc in Japan were flat on year but fell 10.3 percent on month in September to 17,906 tons as per a data released by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry.

October 30, 2008: The global recession has found targets in the steel and non-ferrous industries, including aluminium and copper.

October 30, 2008: Zambia Consolidated Copper Mine Investment Holdings (ZCCM-IH) has shortlisted Vedanta Resources, Aldwych International and Nava Bharat Ventures to develop and operate a coal mine and build a 400-MW thermal power plant there.

October 29, 2008: Copper processors in China have started to slash production as orders from both the domestic as well as from abroad reduce and as buyers wait for prices to drop further, industry executives have opined.

October 29, 2008: Cement dealers have been safe from the slowdown in demand and rising input costs till now.

While the price at which dealers get cement from manufacturers remains fixed, the price at which they sell it to builders, contractors and individuals is left to the discretion of dealers. Typically, cement dealers have a margin of around 8 to 10 percent on the retail price sold to end consumers.

October 24, 2008: Hindustan Zinc has declared a reduction in the prices of zinc and lead by Rs 2,800 and Rs 3,400 a ton, respectively.

by Neha Prasad

October 22, 2008: Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are an essential building block in today's procurement industry.

by Sarbani Haldar

October 22, 2008: With awareness on alternative sources of energy gaining ground, the importance of bio-fuels as an alternative source of fuel is emerging fast.

October 22, 2008: Ningbo Gold Resources Copper Industry Group of China has reduced output as the demand of copper decline informed the company.

October 22, 2008: The demand of aluminium in China which had been so far witnessing an increase, is likely to come down by nearly two thirds this year thereby putting an end to the "extraordinarily high" annual growth rate witnessed in 2007, Norsk Hydro ASA said.

October 22, 2008: Total world aluminium output declined by 3.2 percent to 2.103 million tons in September as compared to August.

October 21, 2008: In September, shipments of steel and aluminium products from the metal-service centres in the US and Canada declined as compared to same period a year ago.

October 21, 2008: In September China's copper production increased 4.7 percent on the year to 317,000 tons.

October 21, 2008: The financial slowdown and weak copper prices have led Australia's Byrnecut Mining to withdraw its bid to explore, develop and operate Hindustan Copper's Banwas mines in Rajasthan.

October 20, 2008: Cement makers feel that although new capacity has resulted in production rising, it is adding pressure to prices.

October 20, 2008: Ennore Port (EPL) will now help Japan's Nissan Motor Corporation to export cars manufactured here to European markets.

October 20, 2008: Leading Turkish copper producer Sarkuysan expects demand from consumers to decline by 10-15 percent in 2009.

October 16, 2008: The liquidity crisis and weak copper prices have led Sterlite Industries to seek a reduction in the price tag for Asarco.

October 15, 2008: Vedanta Resources Plc has reported gains in second-quarter zinc and iron ore output. However, the company's copper production has declined.

October 15, 2008: The worldwide economic crisis would not affect the financing of the Chinese copper producer Chinalco's $2.2 billion Toromocho copper project in Peru.

October 15, 2008: Sumitomo Metal Mining Co. of Japan will start construction of a $2-billion nickel processing plant in southern Philippines, informed a company official.

October 15, 2008: The forecast for the second quarter is dull as a correction in prices, the global economic slowdown and higher input costs would adversely affect second quarter results for domestic metal producers.

October 14, 2008: Alcoa has entered into a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) for a power contract to feed the requirements of Alcoa Intalco Works (aluminium smelter) till 2028.

October 14, 2008: It is likely that the world nickel market would continue to be in surplus until the middle of 2009, opined an executive in the world's largest nickel producer OAO Norilsk Nickel.

October 14, 2008: National Aluminium Co (Nalco) has slashed aluminum prices by Rs 4,500 per ton to Rs 1,28,400 ($93.50).

October 13, 2008: Imports of unwrought copper and semi-finished copper products in China are likely to rise in September as compared to the previous month, supported by attractive margins opined analysts and traders.

October 10, 2008: Alcoa has reported a net income of $268 million, which included $29 million for restructuring. Revenues excluding divested businesses stood at $7.2 billion, an increase from $6.5 billion in the third quarter of 2007.

October 10, 2008: This year Chile's Codelco expects its copper output at its Andina division to be 220,000 ton. Further it expects it to rise to 240,000 tons in 2010 as the first phase of its expansion starts informed the state miner.

October 8, 2008: Natural rubber production has gone up by 27 percent so far in this fiscal, FY2008-09, on the back of conducive climate and higher prices while consumption, too, gained pace, with rising demand from tyre manufacturers and rose by 5 percent.

October 7, 2008: Thermax has clinched a Rs 450 crore order for setting up a captive power plant from an integrated steel unit.

October 3, 2008: Hindustan Zinc (HZL) expects capacity addition to be completed by 2010 and lead to an overseas contribution of 55 percent of turnover.

October 3, 2008: The offshore service segment has witness a fall in demand for shallow water rigs.

October 3, 2008: The September end Reliance Petrochem's Benzene price ruled steady at Rs. 58 (basic) and the BPCL price for the product stood at Rs. 58.95 (basic), as per a Chemical Weekly report dated Sep 24, 2008.

October 1, 2008: In August, copper production in Chile declined 1.2 percent on the year to 425,524 tons, as compared to 430,801 tons produced in the same month a year ago informed Chilean government statistics agency INE.

September 30, 2008: Copper output in Mexico registered a 12.5 percent decrease to 23,600 tons in July as compared to the same month a year ago.

September 30, 2008: Zinc has slipped about 6 percent to $1,780 per ton in the past two months, opposed to the $4,100 per ton high touched in October 2007. This is probably why Hindustan Zinc (HZL) net sales declined 8 percent year-on-year to Rs 7,878 crore in 2007-08, despite a 22.4 percent y-o-y increase in production of saleable zinc.

September 29, 2008: Hindustan Zinc is ready to set up a 3,65,000-tons per annum (tpa) zinc dust and 36,500 tpa CGG plant near Rajaji national park in Haridwar after it got approval from the National Board for Wildlife.

September 26, 2008: High input costs may lead cement companies to restructure dealers' margins.

September 26, 2008: Norwegian aluminium and renewable energy company Norsk Hydro ASA, has said that as compared to the earlier expectation of the global primary aluminium consumption growth being about 8 percent it is now expects it to be about 7 percent in 2008.

September 26, 2008: Vedanta Resources has lined up a $9.8-billion investment to raise annual smelting capacity to almost 2.6 million tons (mt) by 2012. It aims to become the world's fifth-largest aluminium producer.

September 25, 2008: Vedanta Resources plc has given up plans to divide its corporate structure into three units.

September 25, 2008: Caustic soda, caustic soda lye and alumina are likely to witness a reduction in transportation costs as Indian Railways has planned a 5 percent to 6 percent freight rebate applicable to privately-owned wagons.

September 25, 2008: Risk arising out of supply side mainly high cost of energy together with a favourable demand is likely to change the present condition of the aluminium market which is now in oversupply in two to three years felt a senior executive with Norsk Hydro ASA (NHY).

September 24, 2008: The total world aluminium output saw an increase of 4,000 tons in the month of August as compared to total production in July.

September 23, 2008: Australia has cut estimates of annual zinc and nickel output due to decreasing prices and domestic energy crisis. However, it remained optimistic inspite of fears of global recession.

September 23, 2008: Markets in Mumbai, Delhi-NCR, Gujarat and the south are likely to see a Rs 3 to Rs 5 per bag rise in cement prices. This will take prices to Rs 245 to Rs 275 per 50-kg bag.

September 23, 2008: Both the state run and private companies of India together produced 526,859 tons of aluminium during April-August period as compared to 510,623 tons a year ago.

September 22, 2008: Oil firmed up above $104 a barrel on Monday after an initial gain. Investors pulled back on doubts over the working of the US government's $700-billion bank bailout plan.

September 22, 2008: National Aluminium Company (Nalco) plans has appointed a consultant for detail engineering of its alumina refinery and power plant under its proposed third phase expansion.

September 22, 2008: National Aluminium Company (Nalco) plans to invest Rs 40,000 crore in domestic - both brownfield and greenfield - and overseas projects.

September 22, 2008: The refined zinc world market recorded a surplus of 22,000 tons in January to July period revealed World Bureau of Metal Statistics (WBMS) recently stated a media report.

September 18, 2008: Adani Power is considering utilising fly ash to be generated at its 4,620-MW Mundra thermal power plant, due for commissioning in 2009.

September 18, 2008: In China, merchants expect prices of zinc to increase in the coming months on the back of domestic banks escalating lending and providing more cash to end users inspite of large domestic supplies.

September 17, 2008: Slipping industrial metal prices will probably spell good news for the steel, construction and electrical equipment sectors, cable and battery manufacturers, along with transportation and the packaging industry.

September 17, 2008: Top Japanese smelter Sumitomo Metal Mining Co Ltd, said that this year it expects the global surplus of nickel to be 26,000 tons on the back of slow recovery in the demand of stainless steel.

by Nudrat Alim

September 15, 2008: Prices of natural rubber in the spot market stayed strong, slowing down trade activities to a great extent.

September 15, 2008: Aluminum and zinc output in China have made a come back in the month of August as compared to July even in spite of previous news that smelters had plans to reduce output to support prices.

September 11, 2008: Chinese imports of unwrought copper and semi-finished copper products declined to 178,047 tons in August from 186,136 tons in July.

September 11, 2008: Maithan Alloy plans on investing Rs 350 crore in two new greenfield manganese alloy plants.

September 10, 2008: China's Jinchuan Group Ltd has cut its production target owing to the delays in a new smelter and it has transformed two other facilities to make copper.

September 10, 2008: Madhya Pradesh will get several new cement factories after 38 memoranda of understanding (MoUs) - entailing an investment of Rs 73 crore - were signed at the state's initiative.

September 10, 2008: Nickel export from Russia from January to July increased by 0.8 percent as compared to the same period a year ago, informed the federal customs service. The country during this period exported 139,600 tons of nickel.

September 10, 2008: Saudi Arabia's increased production has helped crude oil price to slide to $104.77 per barrel currently from $ 147.27 per barrel prevailing on July 11.

September 9, 2008: National Aluminium Co (Nalco) had lowered production levels for three days last week at its Orissa refinery due to less availability if coal. It shut down one of its three operational boilers on Thursday after finishing its coal stock, of about 10,000 tons.

by Dhirendra Pandey & Lokenath Tiwary

September 8, 2008: Revision of freight rates for the second time in two months has made it difficult for buyers and transporters of polymers.

by Gilbert Lobo

September 8, 2008: High carbon ferro manganese is continuing to soar in the domestic market with prices crossing Rs 100,0000 per ton and reaching Rs 105,000 per ton.

September 8, 2008: Dempo Group is targeting raising Rs 1,500 crore by divesting stake in flagship mining company VS Dempo. It will invest the funds in its Goa Carbon petroleum coke business.

September 8, 2008: West Bengal's Metal Scrap Trading (MSTC) has gained enormous pace with e-commerce. MSTC chairman & managing director Malay Sengupta said profit stood at Rs 92 crore in 2007-08, a 10-fold growth from Rs 9 crore in 2002-03.

September 5, 2008: Vedanta Resources is upbeat on its aluminium output increasing in the year up to March 2009, up 28 percent from 3,90,000 tons in the previous year. "Vedanta's total aluminium production is expected to be close to half a million tons this year," said chief executive officer (aluminium) Pramod Suri.

September 5, 2008: The production of the main ferro alloys witnessed a considerable hike during the first quarter of fiscal 2008-09 against the corresponding period last year.

September 4, 2008: Kazakhstan based Eurasian Natural Resources Corporation (ENRC) witnessed a rise of 11.64 percent in its production of ferro chrome during the first half of the calendar year 2008 reaching 633,000 tons compared to the corresponding period last year.

September 3, 2008: A supply shortage may raise coal prices and tell on cement companies' margins in the second quarter.

September 2, 2008: Hindustan Copper aligned with global prices and brought down the basic selling prices of cathode full and cathode cut by over 1 percent or Rs 400 per ton, effective today.

September 2, 2008: Cement companies may have heaved a sigh of relief after the recent fall in coal prices but it is still not enough to protect margins.

September 1, 2008: The first shipment of 30,000 tons of imported coal has arrived for National Aluminium Co Ltd (Nalco) to help it overcome shortages which have forced it to cut alumina output in July.

September 1, 2008: Output of copper in Zambia in January-June increased by 8.8 percent as compared to year earlier, on the back of increased production capacity from its major copper mines, informed the central bank of the country.

September 1, 2008: The fall in nickel prices could be 25 percent lower this year if orders from European steel producers remain at the current level.

September 1, 2008: Cement manufacturers have had to slash prices by Rs 5 to Rs 10 per 50 kg bag in north India as demand has slipped and supplies piled up.

August 29, 008: Chile's copper output in July decreased by 5.5 percent to 430,361 tons as compared to the same month a year earlier.

August 29, 2008: June copper cable shipments in Japan saw an increase of 0.4 percent on year, informed the Japanese Electric Wire and Cable Makers' Association on August 28.

August 27, 2008: In a recent development, Indonesian metal firm PT Nusantara Smelting Corp is planning to set up a copper smelter next year, which would produce 200,000 tons of copper cathode annually.

August 26, 2008: Mining projects are stuck in a queue as the Ministry of Environment & Forests (MoEF) tries to sift through the environment-related data furnished by the likes of Sesa Goa, Tata Chemicals, Hindalco Industries and Tata Steel.

August 26, 2008: In the first half of the present year, the world nickel market was in a 6,600 tons deficit informed the World Bureau of Metal Statistics (WBMS).

August 26, 2008: In the next few years, the demand for copper and finished copper products is likely to grow at a faster pace on the back of the country's economic boom, informed a senior industry official.

August 25, 2008: Cement manufacturer JK Lakshmi plans to invest up to Rs 1,000 crore to set up five ready-mix concrete (RMC) plants.

August 25, 2008: Aluminium Corp of China's (Chinalco) recent purchase of a minority stake in Rio Tinto has got the nod from Australia but it has been warned against buying more shares without prior approval.

August 25, 2008: In the first half of the present year, the world zinc market was in a 53,000 ton surplus revealed the World Bureau of Metal Statistics (WBMS) recently.

August 25, 2008: India's aluminum output for the April-July period witnessed an increase as the state-run and the private companies together produced 418,334 tons of aluminum.

August 22, 2008: Hindustan Zinc (HZL) has said it will invest Rs 3,600 crore through internal accruals in phase III of its expansion plan.

August 22, 2008: Exide Industries plans to invest Rs 300 crore in expansion this financial year.

August 22, 2008: Tata Steel subsidiary Corus is in talks with Klesch & Co Ltd to sell its aluminium smelters in the Netherlands and Germany.

August 21, 2008: Coal shortage could again disrupt output to Nalco units, although operations are normal at present. "We are not able to keep minimum coal stocks," said Nalco chairman and managing director C.R. Pradhan.

August 21, 2008: ABG International will go through ABG Cement to set up cement capacities of 4.6 million tons in Gujarat.

August 19, 2008: Chile's copper exports amounted to $4.031 billion in the month of July as compared with $3.542 billion earned by the country during the same month a year ago, informed the country's central bank.

August 19, 2008: Crude prices settled below $113 a barrel for the first time in over three months yesterday as Tropical Storm Fay steered clear of oil-producing infrastructure in the Gulf of Mexico.

August 19, 2008: Production of refined copper in Kazakhstan witnessed a decrease of 9.5 percent on the year to 216,446 tons during January to July.

by Rajkumar Mitra

August 19, 2008: With the current boom in infrastructure growth, reaching a global turnover of $1 billion is no big deal for Simplex Infrastructure.

by Rajkumar Mitra

August 19, 2008: Eveready, which produces more than half the dry cell batteries of the country, feels its move to bring production planning under the material management functions, has helped to cut down on its working capital needs.

August 19, 2008: Rio Tinto has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with NMDC, the largest mining company in India, to form an equal joint venture to explore minerals in India and abroad.

by Rajesh Ray

August 19, 2008: Having the right inventory of raw materials, components and packaging items is always a challenge which every materials manager needs to face.

by Neha Prasad

August 19, 2008: Global competition has ensured that the domestic industry keeps expenditure at a minimum for preserving its position in the markets.

by Rajkumar Mitra

August 19, 2008: With purchasing becoming a more complex activity day by day, purchase departments are procuring more and more routine or revenue items through annual rate contracts or blanket orders, instead of buying them on a case-to-case basis. These routine items are usually fairly easy to source.

August 18, 2008: Recently the attention on the rising price of steel has masked the relevance of the non-ferrous sector aluminium, copper, zinc and lead which plays an equally important role in user industries such as consumer goods, utility and the transport sectors.

August 18, 2008: Turkish origin chrome ore is showing signs of weakening with prices slipping by $20 a ton to $550 in six months time.

August 18, 2008: Stocks of aluminium at major Japanese ports were steady in the month of July as compared to June as they were down by 0.3 percent a month.

August 13, 2008: Copper producer Southern Copper has informed that it has lowered its production target for the present year.

August 12, 2008: Exports of unwrought aluminum in China declined 24 percent to 93,441 tons from 123,538 tons in the month of June.

August 11, 2008: Russia's Industrial-Metallurgical Holding has cut its nickel production by half at its 14,000-ton Ufaleynickel plant owing to rising energy costs, informed a spokesperson of the company.

August 8, 2008: Chilean copper producer Codelco said that it is weighing its options of buying two copper properties in Chile's rich northern province from Enami a small government-run mining company.

August 8, 2008: This year during January-June, Russia's copper export declined 30.2 percent to 83,300 tons informed the country's federal customs service.

August 8, 2008: Cement companies feel excess capacity will keep prices at low levels, despite the demand rising from various new infrastructural projects.

August 8, 2008: Copper futures traded steady on July 7 as rising stocks and a slackening demand situation continued to shake investor faith in industrial metals.

August 7, 2008: Mining company Xstrata plc is aiming at doubling production of nickel production within the next five years, informed a senior executive.

August 7, 2008: Inflation is rubbing out the already thin margins of the packaging industry. Corrugated box manufacturers are trying hard to keep prices low despite the continuous increase in costs of raw materials and manufacturing. This is giving rise to heavy losses.

August 7, 2008: The remainder of the year is likely to see base metals prices lose. According to London-based Natixis Commodity Markets, this slip will be maximum in lead, nickel and zinc and may spread to other metals.

August 7, 2008: Disruption of nickel supply and reductions resulting due to strikes, energy constraints, declining output of pig iron and maintenance shutdowns have added up to about 70,000 tons in the first half of the year which is nearly 5 percent of the global nickel demand informed diversified mining company Xstrata PLC on August 6th .

August 6, 2008: The cement sector is facing trouble ahead, with GDP growth slipping and over 70 million tons (mt) of fresh capacity set to come up in the next two years.

August 6, 2008: National Aluminium Company Ltd (Nalco) is still facing coal paucity, though its 1.6 million tons (mt) alumina refinery in Damanjodi, Orissa is running at optimum capacity nine days after it scaled down production due to fuel shortage.

August 5, 2008: Oil & Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) has been granted relief by the shipping ministry on the age of vessels it hires.

August 5, 2008: National Aluminium Co Ltd (Nalco) has resumed normal production at its alumina refinery, which was hit by a coal shortage last week.

August 5, 2008: Peru's output of copper, zinc and other metals witnessed an increase in the month of June as compared to the same month of the previous year, informed the Energy and Mines Ministry on August 3.

August 5, 2008: C.K. Birla group firm Orient Paper & Industries (OPIL) is looking for fresh local markets for its cement business.

August 1, 2008: Copper producer Chile saw an increase of 2.5 percent in production in the month of June.

July 31, 2008: China's second largest miner, Western Mining, decreased its zinc production forecast affected by rising cost, plant outages and limited power supplies.

July 31, 2008: The M.P. Birla Group flagship Birla Corporation Ltd will invest Rs 1,200 crore into a 3-million-ton (mt) cement plant in Madhya Pradesh, near its existing unit at Satna, within two years.

July 31, 2008: Supplies are tight for lead and zinc concentrate in China because of security controls on explosives ahead of the Olympic Games in August, combined with tight transport and ongoing crackdowns on small mines and polluting factories.

July 30, 2008: Inmet Mining Corp. expects a 10.5 percent drop in the production target of copper for the year 2008.

July 30, 2008: Several new capacities which have come onstream in the past few months have been affecting cement prices. Bulk cement is bought by construction companies directly from cement manufacturers and its price has slipped about Rs 100 per ton.

July 30, 2008: In the last 10 years ending 2007, the world copper mine output increased 26 percent to record 15.4 million tons, the International Copper Study Group (ICSG) informed on July 28.

July 30, 2008: Ispat Industries is gearing up for a new 2 million tons (mt) cement plant in Madhya Pradesh with an investment of about Rs 700 crore, according to a company official.

July 29, 2008: The National Aluminium Company Limited (Nalco) may have to shut its plant owing to coal shortages.

July 29, 2008: The Indian Railways will run more goods trains between India and Pakistan on the Attari sector to boost supply of cement.

July 29, 2008: Orissa gave phase I clearance on July 26 to three projects with investment proposals worth Rs 42,813 crore in an effort to uplift the aluminium sector, according to official sources.

July 28, 2008: Hindustan Zinc Ltd (HZL) has raised prices of lead to keep up with global prices.

July 28, 2008: BHP Billiton (BHPB) registered a rise in their output of manganese ore and manganese ferro-alloys in the financial year which ended on the June 30, compared to the figures in the corresponding period of 2006-07.

July 28, 2008: Southern Copper Corp. (PCU) on July 25 forecast 245,000 tons of copper production from all its operations in the second half of 2008.

July 25, 2008: Vadodara-based Gujarat Alkalies & Chemicals (GACL) and the US' Dow Chemicals have joined hands for a Rs 600 crore plane in Dahej. The unit is slated to produce 2 lakh tons per annum of the chlormathan group of chemicals.

July 25, 2008: Base metals were traded lower on the London Metal Exchange (LME) on July 24.

24 July, 2008: Copper prices fell 0.61 percent in early trade on Thursday in the futures market on weak global cues and a stronger US currency against the euro.

July 24, 2008: Russia's Chelyabinsk Zinc Plant which produces nearly two-thirds of the country's zinc informed on July 21, that in the first six months of the present year it had boosted output by 5.5 percent.

July 24, 2008: The cement sector is likely to witness a production growth of 6 percent in the current fiscal, according to Aditya Birla Group chairman Kumar Mangalam Birla. The growth will be the lowest since 2004-05.

July 24, 2008: Orissa is finding it difficult to unlock the value in its rich bauxite deposits. The state has about 60 percent of domestic reserves located within its territory and has inked 49 memoranda of understanding for staring steel plants with a proposed investment of Rs 3 lakh crore.

July 24, 2008: India Cements Ltd, the manufacturer of popular brands such as Sankar and Coromandel, is planning to achieve an all-India presence.

July 23, 2008: Labour shortage is likely to hit rubber plantations this year. The growers in Kerala are facing this crisis with no solution in sight. The problem is particularly severe in Kottayam, Pathanamthitta and Ernakulam.

July 22, 2008: Industries ranging from tyre and auto components to footwear which use natural rubber (NR) as a raw material may face a supply bottleneck. This is because the natural rubber replantation rate in India has been on the decline over the last four years.

July 22, 2008: Despite cement despatches of frontline companies improving in the first quarter of 2008-09, steep rise in input cost is expected to exert pressure on the bottomlines.

July 22, 2008: The country's copper futures were marginally higher on the Multi Commodity Exchange of India Ltd (MCX) on July 21, but a supply overhang and a suspended strike in Peru, put a bearish pressure, an analyst said.

July 21, 2008: Ckoramaandel Cements posted a marginal 1.68 per cent increase in its net profit for the first quarter ended June 2008 at Rs 4.23 crore against Rs 4.16 crore in the year-ago period.

July 21, 2008: Mumbai-based Nissan Copper Ltd. plans to set up a greenfield plant of 12,000 tons per annum, near its existing manufacturing facility at Silvasa.

July 21, 2008: Low-ash metallurgical coke manufacturer Gujarat NRE Coke has posted a net profit of Rs 94.4 crore for the quarter ended June 30, more than two-fold rise over the corresponding period last year.

July 21, 2008: Boosted by a surprise increase in fuel retail price in June 2008, Chinese output of refinery have recorded an increase of 10 percent in the month of June, according to an official data published last Friday.

July 21, 2008: UltraTech Cement, part of the Aditya Birla group, has posted a 2 percent rise in its net at Rs 265 crore for the quarter ended June 30, 2008 as compared to Rs 259 crore it posted in the first quarter of FY 2008.

July 21, 2008: Aditya Birla group chairman Kumar Mangalam Birla on July 18 painted a bleak outlook for the cement sector when he said that high costs and inflation have affected construction and could pull down growth in the local cement industry, considered to be the world's second largest market after China.

July 21, 2008: Sinopec Shanghai Petrochemical, China's largest integrated chemicals firm, has won government approval to add 450,000 tons per year (tpy) ethylene capacity, an official website reported on July 17.

July 21, 2008: The 1-million-ton greenfield plant by French cement-maker Lafarge at Mejia in West Bengal is likely to begin commercial production by September-October.

by Dhirendra Pandey & Lokenath Tiwary

July 18, 2008: Tamil Nadu Newsprint and Papers Ltd (TNPL) plans to focus on export and increase the production capacity of printing and writing paper (PWP), keeping in mind the growing global demand.

by Sarbani Haldar

July 18, 2008: Kesoram Industries Ltd, the flagship company of the B.K. Birla group, plans to invest Rs 2150 crore on expansion of its facilities.

by Rajkumar Mitra

Rising sulphuric acid price is currently affecting the negotiation capabilities of copper smelters for imported copper metal-in-concentrate (MIC) with miners.

by Rajkumar Mitra

July 18, 2008: The age old concept of cutting cost of purchases to improve the company bottomline is dying out fast globally.

July 18, 2008: ACC, UltraTech Cement and other Indian cement makers may cut capacity utilisation by as much as 8 percent in the financial year ending March 2008 as demand slows and new capacities are added, industry experts and analysts said.

July 18, 2008: Hindustan Zinc Ltd (HZL), the country's largest producer of the metal, on July 17 said it has reduced zinc prices by Rs 3,400 a ton and raised lead prices by Rs 2,800 a ton.

July 18, 2008: The National Aluminium Company (Nalco), which had cut production last month because of coal shortage, plans to import 100,000 tons of fuel to prevent another disruption at a time when prices of the lightweight metal are record high.

by Arusha Das

July 18, 2008: Strong crude oil price has driven naphtha prices northwards, leading to a cost push for ethylene and polyethylene in June.

July 18, 2008: Cement prices rose nearly 3.5 percent on an average throughout the country in July following an increase in transportation cost due to increase in diesel prices in the first week of June, traders and retailers said.

by Arnab Mallick

July 18, 2008: Nickel witnessed a roller coaster ride this June. After initial increase of spot price from $21605 per ton as on June 2 to $24550 per ton on June 13, the market corrected quite sharply and ended at $21675 per ton on June 30, thereby registering a marginal appreciation of 0.32 percent during the month.

by Arnab Mallick

July 18, 2008: After experiencing massive hammering in May, zinc tried to exhibit some strength at major exchanges in June.

by Arnab Mallick

Maintaining its strength in May, aluminium rose steadily this June at the London Metal Exchange (LME). LME spot official price closed at around $3075 per ton on June 30, thereby appreciating by over 7.60 percent during the month.

by Nudrat Alim

July 18, 2008: The global phenol industry is booming, triggered off mainly by the large scale downstream expansions which are taking place throughout Asia. India is slowly emerging as one of the significant contributors to this growth in demand.

July 18, 2008: Benzene import rates moved up by as much as 17 percent in end June 2008 compared to prices prevailing at the beginning of last month, fuelled by high crude oil prices.

by Arnab Mallick

July 18, 2008: One of the major concerns at the moment is the slowdown in China demand for copper amidst slowing global economy.

by Arnab Mallick

June 18, 2008: Copper rallied quite a bit this June after facing some hammering the previous month. Copper cash price at the London Metal Exchange (LME) increased by nearly 10 percent in June, from $7980 per ton on June 2 to $8775.5 per ton on June 30.

by Rajkumar Mitra

July 18, 2008: Ammonia prices rose substantially in June 2008 over last month's prices, essentially driven by shortage of ammonia in the Asia-Pacific region.

by Nudrat Alim

July 18, 2008: Large scale production of natural rubber in the month of June has led to an increase in exports. Exporters have been encouraged to ship out more rubber, expecting better returns, owing to the price differential between international and domestic markets.

July 17, 2008: Polymer makers in the country are set to expand their capacity by a whopping 40 percent in the next three years, leading to large-scale job creation and increase domestic consumption of plastics.

July 17, 2008: Large zinc smelters in China, on July 17 declined to join output cuts proposed by smaller producers, but agreed to a moratorium on new projects for the rest of 2008.

July 17, 2008: The average prices of base metals are likely to fall by 5 percent in the second half of the year on weakening demand from major industrial countries and economic slowdown in the US.

July 16, 2008: Reliance Industries sold a total 540,000 tons of term gasoline supplies to two buyers at discount levels for the second half thereby adding on to an already well-supplied Asian market, traders said on July 16.

July 16, 2008: Prices of tin, copper cable and copper wirebar moved up in a mixed non-ferrous metal market on July 15th due to good industrial demand. While zinc and copper utensils eased, owing to lack of demand from industrial users.

Copper cable scrap rose by a rupee per kg to Rs 389 and copper wirebar by a rupee per kg to Rs 417.

Source: Business Line

July 16, 2008: Associated Cement Companies (ACC) is betting big on its ready-mix concrete (RMC) business. It plans to double its RMC units to 46 this year. The ACC spokesperson confirmed the development. Sources said the company would need to invest Rs 150 crore to achieve this target.

July 16, 2008: National Aluminium Company (Nalco) is readying a war chest of over $4 billion to set up aluminium smelter and power plants in Iran and Saudi Arabia. The company has proposed a joint venture with Iran's Aluminium Pars Hanza (ALPHA) for a 1.55 lakh metric ton aluminium smelter plant in the first phase at an investment of $1 billion. In Saudi Arabia, Nalco has proposed an investment of $3 billion in a 5 lakh metric ton smelter and 5,000 mw power plant.

July 15, 2008: French cement maker Lafarge plans to invest $1 billion over five years to expand its cement capacity in India to about 20 million tons, a media report said on July 15, citing sources.

July 15, 2008: Zinc has posted smart gains in both international and domestic markets over the last couple of trading sessions, buoyed by high energy prices and an expected cut in Chinese production.

July 14, 2008: The Reliance-Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (ADAG) is looking for acquisitions to start its cement business much before it completes its 4,000-MW mega power project at Sasan in eastern Madhya Pradesh, which is to provide the fly ash that is used to make cement.

July 11, 2008: Export curbs or duties on petrochemical products like polymers are unlikely immediately, though the government is considering such an action to contain inflation, according to the Indian Plastics Federation (IPF).

July 11, 2008: The US sanction on Iran is looming large on the proposed National Aluminium Company Ltd (Nalco) project in the country.

July 11, 2008: Cement shipments rose 8.7 percent in June from a year ago, data from the Cement Manufacturers' Association (CMA) showed.

July 11, 2008: Sterlite Industries (India) said that it has reached an agreement with the unions representing the workers of the US-based integrated copper refining company Asarco.

July 10, 2008: Exports of aluminum and alloys from China have witnessed a rise to the highest in almost two years due to soaring global prices.

July 10, 2008: Prices of copper, nickel, lead and brass declined moderately on the non-ferrous metal market here on 9th July due to lack of industrial demand coupled with lower advices from London Metal Exchange (LME).

July 10, 2008: The cement industry, already reeling under the weight of spiralling input costs and continued government intervention, is headed for a tougher time owing to rise in rates of diesel and packaging bags and the new supply conditions laid down by Coal India.

July 10, 2008: Finance Ministry has called a meeting with the representatives of petro-chemical industry, including Reliance Industries, on July 10th to discuss the rising prices of polymers, which is used in the manufacturing of plastic and synthetic textiles.

July 10, 2008: The metals sector is all set to begin the current financial year with a moderate set of numbers for the first quarter.

The year-on-year growth rate is expected to be better compared to that in the year-ago quarter. However, on a quarter-on-quarter basis, analysts expect lower sales and the net profit, given the government's decision in the second week of May to curb steel prices in order to check inflation. Further, analysts expect sales growth to be tepid in the June quarter as against the March quarter, which traditionally records higher volumes.

July 10, 2008: India's leading mining and construction equipment maker Bharat Earth Movers Ltd (BEML) has bagged orders worth Rs.2.07 billion to export hydraulic excavators, rear dump trucks and bulldozers to Indonesia.

July 10, 2008: Global copper prices are expected to be subdued until September because of reduced industrial demand from China, analysts said. Chinese copper demand is likely to decline as the country plans to curb industrial pollution in and around Beijing, where the 2008 Summer Olympics will be held next month, they said.

July 9, 2008: Used copper and seconds were brought under the hazardous material category and norms governing their imports were made stringent three years ago.

July 9, 2008: With the rising manganese alloy price, manganese ore producers are finding it more profitable to switch tracks and enhance value addition by manufacturing the alloy itself.

July 9, 2008: With the rising manganese alloy price, manganese ore producers are finding it more profitable to switch tracks and enhance value addition by manufacturing the alloy itself.

July 9, 2008: With the rising manganese alloy price, manganese ore producers are finding it more profitable to switch tracks and enhance value addition by manufacturing the alloy itself.

July 8, 2008: Aluminium registered a drop from a record in Asian trade following its hike on July 7, owing to decreased output from China, due to power shortages.

July 8, 2008: Vedanta Aluminium (VAL), a part of the Vedanta group, plans to expand capacity of its existing alumina refinery in Lanjigarh, Orissa, to 6 million tons (mt) from the current 1 mt at an investment of around Rs 7,000 crore.

July 8, 2008: High and volatile crude prices have hit the corrugated packaging industry very hard.

July 8, 2008: Nickel prices fell 0.50 percent to Rs 894.50 per kg in opening trade on July 7 on the futures market on some selling by traders.

July 8, 2008: Copper prices moved up by 0.52 percent in the domestic futures market on July 7, largely on speculative buying, tracking firm global markets.

July 8, 2008: Wholesale prices of nickel and zinc were down between Re 1-10 each per kg in the national capital on July 7, due to reduced demand from consuming industries.

July 8, 2008: Aluminium prices rose 2.27 percent in the futures market on July 7, due to firming trends in global markets.

July 7, 2008: As is commonly the practice of government undertakings in this country, National Aluminium Company (Nalco), owning Asia's largest integrated aluminium complex, would rather err on the side of caution than take the risk of selling most of its surplus alumina, the smelter feedstock, in the world spot market by inviting tenders for lots.

July 7, 2008: At a time when the domestic cement industry is reeling under the pressure of rising input costs and declining net realisation per ton of cement, India Cements, the country's fourth largest cement maker, has registered a 6.32 percent rise in net realisation in June quarter.

July 7, 2008: Binani Cement, the flagship company of the Rs 1,700-crore Binani group, is considering long-term bulk cement supply contract with real estate developers including Raheja and Hiranandani.

July 4, 2008 - Sulphuric acid (98 percent concentrate) is currently sold at an ex-work price of Rs 13,500 per ton. In June, the acid was sold at Rs 12,500 per ton. Price of this acid was around Rs 11,000 in April 2008 according to an acid manufacturer.

July 4, 2008: The Chinese government declared the benchmark export rates for calculating ferro silicon export duty on July 4, according to the ferro-alloys.com website.

July 4, 2008: Hindustan Copper (HCL), has again raised the provisional basic selling prices of its products to match the global levels.

July 4, 2008: The global copper mine production will grow at an average rate of 5.2 percent per annum to reach 23 million tons (mt) in 2012, says an inter-governmental forum.

July 4, 2008: Aluminium prices rose 1.80 percent in early trade on the futures market on July 3 on increased buying by traders.

July 4, 2008: Prices of nickel and other base metals today fell on the futures market on increased selling pressure due to weak market sentiment amid rising inventories.

July 3, 2008: Vedanta Group firm Sterlite suffered a setback on July 2, in its $2.6-billion bid for bankrupt copper miner Asarco with a US bankruptcy judge allowing Asarco's parent Grupo Mexico to come up with a revival package.

July 3, 2008: The domestic cement industry, which has planned projects worth Rs 50,000 crore by 2010, is having second thoughts on expansion plans as the country's economic growth is expected to slow down.

July 3, 2008: The production of natural rubber rose by 43 percent to 62,000 tons in June 2008 against 43,480 tons in the year-ago period, according to the Rubber Board's provisional data.

July 2, 2008: Ambuja Cements on July 1 reported a 5 percent increase in production at 14.79 lakh tons for June, against 14.10 lakh tons in the year-ago period.

July 2, 2008: Manaksia, a Kolkata-based maker of aluminium products, is in talks to buy a Polish aluminium alloy company having a turnover of roughly e130 million, approximately Rs 900 crore.

July 2, 2008: Cement prices are likely to go up by Rs 3 per bag in Mumbai, Gujarat and the southern markets effective July 1. Other markets in the country are expected to follow suit later.

July 2, 2008: Ferro silicon prices have dropped in the domestic market with the onset of the rainy season.

July 1, 2008: The Andhra Pradesh Plastics Manufacturers Association (APPMA) has urged the Union government to bring down the custom duty on polymers from the existing 5 percent to nil.

July 1, 2008: Costlier raw material and tight credit conditions have slowed down the cement companies' ambitious Rs 50,000-crore expansion plan to add 80 to 90 million tons capacity in three years.

July 1, 2008: Copper prices gained 1.30 percent in the futures market in early trade on June 30, as market participants indulged in buying in line with firming trend in overseas markets.

June 30, 2008: Indian cement industry expects margins to be under pressure this fiscal due to higher input costs and inflation but demand from the infrastructure sector will cushion the impact, officials said.

June 27, 2008: Zinc declined for the fifth time in six weeks owing to concerns that supply may outpace demand with increased production in the midst of high global inventories.

June 27, 2008: Enthused by a rise in net profit in 2007-08, Hindustan Copper Ltd (HCL) has submitted an application with the government of Madhya Pradesh for reconnaissance permit for an area of 1,600 sq km in the district of Balaghat.

June 27, 2008: Tribals on June 26 staged a demonstration at Rajgangpur near Rourkela demanding cancellation of a conveyer belt project of a cement plant, saying it would increase pollution in the area.

June 27, 2008: The National Aluminium Co Ltd (Nalco) and the Tatas are all set to ink a joint venture agreement to set up a $3-billion aluminium smelter and power plants in South Africa (SA).

June 27, 2008: Hindustan Copper Ltd (HCL) will soon start trading its copper cathodes on the London Metal Exchange (LME), as a part of its strategy on risk management in the form of hedging and price discovery.

June 27, 2008: Copper futures and spot prices on the national exchange platform may remain weak in the second half of 2008 mainly on rising output in China and major mines across the globe, reduced imports by China and higher exchanges stock.

by Dhirendra Pandey & Lokenath Tiwary

June 27, 2008: The magnesium market is growing at an unexpected pace. In 2004, the global demand for magnesium was expected to be 500,000 tons by 2010, but that figure has already been surpassed.

June 27, 2008: The Indian forgings industry is witnessing a sea change, with more and more companies in this sector, diversifying into the non-automotive segment. Till now almost 70 to 80 percent of the supplies were directed towards the automotive sector and the remaining went to the non-automotive sector.

June 27, 2008: A growth of 20 percent in the installed capacity of cement in the past 14 months has resulted in capacity outstripping current demand, feel analysts and manufacturers.

June 26, 2008: Kesoram Industries Limited, a B.K. Birla flagship company, will invest Rs1600 crores to expand its tyre making facility and Rs 550 crore to expand its cement manufacturing facility.

June 26, 2008: Kesoram Industries Limited, a B.K. Birla flagship company, will invest Rs1600 crores to expand its tyre making facility and Rs 550 crore to expand its cement manufacturing facility.

June 26, 2008: Unable to absorb the rising kraft paper prices, the Federation of Corrugated Box Manufacturers of India (FCBMI) with a membership of 1,600 corrugated box manufacturers, has decided to go on a three-day strike starting on June 29 across the country.

June 26, 2008: India's lead demand is likely to increase by 15 percent this year on growing demand for batteries from the automobile, inverter, and computer companies.

June 25, 2008: The apparent consumption of refined copper in China dropped 10.2 percent in May as compared with April, as high output and weakening export markets restricted import demand from the world's top consumer of the metal.

June 25, 2008: The world zinc market witnessed a surplus of 64,000 tons during January to April 2008, the World Bureau of Metals Statistics (WBMS) informed on June 25.

June 25, 2008: China may import 20,000 tons to 40,000 tons of zinc in the next few weeks, stated a foreign news agency report quoting BNP Paribas' David Thurtell.

by Dhirendra Pandey & Lokenath Tiwary

June 25, 2008: The Indian chemical industry may step in to fill the gap, with Beijing's Municipal Public Security Bureau regulating the production and sale of as many as 257 chemicals in and around the capital ahead of the Olympics.

by Rajkumar Mitra

June 25, 2008: High raw material prices, along with reduced availability, have made it difficult for domestic phosphate producers to manufacture fertilizers according to the production targets stipulated by the government.

by Rajkumar Mitra

June 25, 2008: The grease and lubricant division of Balmer Lawrie is planning to substitute their use of mineral oil, popularly called base oil, to sustain their grease and lubricant business.

June 25, 2008: Copper prices which reached at a five-week high in the global markets, continued to surge with analysts anticipating breaching of the March-high of $8,800 per ton in the near-term.

June 25, 2008: Ckoramaandel Cements Ltd will invest Rs 700 crore in brownfield expansion of its production capacity in two phases over the next two years.

June 25, 2008: Sagar Cements is partnering Vicat SA of France for setting up a 5.5 million tons cement plant in Gulbarga, Karnataka.

June 24, 2008: Reeling under high input costs, JK Tyre on June 23, said that it will increase the rates of its tyres by up to 6 percent in the next 45 days.

June 24, 2008: The Oman government has entered into a joint venture agreement with an Indian company to set up an aluminium plant in the Gulf nation.

June 23, 2008: Select base metal prices such as tin, nickel and copper recovered in the range of Rs 5 to Rs 10 per kg in the national capital on fresh buying by stockists following firming trend at London Metal Exchange (LME).

June 20, 2008: Copper slipped for the first day in three in Asia as the government of Peru and regional officials reached an agreement to finish a 10-day protest over the mining-tax income for local governments, reducing the supply concerns.

June 20, 2008: The National Aluminium Co Ltd (NALCO) may cut production if coal shortages continue, a senior official said on June 19, raising prospects of tighter spot market supply.

June 20, 2008: About 20 plastic manufacturers' associations from across the country held a meeting with Reliance Industries officials to register their protest against frequent price rise in polymers, raw material for plastic manufacturing.

June 19, 2008: Fresh capacity additions would boost cement production, enabling it to grow by 11.5 percent in FY09, the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) said in its monthly review in Mumbai.

June 19, 2008: After acquiring a controlling 60 percent stake in aluminium foils maker Gujarat Foils for Rs 33 crore, Topworth Group of Companies on 18th June said promoters of the company will now invest Rs 60 crore in two phases for capacity expansion.

June 19, 2008: After being badly bruised by the surge in input costs and the inability to pass them on to customers owing to government pressure, cement companies have more worries ahead.

June 19, 2008: Aluminium prices rose by 1.85 percent to Rs 129.40 per kg during early trade in the domestic futures market due to increased buying at lower levels and firm global market.

June 18, 2008: Chettinad Cement Corporation Ltd plans to set up a 2.5 million tons a year cement plant and a 30-MW captive power plant in Gulbarga district of Karnataka, it has informed.

by Nudrat Alim

June 18, 2008: The rain Gods have finally brought about the much awaited relief for the rubber growers in India.

by Sarbani Haldar

June 18, 2008: Dry bulk rates continued to remain high , and freight rates of transporting cargo by sea touched high levels during the month of May.

by Sarbani Haldar

June 18, 2008: Dry bulk rates continued to remain high , and freight rates of transporting cargo by sea touched high levels during the month of May.

June 18, 2008: Average cement prices rose marginally across all cities in the month of May, despite the stringent measures announced in mid-April and also in May.

by Arnab Mallick

Maintaining last month's trend, zinc once again showed its weakness in May primarily on the back of weak fundamentals.

by Arnab Mallick

June 18, 2008: Just like most of the base metals, nickel also witnessed quite a bit of hammering this May, after remaining steady last month on the back of rising supply, high stocks and lower than expected consumption from the stainless steel industry, the largest consumer of the metal.

by Arnab Mallick

June 18, 2008: Copper prices witnessed some hammering this May. There were obvious signals that supply disruptions that arose out of the labour strike at Chile was easing and consequently, easing of the pressure on price was expected.

by Arusha Das

June 18, 2008: Spiralling crude oil prices has set a higher price tone for polymers in May, which is likely to continue in the month of June. Polymers, a by-product of crude oil, has recorded a massive hike in May in view of the soaring input cost.

by Arnab Mallick

June 18, 2008: Aluminium price witnessed quite a bit of movement this May. As expected, price went up steadily on the London Metal Exchange (LME) during most of the trading sessions in May.

by Rajkumar Mitra

June 18, 2008: The average Indian crude oil price was $120.91 a barrel in May 2008, compared to $105.77 a barrel in April 2008.

June 18, 2008: Benzene import rates climbed rapidly to 14 percent in end May 2008 compared to last month's prices, boosted by zooming crude oil prices.

by Rajkumar Mitra

June 18, 2008: Purchase departments of domestic fertiliser companies at last have something to cheer about. Ammonia import prices have dropped by as much as 15 percent in the month of May 2008 compared to last month's prices.

June 17, 2008: Sterlite Industries, the flagship firm of London-listed Vedanta Resources, may consider legal action if the bankruptcy court favours Grupo Mexico's counter-offer of $4.1 billion for Asarco, the US copper mining giant.

June 17, 2008: Prices of base metals, led by copper, rose in opening trade on the futures market on June 16th as traders covered up their short positions.

June 16, 2008: A rival bidder has suddenly challenged Sterlite Industries' takeover of Asarco Llc, a $2.6-billion transaction that seemed closed till now.

June 16, 2008: The base metals are set to display a mixed trend next week.

June 16, 2008: The construction and infrastructure sector is feeling the heat of rising cement and steel costs following a steep increase in the prices of these primary inputs.

June 16, 2008: Copper traded showed slight change in Asia around $8,000 a ton while investors were waiting for the economic data in the world's two largest consumers of the metal to measure the demand, stated a foreign news agency report.

June 16, 2008: There is consensus on the United States Geological Survey (USGS) observation that global use of copper will continue to rise at an annual rate of 3.1 percent to 27 million tons by 2020. But the demand growth in copper, as in the case of other base metals, will be mostly on account of China and India.

June 16, 2008: Deccan Cements Ltd has embarked on a Rs 432-crore capital expenditure plan.

June 16, 2008: After the sharp decline in early 2008, nickel futures are set for an upward move in the short term.

June 13, 2008: Nickel futures surged by over 3 percent in the domestic market on June 12, on account of heavy buying at lower levels and strong global trends.

June 12, 2008: With monsoons gaining strength, natural rubber prices are once again witnessing a rising trend. Since international prices are also looking up, there could be yet another bullish phase in prices during the current monsoon period.

June 12, 2008: Mining Technologies, a business unit of Siemens VAI Metals Technologies, has decided to manufacture inverter/control components for shovels and trucks at its Nashik factory, to meet the demand for mining equipment in India.

June 11, 2008: Base metals continued their downslide movement on June 10 in the capital on stockists selling triggered by subdued trends at London Metal Exchange (LME).

June 11, 2008: Alcoa of Australia, a part of the Alcoa World Alumina and Chemicals (AWAC), on June 10 informed its customers that it was declaring a force majeure under its alumina supply contracts.

June 10, 2008:

By Rajkumar Mitra: In what can be considered a major breakthrough, NALCO, the leading producer of primary aluminium in the country, has broken the age old practice of relying on steel wagons. Perhaps for the first time, a public sector unit (PSU) company is all set to initiate the launch of aluminium wagons by the end of this year.

June 10, 2008: Vedanta Resources Plc intends to invest $20 billion within the next four years to increase the power generation and metal production in India, stated a foreign news agency report quoting the chairman Anil Agarwal.

June 10, 2008: Prices of petrochemical products like polymers and plastic vinyl have surged up to 20 percent in the last two weeks, as crude oil continued to trade at record levels in the global market.

June 10, 2008: Hindalco Industries and Sterlite Industries, the two privately-owned copper majors, are mulling a change in their pricing mechanism in the wake of a dramatic rise in fuel prices.

June 10, 2008: Futures of base metals were down at commodity exchange MCX on June 9 largely on profit-taking by speculators and rising inventories on the London Metal Exchange.

June 10, 2008: Select base metals, tin and nickel, strengthened on June 9 in the national capital on the back of firming global markets and pick up in demand from consuming industries.

June 9, 2008: JK Lakshmi Cement, part of JK Group, is adding five more ready-mix concrete (RMC) units as part of its expansion plans. At present, it has 10 RMCs, and the addition of another five will be completed by the end of current fiscal with an investment of Rs 100 core.

June 9, 2008: Slipping into doldrums due to an increase in raw material costs, the emerging rubber hub in Madurai, Rubber Park (Madurai) Ltd., a consortium of rubber product manufacturers here, has announced a hike in the prices of finished products, effective July 1.

June 6, 2008: Sulphur supplies to India is currently reaching Indian ports at $860 CIF. Prices have jumped by $130 since April beginning this year, and is expected to rise further.

June 6, 2008: Ferro-silicon, having silicon content of 70 percent and imported from China, have touched $2000 per ton in June from $1400 per ton prevailing in March 2008.

June 6, 2008: Purchase departments of domestic fertiliser companies at last have cause for cheer as ammonia import prices have dropped by as much as 15 percent in the month of May 2008 compared to last month.

June 6, 2008: Ferro vanadium was selling at Rs 1500 per kg in June (ex-works), according to an Indian producer, from Rs 1100 per kg prevailing in April 2008 in the Indian market. Reduced exports from China was said to be the primary reason for this uptrend.

June 6, 2008: The National Aluminium Company (NALCO) has announced that it had drawn up ambitious growth plans involving an investment of around Rs 40,000 crore in the next five years.

June 6, 2008: While inflation touches new highs, a finger continues to wag accusingly at producers of basic inputs like cement and steel. Over the last year or so, cement prices have increased by around 15%, which exceeds by far the general rise in the level of wholesale prices.

June 4, 2008: The government has decided to withdraw tax refunds on cement exports, which it had allowed on June 2.

June 4, 2008: Record energy prices and power failures from China to South Africa are leading to mounting concerns that aluminium supplies will be curtailed within five years as production costs increase, futures prices show.

June 4, 2008: The National Aluminium Company (Nalco) has cut prices of its rolled products by Rs 3,500 per ton, B.L. Bagra, director (Finance) said on June 3.

June 3, 2008: The Aditya Birla group on June 2, said its cement production for the period April-May has risen 2.33 percent to 54.32 lakh tons, against 53.08 lakh tons in the year-ago period.

June 3, 2008: Adhunik Metaliks Ltd has decided to take over its wholly owned subsidiary Orissa Manganese and Minerals public.

June 3, 2008: The proposal to increase royalty rates for minerals by changing the calculation method -- from the specific rates to the ad valorem system based on mineral prices -- has been put on hold for three months.

June 3, 2008: Enthused by a rise in domestic orders on the back of huge infrastructure initiatives in the country, public sector Hindustan Copper has raised the selling prices of its products by 2 percent. However, price on the London Metal Exchange (LME) has gone down.

June 2, 2008: Tyre dealers will meet the Union Industry Secretary, Ajay Shankar, on June 2, opposing "indiscriminate tyre price hikes by domestic tyre majors".

June 2, 2008: The finance ministry has turned down a proposal from department of industrial policy and promotion (DIPP) to give 35 percent abatement on excise duty to cement manufacturers.

June 2, 2008: Sagar Cements Ltd will be commissioning its Rs 296-crore brownfield clinker and cement plants in July.

June 2, 2008: Indian cement maker Ultratech bought a parcel of South African coal ex-stocks at an Indian port for $170 a ton CIF and is seeking more, the seller, an Indian trader, said.

June 2, 2008: Mumbai-based Zoom Developers will invest $130 million to set up an aluminium production plant at the port of Sohar in Oman.

May 30, 2008: Hindustan Zinc has cut lead product prices by Rs 5,800 a ton to Rs 98,400 on May 30th, while zinc prices have been reduced by Rs 4,000 a ton to Rs 99,900.

May 30, 2008: Aditya Birla Minerals Ltd, in which Hindalco holds 51 percent stake, is looking for new mines and opportunities across the globe, including Africa and South America.

May 30, 2008: Germany's Linde Group plans to invest euros 1 billion euros in its unit BOC India Ltd over 7-10 years, a senior official said.

May 29, 2008: Rising prices and stiff competition from other states has put the rubber units of Punjab in jeopardy. A majority of units, especially in the SME sector, has either closed down or are resorting to layoffs.

May 29, 2008: The price of nickel, which has halved in the past year, may rebound as China shuts furnaces producing the substitute nickel pig iron.

May 29, 2008: Cement companies in the Western region particularly UltraTech and Ambuja Cements can breathe easier now as the Government has lifted the ban on cement exports from Gujarat ports.

May 28, 2008: Jinchuan Group Ltd. and Philnico Industrial Corp. finished discussions for a joint venture on a nickel project in southern Philippines, stated a foreign news agency report quoting Philnico President Evaristo Narvaez.

May 28, 2008: Tyre manufacturers and other user industries of natural rubber complained of lack of the commodity's availability even as its prices touched Rs 137 a kg.

May 28, 2008: The government has eased the ban on cement exports from the ports in Gujarat. Gujarat accounts for almost 90 percent of the country's cement exports.

May 27, 2008: Futures trading in rubber did not benefit any stakeholder, led to price volatility, and was "essentially used by speculators for their profit", Rajiv Budhraja, director general, Automotive Tyre Manufacturers Association (ATMA), said.

May 27, 2008: Barely a fortnight after the French cement major Lafarge acquired L&T Concrete, the ready-mix concrete (RMC) business of Larsen & Toubro (L&T), several domestic cement players have shown interest for foraying into RMC, which they see as a growth opportunity.

May 27, 2008: The wholesale prices of tin ingot and nickel rose up to Rs 10 a kg in the national capital on May 26, on increased demand from consuming industries.

May 26, 2008: The continued rise in the prices of natural rubber in the current financial year has set the Rs 19,000-crore tyre industry behind by almost Rs 1,000 crore.

May 24, 2008:

By Dhirendra Pandey & Lokenath Tiwary: The Container Corporation of India is faced with stiff competition from private players entering the container transport operation business. Although it is far ahead in terms of infrastructure to the 14 private players who have obtained the licences to run container trains, Concor's position may well be threatened if a level playing field is provided.

May 24, 2008:

By Arusha Das & Sarbani Haldar: The Indian power generation sector is showing a strong preference for the competitive Chinese power equipment over domestic ones. Manufacturers feel that using the Chinese products, with lower lead times, would definitely help them in improving their performance and thus meeting project deadlines.

By Nudrat Alim: The Forward Markets Commission (FMC) has imposed a four-month ban on futures trading of rubber, following the recent escalation in domestic rubber prices, with RSS 1 grade touching Rs 121 per kg on May 10, 2008.

May 24, 2008: With crude oil price moving upwards, benzene import rates are found to have moved up by 6 percent in end April 2008 compared to March end prices. On April 30, import rates (CFR) were $1140 per ton compared to $1075 per ton on March 31.

May 24, 2008: Cement manufacturers are all set to face further stringent measures from the government if they do not cut prices on their own soon. The strategy worked with steel, and manufacturers have even agreed to hold back prices for a while.

By Arusha Das: The polymer market maintained a bullish outlook in April 2008 on the back of soaring feedstock prices and low availability.

By Arnab Mallick: Nickel prices remained quite steady this April, thanks to the absence of any supply disruptions during the month. There were signals that market was getting into a steady mode, after the strike at Cerro Matoso mine that started on February 27, finally ended on April 1.

By Arnab Mallick: Zinc prices were under constant pressure during entire April, primarily on the back of increasing inventories and relatively lower demand as compared to robust supply scenario in the market.

By Arnab Mallick: Copper witnessed high prices this April on the back of severe supply disruption, weakening dollar and soaring crude price. As expected, average copper price headed northward during the month and touched a month high of $8884.5 per ton on April 10 at the London Metal Exchange (LME) from month beginning from $8325.5 per ton as on April 1 (closing price).

By Arnab Mallick: Aluminium prices remained relatively high on back of higher cost of production in April. As anticipated, aluminium managed to maintain its price as power scenario in China and South Africa was not very bright thereby adding to the cost of production.

May 23, 2008: Gujarat-based cement manufacturers may lower their capacity utilisation as the export ban last month has led to a situation of oversupply.

May 23, 2008: Aditya Birla Group, having interests in aluminium, telecom, cement, textiles, fertilisers, retail and finance, plans to invest Rs 75,000-80,000 crore in Orissa.

May 23, 2008: Chinese power equipment manufacturers in India have ruled out supplies being hit by the May 12 earthquake in China.

May 23, 2008: The Aditya Birla Group said on May 22 that it would invest Rs 75,000 crore in Orissa for its projects, including the alumina refinery project at Kashipur in Rayagada district.

May 22, 2008: The Government has eased the existing export ban on cement to allow such exports to Nepal.

May 22, 2008: International aluminium prices are not expected to fluctuate much in the near term despite the power shortage that China is facing after the killer earthquake, said analysts.

May 21, 2008: Two developments are currently on top of base metals market concerns. While supply concerns have emerged in the wake of earthquake in China's Sichuan province, the latest OECD leading indicators (for March) point to a worsening outlook for industrial production in the developed world.

May 21, 2008: Kanpur-based JK Cement has posted a decline of 2.6 percent in net profit for the quarter ended March 2008 at Rs 59.8 crore compared with Rs 61.4 crore in the corresponding previous quarter.

May 21, 2008: ACC Ltd said that it was likely to increase prices after three months considering the impact of high input costs on its margins.

May 20, 2008: SMS MEER, the German engineering giant, has launched its wholly owned Indian subsidiary, SMS MEER India Pvt Ltd in Kolkata.

May 20, 2008: Time Technoplast, engaged in manufacturing and sale of technology-based polymer products, proposes to set up a new plant in Kolkata for packaging material for plastic drums and automotive components.

May 19, 2008: Indian natural rubber prices have touched a historic high of Rs 120 for a kg of RSS4 (ribbed, smoked, sheet).

May 19, 2008: Aluminium prices surged 1.15 percent in the futures market on May 16, on expectations of a better demand from China, following a recent earthquake in that country.

May 16, 2008:

By Gilbert Lobo : The abolition of customs duty on manganese alloys will not bring down the prices of manganese alloys in India. Prices of manganese ore in India and abroad have gone up by 200 to 300 percent and what is worse is that the ore is extremely scarce. Ore is just not available anywhere in the world.

May 16, 2008:

By Gilbert Lobo : The abolition of customs duty on imports of ferro alloys is not going to bring down the prices of bulk alloys in India. Customs duty was 5 percent, but prices of all alloys have gone up by 100 percent and more.

May 16, 2008: Buoyed by over 25 percent jump in its net profit for 2007-08, JK Lakshmi Cement on May 15th said it will invest Rs 1,100 crore to set up a 2.7 million tons Greenfield plant at Chhattisgarh.

May 16, 2008: The Government is expecting cement prices to settle down in the region of Rs 200 for a 50-kg bag within the next few days with a standard market fluctuation of approximately 10 percent across the country following assurance from cement manufacturers to bring down prices told, the Minister of State for Industries, Ashwani Kumar.

May 16, 2008: Ankit Metals and Power Limited has earmarked an investment of Rs 1,000 crore to ramp up steel production to 0.5 million tons per annum within three years.

May 16, 2008: The government on 16th May said it expects further cut in cement prices for taming inflation. A day after the cement companies agreed to cut prices between Rs 3 and Rs 7.5 per 50-kg bag, Finance Minister P Chidambaram said there was huge scope for further reduction in the retail prices.

May 16, 2008: Larsen & Toubro (L&T), the country's largest engineering and construction company, plans to use the Rs 1,480 crore ($349 million) that it will get from the sale of its ready mix concrete division for expanding shipping, power and infrastructure projects.

May 15, 2008: Arch rival Pakistan has turned out to be an unusual ally in India's fight against inflation. The two governments are working on ways to enable greater supply of cement from Pakistan by removing infrastructure and procedural constraints at the Wagah-Attari border.

May 15, 2008: Rubber traders from Kerala have unanimously sought delivery of goods for their open position in a late evening meeting with the officials of the Ahmedabad-based National Multi Commodity Exchange (NMCE).

May 15, 2008: JK Lakshmi Cement has posted a 26 percent rise in net profit for the year ended March 2008 at Rs 223.67 crore against Rs 177.52 crore in the previous year. The company's net sales during the period was Rs 1,286 crore compared with Rs 971 crore, up 32 percent.

May 15, 2008: Copper futures fell on May 14, as a steady dollar and a rise in copper output in China pulled prices down, analysts said.

May 15, 2008: The massive earthquake in Sichuan province of China on May 12 is set to rattle the demand and supply equation of base metals - copper, aluminium, zinc and lead.

May 14, 2008: Of late, there has been a slowdown in aluminium output on account of power shortages in China and South Africa.

May 14, 2008: Varun Shipping has earmarked a capital expenditure of $400 million in the current financial year to expand its fleet.

May 14, 2008: The cement industry has shrugged off the possibility of being negatively impacted by the low industrial output numbers for March, 2008. Market players expect the industry to grow at the rate of 8-9 percent in this quarter (March-April).

May 14, 2008: At a time when cement firms are under government pressure to cut prices, private cement players have evinced keen interest in running the sick units of government-owned Cement Corporation of India (CCI).

May14, 2008: Supply woes, a key driver for a spurt in international copper prices this year, have evaporated with metal stockpiles building up and price sentiments having reversed. However, the breather could be short-lived after the May 12 earthquake in China and a miners' strike looming in Peru.

May 13, 2008: Over half a dozen cement companies may withdraw or curtail their proposed investment totalling around Rs 5,000 crore in setting up nearly 10 million tons of cement manufacturing facilities in the north-east.

May 13, 2008: Power shortages in China and South Africa may disrupt aluminium output again in the next few months, pushing the price of the metal to record highs.

May 12, 2008: A moderate decline in copper prices is likely this week on speculation that China, the world's largest consumer, may continue to use domestically generated metals and reduce imports.

May 9, 2008: French cement major Lafarge SA, has emerged the frontrunner in the race to acquire the ready-mix concrete (RMC) business of engineering and construction major Larsen & Toubro (L&T).

May 9, 2008: After prevailing upon steel producers to reduce prices, the Government on May 8 got assurance from cement producers also that they would substantially cut prices voluntarily.

May 9, 2008: ACC Ltd said it has decided to hold its cement prices over the next two to three months.

May 8, 2008: The Indian banks have received a directive from the US to not issue any Letter of Credit for transactions, in US dollars, with countries which fall under the MENA (Middle East and North Africa) region, disclosed a source.

The reason which is being cited for this is the recent political instability in these nations.

Source: Sourcing Insights Bureau

May 8, 2008: In the first rollback in three years, cement companies in the state slashed the billing price by Rs 3 per bag on May 5.

May 8, 2008: Natural rubber (NR) prices peaked to an all-time high on May 7, moving hand-in-hand with global markets. The price of benchmark grade RSS-4 quoted at Rs 120 a kg, while the price of the ungraded variety also broke the record at Rs 115.

May 8, 2008: The public sector Hindustan Copper (HCL) has started hedging on the country's largest commodity exchange - the Multi Commodity Exchange of India (MCX) - through its broker Religare Commodities (RCL).

May 7, 2008: China is likely to further reduce exports of lead supporting global prices, said Beijing Antaike Information Development Co.

May 7, 2008: After nearly three months of deliberation, Nalco may call off its plan to raise debt of €70 million from Standard Chartered Bank, B.L. Bagra, director (finance), Nalco, said.

May 7, 2008: Mysore Cements, which was taken over by the German giant Heidelberg Cement from the Kolkata-based SK Birla group two years ago, is undergoing an exercise to improve its performance and to align itself with its global parent. The company has appointed BMR Advisors and Amarchand Mangaldas & Suresh A Shroff to prepare a future road map.

May 7, 2008: The Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group's (ADAG) proposed foray into cement business is set to start next month with operations commencing on the first of the four 5-million-ton (mt) plants it intends to set up in Madhya Pradesh.

May 7, 2008: The National Aluminium Company (Nalco) is exploring the possibility of setting up a greenfield aluminium smelter and captive power plant near Jharsuguda, western Orissa at an investment of more than Rs 14,000 crore.

May 7, 2008: ACC has reported a marginal fall of 0.57 percent in dispatches at 1.73 million tons in April against 1.74 million tons recorded in the same period last year.

May 7, 2008: Major cement producers have assured the Government that they would hold their margins to help control inflation but have also asked the Government to facilitate their capacity expansion plans.

May 5, 2008: Despite a meltdown in global metal prices, Hindustan Copper has raised the provisional prices of its products for May by 2 percent effective from May 3.

May 5, 2008: The Aditya Birla group on 2nd May said its cement production in April increased 2.17 percent at 27.35 lakh tons, against 26.77 lakh tons in the year-ago period.

May 5, 2008: Hindalco, the largest producer of aluminium in India, reported its fourth quarter result, which was slightly below market expectations. Its net sale for the quarter ended March 2008 rose by 5.5 percent to Rs 5,010 crore, slightly less than the average estimate of Rs 5,123 crore by four major brokerage houses in India.

May 2, 2008: In a development that might bring down cement prices in the near future, the domestic industry has added close to 15 million tons per annum capacity in the last quarter, including 10 million tons in March alone.

May 2, 2008: Nalco, the second biggest aluminium producer in the country, reported a below-expected result for the quarter ended March, 2008. The decline of 10 percent in net sales during the quarter ended March 2008 is mainly on account of lower aluminium prices and lower alumina sales volume growth.

May 2, 2008: Rubber futures are likely to open lower on May 2, on a weak Tokyo market and falling oil prices, analysts said.

May 2, 2008: Serious in its intent to rein in cement prices, the Government is contemplating using a practically abandoned provision of the Industries (Development and Regulation) Act, 1951, which empowers it to regulate prices and supplies of industrial commodities.