Industry at Haldia, a major port and commercial hub, has been caught in the middle of this power transition. Consider this: RPG's power utility, CESC, is unable to erect evacuation towers due to land issues and the third phase of its ongoing expansion of 250 Mw has already been delayed by seven-eight months.
The main reason for the move is the volatility in prices and inconsistent supplies for value-added grades.
Direct land acquisition in Bengal fiat forces companies to appoint land brokers.
The company has been in discussions with vendors who are moving from Singur to Sanand to support them with mutually acceptable terms, which will be implemented.
Prices of key inputs up 44% to 74%; analysts expect earnings squeeze after a quarter or two.
Bengal govt invokes Acquisition Act to buy land for railways near Singur.
National Aviation Company Ltd, which runs Air India, has reshuffled its executive directors and created a new designation of ED (marketing).
Honda Siel Cars India is planning to source steel from India for its local operations and is in talks with Tata Steel. A Tata Steel spokesperson confirmed that the companies were in discussions. Currently, Honda sources steel plates from Thailand for its Greater Noida facility. Honda models, like the City and Civic, have 74 per cent localisation, while the newly launched hatchback, Jazz, has 77 per cent local content.
The UPA government's Land Acquisition (Amendment) Bill could be the last nail in the coffin for industrialisation in West Bengal.
The project was expected to create employment in excess of 10,000 jobs among vendors and service providers in the vicinity of the plant. When Tata Motors announced the small car project in May 2006, it promised to employ 2,000 people directly initially.
Unitech had 40 per cent stake in NKID, which has been acquired by the Salim group and Universal Success. Sources said NKID was now a 50:50 partnership between these two; earlier, Salim had a 40 per cent stake and Universal had 20 per cent. Asked why Unitech quit NKID, the former's managing director, Ajay Chandra, said, "I have no comments on this."
Jatinder Mehra, chief executive officer, Essar Steel said, "I believe, in July, there will be some push in the market. In the Indian market, revival has already begun. Auto, fabrication, capital goods and white goods are doing very well." In the flat products segment, hot rolled coil prices have not seen a hike since September last year. Last month, long product, cold rolled and galvanised prices were raised.
The Left Front' economic policies may continue to haunt the UPA government.
Domestic producers of hot rolled steel, the intermediate that is used by automobile and consumer durables manufacturers, have emphatically ruled out the possibility of dropping prices ahead of the imposition of a safeguard duty on imports.
The British government has said it was "not prepared" to accept an announcement by Tata Steel and its European subsidiary, Corus, that there seemed no option but to indefinitely suspend operations at one of the latter's factories in north-east England, which means loss of around 2,000 jobs.
Nano vendors say if all-India bookings cross 500,000, Tata Motors may have to explore the option of having a satellite plant to its present mother factory at Sanand near Ahmedabad. Many who had taken up space at the vendor park in Singur, the centre of the main dispute with the give-us-our-land-back agitationists led by the opposition Trinamool Congress, are hanging on in this hope.
Five months after Tata Motors shifted its Nano plant to Gujarat, another Tata company has decided to move a project out of West Bengal. Tata Metaliks has scrapped its 500,000-tonne billet project, proposed to be built with an investment of Rs 700-800 crore
The issue has assumed serious proportions now. Suranjan Gupta, senior joint director, Engineering Export Promotion Council, said, many containers were being detained in Europe, to the extent that the steel ministry convened a meeting last week to discuss the matter. Europe accounts for 70 per cent of India's annual engineering exports of $33 billion.
In 2006, the Left Front won the Assembly elections in West Bengal on the basis of its pro-industrialisation campaign led by Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee.
According to the Securities and Exchange Board of India regulations, if the shareholding crosses 15 per cent, it would trigger an open offer. Bhubaneshwar-based Orissa Sponge is understood to have iron ore and coal reserves of around 120 million tonnes each along with sponge iron and billet making plants.
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