Barely 24 hours after public sector behemoth SAIL cut its prices by Rs 500 to Rs 2000, domestic steel majors Essar Steel and Ispat Industries on Friday announced cut in their prices by seven to eight per cent due to rising inventories owing to reduce
Essar Steel, Ispat Industries and Jindal Vijaynagar Steel made remarkable gains in early trades on Wednesday after financial institutions on Tuesday announced a debt recast package for the steel makers.
The proposed steel plant is a joint venture wherein Essar would hold 65 per cent stake, VSC 20 per cent and the rest 15 per cent would be held by Vietnam General Rubber.
Essar Power would invest Rs 4,000 crore (Rs 40 billion) for setting up a 1,000 MW coal-fired power plant in Chhattisgarh, a senior Essar group official said in Raipur on Tuesday.
Essar Steel is likely to join the race for Brazilian miner and steelmaker CSN's Nacionale Minerios (Namisa), a fully integrated iron ore company. Sources close to the development said Goldman Sachs has approached Essar with the acquisition proposal and the company was considering it.
The department of commerce may de-recognise the 247-hectare engineering special economic zone at Hazira, promoted by Essar Hazira SEZ Ltd.
Russian metals firm OAO Severstal has turned the heat on US steelmaker Esmark for rejecting its $1.24 billion takeover bid in favour of Essar Steel, terming it a "questionable transaction" and demanding that Esmark immediately remove all impediments to its takeover offer.
The Ruia-promoted Indian conglomerate Essar Group has got close to Rs 200 crore (over $45 million) for withdrawing its bid for American steel firm Esmark and the payment is coming from succesful suitor Severstal of Russia.
The turnaround of SAIL from several quarters of losses was one of the most challenging experience, said Anil Kumar Chaudhary, the outgoing chairman of the country's largest steel maker. The chairman said he also wants to see SAIL paying back at least 50 per cent of its debt in the near future. Chaudhary who had joined SAIL as a junior manager in 1984 would be superannuating from the top post on December 31, 2020 after serving the company for almost 36 years in various roles.
"The most prominent suitors continue to be Russian producers, although India's Essar Group also has been mentioned prominently, according to market sources," the Metal Bulletin (MB) reported, adding that Essar has been the most recent company to express interest and has begun negotiations with Luxembourg-based ArcelorMittal.
JSW Steel, Tata Steel, Steel Authority of India, Bhushan Steel, Essar Steel, Jindal Steel & Power, and Rashtriya Ispat Nigam are among the top producers of the alloy in the domestic market
They may up prices by Rs 750-1,700/tonne on rise in iron ore prices and higher railway freight rates
Last June, the group had delisted Essar Energy from the London Stock Exchange as well.
Traders blame demonetisation for subdued demand in retail segment
Essar Global on Wednesday announced the acquisition of Minnesota Steel, a US-based privately held company with iron ore reserves of 1.4 billion tonne, for an undisclosed amount.
Essar group on Friday announced the signing of a USD 2.4 billion (Rs 19,000 crore) deal to sell certain ports and power infrastructure to ArcelorMittal Nippon Steel in one of the largest post-pandemic merger and acquisition deals in India. In a statement, the Ruia-run firm said the deal also envisages a 50-50 joint venture between Essar and ArcelorMittal for building a 4 million tonnes a year LNG import terminal at Hazira in Gujarat. Without giving details, it only identified certain ports and power infrastructure that are primarily captive to operations of the Hazira steel plant, which was acquired by ArcelorMittal Nippon Steel (AM/NS) in 2018-19, as part of the deal.
The country's leading steel producers have devised a new strategy to pass on rising raw material costs to the end users without raising prices. Companies are now levying raw material surcharges while keeping the base price unchanged.
Steel scrips have found reason to celebrate what with freight rates for steel being reduced in the Railway Budget announced on Wednesday.
Prashant Ruia, Essar Steel Ltd's managing director, said on Tuesday that demand from developing economies will continue to drive the global steel industry in future, with growth in China, Russia and India leading the way.
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 main reason for the move is the volatility in prices and inconsistent supplies for value-added grades.
Leading steel producers Tata Steel and state-owned Steel Authority of India Ltd on Tuesday agreed to hold their prices for 2-3 months after the government's top economic managers spoke out against the rising cost of steel and cement. Essar Steel said it too could look at a similar assurance. Finance Minister P Chidambaram told Parliament that cement and steel producers were acting like a cartel and the govt was looking at legal and administrative measures to deal with them.
'It can position itself as a China Plus One solution, fulfilling the demands of developed economies.'
Steel manufacturers on Wednesday hit out at 'unilateral' decision of the Oil Ministry to curb natural gas supplies from Reliance Industries' KG-D6 fields to non-core users, saying only a ministerial panel was empowered to take such decision.
They are snapping up ore and coal abroad, as their availability is stuck at home.
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