First Sinosteel Midwest ship sails from Geraldton

 

Sinosteel Midwest is pleased to announce today that its first shipment of iron ore from its Mid West project has now set sail for China.

 

MV “Hai Lang” departed this morning with 60,000 tonnes of ore mined from the Koolanooka Blue Hills project from the Geraldton Port to China steel mills.

 

The ship’s departure follows the official celebration held in Geraldton last week, where Premier Colin Barnett was joined by Sinosteel Vice President Jiang Hong along with federal, state and local politicians, industry and community leaders, and Chinese delegates to commemorate this significant and historic milestone for the company.  A positive Bank Feasibility Study for Weld Range was also unveiled at the event.

 

Sinosteel Midwest Chief Operating Officer Giulio Casello said the ship had been delayed by several days due to heavy swells.

 

“Going forward, the Koolanooka and Blue Hills mines will produce 1.5 million tonnes of ore per annum for 5 to 7 years, which is expected to equate to around $25 million worth of royalties for Western Australia,” Mr Casello said.

 

“Progressing the Koolanooka project through planning, approvals and development to its first shipment will lay the foundation for advancing our major project at Weld Range. This will be the largest Direct Shipping Ore (DSO) project in the Mid West and is expected to produce 15 million tonnes per annum for at least 15 years and create 1000 jobs during peak construction.”

Closer Coordination on the ASEAN Political-Security Community

 

Ha Noi, 19 July 2010

 

 

Closer regional cooperation on security matters is on the cards, after the ASEAN Political-Security Community (APSC) Council meeting in Ha Noi today noted a proposal by the ASEAN Chair, Viet Nam, to host a Meeting of the ASEAN Chiefs of Homeland Security in the future. The region’s senior officials are now expected to flesh out the details of this new mechanism.

 

Among other issues, the 4th Meeting of the APSC Council today also reviewed the recent developments on areas under the purview of the APSC, which include the ASEAN Defence Ministers Meeting (ADMM) Plus 8. The ADMM Plus 8 framework represents ASEAN’s efforts to engage its Dialogue Partners on regional defence and security issues. The APSC also welcomed the progress made on the ASEAN Security Outlook, which aims to promote greater transparency and understanding of defence policies and security perceptions.

 

Stressing the importance of enhancing coordination within the overall APSC pillar, especially on cross-cutting issues, the APSC called for the creation of synergies between the ASEAN Regional Forum and the ASEAN Defence Ministers Meeting.

 

The APSC also agreed to work on the ASEAN Declaration on Humanitarian Assistance to People and Vessels in Distress at Sea.

 

The APSC Meeting comes ahead of the beginning of the 43rd ASEAN Ministerial Meeting, which will commence tomorrow. The ASEAN Foreign Ministers will proceed to the Informal Working Dinner this evening.

 

Earlier, the Commission for the Treaty on the Southeast Asia Nuclear Weapon-Free Zone (SEANWFZ) met and reviewed the progress of implementation of the Plan of Action to strengthen the implementation of the SEANWFZ Treaty. The Plan of Action identifies measures and actions which State Parties to the Treaty shall endeavour to pursue from 2007 to2012.

 

Building upon the momentum of the global nuclear agenda currently over the past one year, the Commission decided to intensify efforts to encourage the accession to the Protocol of the SEANWFZ Treaty by the Nuclear Weapon States. The profile of the SEANWFZ in multilateral fora and international organisations was raised recently when Viet Nam, as the Chair of the SEANWFZ Commission, had on behalf of ASEAN delivered a Statement at the 2010 Review Conference of the Treaty of Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons in New York on 4 May 2010. The Statement, among others, had expressed ASEAN’s belief that NWFZ’s constitute an important measure to strengthen nuclear non-proliferation and nuclear disarmament and that the ASEAN Member States would continue to work with the Nuclear Weapons States towards their early signing of the SEANWFZ Protocol and expand cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

 

This comes in the wake of the adoption of two ASEAN-sponsored Resolutions on the SEANWFZ Treaty at the 62nd and 64th session of the UN General Assembly on 5 December 2007 and 2 December 2009 respectively. Both Resolutions reiterate the important contributions of the Treaty towards strengthening the security of States in the region and towards enhancing international peace and security as a whole.

A comprehensive National Policy for Iron Ore is the call of the day which will ensure sustainable and scientific mining with improved technology, said Shri Rana Som, CMD, National Mineral Development Corporation (NMDC) in an interactive meeting with the Merchants’ Chamber of Commerce today. The modern scientific mining could not be ensured as the State Governments are giving innumerable number of mining leases of very small sizes which do not permit for modern mining.

 

                 NMDC is building up one integrated Steel Plant of 3 mlt capacity and another of 2 mlt capacity and proposed to bring the latest technology from Korea or Japan . It is also building two Pellets Plants with one million & 1.2 million tones capacity to utilise the Iron Ore fines. The company is also setting up beneficiation plants to utilise banded Hematite jasper (BHJ) and banded hematite quartzite (BHQ) rocks, which are naturally mined along with the ore during normal mining operations The technology has been developed through in-house R&D..

 

                 NMDC proposed to produce 51 mlt by 2014-15 and it plans to expanded horizontally to develop mining in Coal, Phosphate besides Iron Ore , in addition to setting up of Steel and Pellet Plants.

 

                 NMDC is the only PSU which spend 5% of its profit on CSR activities against the normal rate of 2% by other companies. It is also building up (430 Km long) pipeline to evacuate its Iron Ore slurries. MECON has been entrusted to finalise the report and the entire project is scheduled to be completed by end of 2012. In order to have a better supervision the entire pipeline will be constructed on the side of the state and National Highways. The ESSAR pipeline put up to evacuate Iron Ore Fines from a Bailadila to Vizag was recently blasted by the Maoists at several places. On the pricing of raw material, Shri Som explained that earlier  price contracts have ended in March 2010 and new contracts have been finalised independent of International prices. The prices to be charged from long –term customers would now be determined by deducting from the FOB value of exports, the expected Railway freight and royalty. It will offer a fixed discount of 5% over and above the pithead price. In order to protect the domestic customers from the volatility of international market, NMDC will increase prices to the extent of 2/3 rd increase in International market. To insulate the customers from the exchange variation the exchange rate of Re/ US$ has been kept at 01 April 2010. It is also putting up a Iron Nugget Plant which will produce with Iron content of 96% that can be directly charged to the furnace. These are being developed with Kobe Steel of Japan with 5 lac tones capacity which is likely to be expanded to 1 mlt in future. On the issue of land acquisition, for mining Shri Som said that NMDC has acquired recently 756 acres of land and paid 9.5 lacs per acre for barren land and 12 to 13 lacs per acre for agricultural land. He proposed to employ 11,807 local people , most of whom being affected due to acquisition.

 

                 Shri S.S.Beriwala, President, MCC insisted on drafting of a National Policy of Iron Ore to cater to the small and medium Steel Producers particularly for States like West Bengal, which are not having any Iron Ore base within the State and requested NMDC to developed Pellet plants of 2 to 6 lacs of tons capacity so that Iron Ore fines can be utilized effectively the SMEs.

Steel Authority of India orders long-product rolling mill from Siemens VAI
One million tons of structural steels for the Indian market

The Steel Authority of India (SAIL) has awarded an order to a consortium led by Siemens VAI Metals Technologies for the construction of a new rolling mill for long products in Durgapur, West Bengal. As from mid 2012, it is scheduled to produce one million tons per annum of structural steels of various sizes and cross-sections.

49 Dead and 89 Injured In Rear-End Collision Involving Vannanchal Express and Uttarbanga Express Trains in Birbhum District, West Bengal

Mamata Expresses Profound Grief Over the Loss of Innocent Lives in Train Accident 

Ex-Gratia of Rs. 5 Lakh to the Next Kin of the Dead Announced
  



(Updated till 11.30 a.m.)





In an unfortunate accident in the early hours today, 49 passengers lost their lives and 89 were injured when train no. 3148, Uttarbanga Express (New Cooch Behar-Sealdah) train collided from rear with train no. 3404 Vannanchal Express ( Bhagalpur-Ranchi) which was stationed at Platform No. 4 of Sainthia railway station in Howrah division of Eastern Railway, resulting in two last coaches of Vannanchal Express being badly damaged. The accident site falls under Birbhum District of West Bengal. The damaged coaches include one Guard-cum-luggage-cum-Passenger (SLR) coach and one unreserved general 2nd class coach. All the passengers in Uttarbanga Express are safe and all the passengers in the remaining coaches of Vannanchal Express are also safe. All the injured were immediately admitted in nearby hospitals. Rescue operation was in full swing since the occurrence of the accident and both the trains involved in the accident left for their destinations after detaching the two damaged coaches of Vannanchal Express train

The Minister of Railways, Mamata Banerjee who is on her way to the accident site, has termed the train accident as most unfortunate and expressed her profound grief over the loss of innocent lives. She has announced an ex-gratia of Rs. 5/- lakh to the next kin of the dead, Rs. 1/- lakh each to grievously injured passengers and Rs. 25,000 to those who sustained simple injuries. She has also announced jobs in the Railways to one person of the deceased’s family. The Railway Minister has given instructions to Railway officials for the speedy relief and rescue operation and effective medical treatment to the injured passengers.

Railway Board officials including, Chairman Railway Board, Shri Vivek Sahai, Member Electrical, Shri Sudesh Kumar, Director General Railway Health Services Dr. Ramteke and senior officials from Eastern Railways and Howrah Division have also reached the accident site to monitor and supervise the rescue and relief operation.

For the convenience of public, Helplines were set up at various railway stations including. Howrah, Sainthia , Sealdah, Burdhwan, Malda, Jamalpur, Dhanbad, Katihar, New Jalpaiguri, New Cooch Behar, Ranchi, Hatia and Bokharo Steel city.

Due to this accident following trains have been diverted/cancelled:

Diverted trains

1. 3161 Kolkata – Balurghat Express

2. 5661 Ranchi – Guwhati Express

3. 3150 Alipurdiwar – Sealdah Express

4. 2513 Secundrabad- Guwhati Express

Cancellation

1. 3048 Howrah – Amritsar Express

2. 215.216 Howrah – Ramprhar- Howrah Passenger

3. 217/218 Howrah –Rampurhat-Howrah Passenger



Train No. 3025 Howrah – Bhopal Express rescheduled. at 12550 hrs. instead of 1325 hrs.

MHA Sends 140 NDRF Personnel for Rescue/Relief at Train Accident Site
  
Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has deployed five teams of National Disaster Relief Force (NDRF) consisting of 140 personnel to assist in the rescue and relief operations following the train accident at Sainthia in Birbhum district West Bengal. Three teams have already reached the site and the remaining two will be reaching soon.

More Concerted Efforts Required to Increase Steel Production Capacity: Virbhadra Singh
  

The Union Minister for Steel, Shri Virbhadra Singh said that more concerted efforts are required to see that steel capacity goes beyond 200 million tonnes by 2020. Addressing the 23rd meeting of the National Steel Consumers’ Council here today, he said, the massive technology change in industrial production that has taken place in the past few decades has almost completely changed the way steel industry does business today.

The Minister said, we need the new technology by which we can produce better quality steel on low cost. He said that the Government is trying to acquire new technology from South Korea and Japan. Government is also aiming to double the steel production from present 60 million tonne to 120 million tonne by 2012. Shri Virbhadra Singh said that the Government is planning to expand steel production through brown field and green field projects. The POSCO Project in Orissa will produce 12 milliom tonne and two projects of Arcelor Mittal in Orissa and Jharkhand with the capacity of 12 million tonne each, he added.

Shri Virbhadra Singh was of the view that the displaced persons should be given proper compensation with proper rehabilitation. He said that at least one of the people of displaced family should be given job through skill development. He has asked the industry to do this responsibility not on the behalf of locale’s cost but on their own cost.

The Minister said, Steel producers and consumers form two vital, interdependent and inseparable segments of the steel industry, despite the well known and routine business and strategic conflicts between them. Steel being an industrial intermediate holding strategic position in the development of any economy and in the line of value chain, it has been the endeavour of the Ministry of Steel for a long time to see that the two sides of the steel business follow a harmonious and synergetic path to achieve synchronized growth of this vital industry in the larger interest of the country.

The Minister has also unveiled two books of SAIL containing information about warehouse and Dealer Network.

In the meeting, issues in respect of steel prices, supplies, imports, exports and government’s policy initiatives were discussed.

The Minister of State for Steel, Shri A. Sai Prathap, the Secretary, Ministry of Steel, Shri Atul Chatruvedi, Chairman of SAIL, Shri C. S. Verma, Chairman of RINL, Shri P.K. Visnoi, Chairman of NMDC, Shri Rana Som and representatives from States, Steel producers and consumers were also present on the occasion.