Delay By Steel Min In Submitting Data Blamed INFLATION, which rose to 11.05% last week, is likely to stay above 11% this week too. And this time, the driver for high inflation numbers would be steel. The wholesale price index (WPI) to be reported on Friday will reflect the prices for the week ended June 14.

The construction for the proposed 6MTPA steel plant of Tata Steel in Kalinga Nagar would start in a month, its managing director B. Muthuraman said. The Rs 21,000-crore project has been in limbo for more than two years after 14 tribal villagers died in a clash with police while resisting the construction of a boundary wall by the Tatas on January 2, 2006.

Plans To Form Int'l Co For Consolidating Raw Material Assets

DOUBLE-DIGIT inflation is here to stay for some more time, but could trend down in September. With prices of crucial commodities like steel likely to rise further, inflation is expected to stay over 11% before it peaks around September. It is estimated that steel and steel products (used in industries like auto, housing, white goods, capital goods etc) contribute almost 21% to inflation. Cement prices are expected to remain soft, thanks to capacity addition.

Pramugdha Mamgain NEW DELHI MAHARASHTRA Seamless (MSL), the flagship company of the Rs 3,000-crore DP Jindal Group, is in the race to acquire an Indonesiabased iron ore mining firm for around Rs 300 crore. It is learnt that Indonesian firm has iron ore reserves of close to 20 million tonnes. If the deal goes through, MSL would also establish a 1 million tonne steel plant close to the iron ore deposits in Indonesia with investments of up to Rs 1,200 crore.

Javier Blas & Rebecca Bream Baosteel agrees to pay a record price increase to Rio Tinto for delivery of iron ore next year. Baosteel, China's leading steelmaker, agreed on Monday to the largest ever annual increase in iron ore prices with Rio Tinto, the Anglo-Australian miner, in a move that is likely to reinforce fears about global inflation.

BRUSSELS: As the United States moves toward action on global warming, practical experience with carbon markets in the European Union raises a critical question: Will such systems ever work?

Sunita Narain India thrives on a cheap and dirty industrialisation model.