PM, Montek Sound Stern Action, Cos Deny Cartelization, Blame Input Cost As rising steel prices are fuelling inflation in a major way, PM Manmohan Singh on Tuesday warned the domestic steel industry, saying it should not take advantage of global surge in steel prices. He said steel companies should not take advantage of global market manipulations and go for short term windfall gains, which in turn put upward pressure on prices.

ArcelorMittal, the world's largest steel producer, is proposing to spend $300 million in rehabilitation & resettlement (R&R) and corporate social responsibility (CSR) for its proposed 12 million tonne project in Orissa's Keonjhar. Last week, the steel behemoth gave a presentation to the Keonjhar district administration on its R&R and CSR plans. Remi Boyer, the group's vice-president (CSR), is in India with a delegation to oversee CSR strategies for the Orissa and Jharkhand projects.

IT APPEARS that steel, cement and power companies would have to dig deeper into their pockets if they want to do business with the Railways. In a major twist to the public-private partnership (PPP) model, the Railways have decided to ask all private companies involved in the partnership projects in the three sectors to pay at least 40% of the construction cost of the rail line.

Just a day after finance minister Chidambaram warned steel and cement manufacturers of tough measures if they did not desist from cartelization, government has done an extraordinary about-turn and said no evidence of such practices has come to light as yet. The extraordinary sequence played itself out within the space of a couple of days. Intervening during the debate on price rise in Lok Sabha on Wednesday, Chidambaram said cement and steel firms were "behaving like a cartel' and added that the government planned to "break this logjam'.

Even as the government has railed against steel and cement manufacturers for behaving like a cartel, the Competition Commission of India (CCI), the body that is supposed to take action against any abuse of market dominance, says it is in no position to do so. The issue of cartels and the government's seeming inability to deal with them has once again come to the forefront after Finance Minister P Chidambaram yesterday accused the domestic cement and steel industry of forming cartels to exploit consumers.

Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL), which entered its golden jubilee year of production in February, ended the year 2007-08 with new landmarks in performance by producing 13.04 million tonnes of saleable steel for the first time. This was a consequence of several initiatives like utilising full potential of available assets and human resources, R&D interventions, implementation of de-bottlenecking schemes, etc.

The world's largest steel company ArcelorMittal, which is setting up two steel plants in India of 12 million tonne capacity each, has said that access to land, raw material, and natural resources remains a challenge for its greenfield plans in the country, and these constraints are expected to delay many steel projects here. Of the 317 million tonne (mt) of new capacity announced for 2015-16, only 140 mt is expected to be completed in time.

SOUTH KOREA'S POSCO said on Thursday it was considering a rise in steel prices, easing fears that rising raw material costs will hit its earnings, and lifting its shares to a four-week high. The company, the world's fourth largest steelmaker, also said it may bid for Daewoo Shipbuilding, which analysts say could fetch nearly $5.1 billion, and was considering buying a stake in a Chinese firm. "We are considering raising steel prices but details in terms of the timing and the level of the price hike haven't been decided,' a POSCO spokesman said.

The Supreme Court on Friday asked South Korean steel major Posco to approach the Orissa government for allotting demarcated mining area for its proposed Rs 51,000 crore mega steel plant.

One step forward and two steps backward. This apparently is how Posco's proposed mega Rs 51,000-crore steel plant in Orissa has progressed for last three years.