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FINANCIAL VOICE
Forest land for POSCO to set up steel plant in Orissa POSCO, the South Korean steel manufacturer has been accorded final approval to acquire forest land in Orrisa to set up the steel plant there. A company spokesman last week said about 4,000 acres of land is needed for the project, out of which 2,900 acres would be forest land. POSCO’s $12 billion project is long delayed, as the company had signed an MOU with Orissa government in June, 2005.
Project faced problems as farmers were not willing to give up their land. The project, considered as the largest foreign direct investment in India, has been delayed by more than two years due to protests by farmers who fear losing their livelihood. Even the grant of mining lease has been delayed due to litigation and now POSCO plans to go ahead with the construction of the steel plant first.
ICICI Bank to help Indian firms explore opportunities in UK A tie up with UK Trade and Investment for training events and investment assistance India’s leading private sector bank, the ICICI Bank, aiming to help Indian firms looking for business opportunities in the UK, has tied up with UK Trade and Investment. ICICI Bank MD and CEO, Ms. Chanda Kochhar said, “Through
this initiative, we envision further awareness to the Indian businesses by means of knowledge and counselling sessions.” UK Trade and Investment is a government organisation helping UK-based companies succeed in international markets.
Reliance sells 25 mn shares to raise Rs. 26 bn Shares sold to LIC for funds to finance LyondellBasell buyout Reliance Industries Ltd raised Rs. 26 billion ($559.5 million) by selling 25 million shares at a 5 percent discount to Life Insurance Corp of India, two sources with knowledge of the deal said recently. The sale is aimed to mobilise funds for buyout of LyondellBasell, a deal that is expected to cost the Indian giant $12
billion. Controlled by Mukesh Ambani, India’s richest man, Reliance is engaged in manufacturing and processing of petrochemicals, refining, oil and gas exploration as well as retail business. Citigroup and Bank of America-Merrill Lynch were arrangers for the deal, sources said.
‘Green’ is the new mantra at Tatas Tata, the global Indian business house has embarked on an ambitious campaign to adopt eco friendly practices in all the businesses, including Steels, Auto and Hotels. After taking the world by storm with acquisitions and later introducing Nano, the world’s cheapest car, the House of Tatas, one of India’s oldest industrial houses has stepped up efforts for bringing down the carbon foot print. Tata Steel has a goal to reduce carbon dioxide emissions at its Jamshedpur plant from the current 1.8 tonne to 1.7 tonne per tonne of liquid steel made by 2012. The ideal global benchmark though is 1.5. Tata Motors is setting up an eco-friendly showroom using natural building material for its flooring and energy-efficient lights.
The Indian Hotels Company, which runs the Taj chain, is in the process of creating eco rooms which will have energyefficient mini bars, organic bed linen and napkins made from recycled paper. For illumination, the rooms will have CFLs or LEDs. Tata Motors also have plans to introduce the Indica EV in select European markets this year. The group’s large companies such as Tata Steel, Tata Motors, Tata Chemicals and Tata Consultancy Services contribute 80% of the group’s overall emissions and a panel, headed by Tata Sons director JJ Irani, has been formed to address this issue. Tata Power has set goals of producing 25% of electricity generation within ten years from renewable sources.
Asian Voice - Saturday 9th January 2010
BMW races ahead of Mercedes in India sales Mercedes Benz lost it’s top position as the best selling luxury car in India in the just concluded year 2009, as BMW overtook it. BMW sales in 2009 were 3619 cars, making Mercedes settle for the no. 2 spot with sales of 3247 cars. The two German giants came into competition in 2005, when BMW started operations in India. In the past two years, Mercedes Benz has controlled over 50 per cent of the luxury car market, with BMW close behind,
averaging a market share between 35 and 45 per cent. The rest was contributed by the third German car major, Audi, which sells around 1,000 cars a year. 2009 was a turning point for Mercedes Benz. Despite the overall decel-
eration in passenger vehicle sales in the domestic market, it actually posted a robust growth of 24 per cent, while Mercedes Benz posted a decline of 10.4 per cent. Mercedes on Tuesday, 5th January unveiled the new S-500 L car, priced at
Rs 95 lakh (ex-showroom, Delhi). The new S-500 L will be assembled (from CKD kits) at the Pune factory. Mercedes Benz also unveiled its new SUV, the GL 350 CDI, priced at Rs 64.90 lakh (ex-showroom, Delhi).
Zydus Cadila to go for H1N1 vaccine trails Ahmedabad drug maker likely to launch the vaccine by April Zydus Cadila, an Ahmedabad based pharma major with a German collaboration has received the approval for conducting clinical trials for swine flu (H1N1) vaccine from the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI). Pankaj Patel, Chairman and Managing
Director of the company said, “Zydus Cadila became the first Indian drug maker to commence multicentric clinical trails of the swine flu vaccine. With the vaccine in the market soon, we should be able to prevent further loss of lives to this infectious disease.”
With the speedy completion of trials and the fast track approvals, India’s indigenous H1N1 vaccine is expected to hit the markets by April this year, the company said. The demand for H1N1 vaccine in India is estimated to touch 50 to 60 million doses in initial phase.
Mandelson pat for Tatas in waking up Britain Britain woke up to the growing strength of India only of late, as late as 2008 when Tata, the Indian industrial giant acquired the ailing UK car brands of Jaguar and Land Rover from the US automaker Ford. Peter Mandelson, UK secretary of state for commerce and business, recently on a tour to India, had a pat for Tatas, the
new owners for JLR as well as Corus. At a CII function, he said when the Tatas acquired the British marques, the company was struggling financially, but they have been nurtured back to health by the new owners, with improving sales. UK minister also said Britain has manufacturing potentials and hoped that the investment by Tatas
there would send clear signals to rest of the Indian industry. Supply chain companies and higher education are two areas where British entities should focus on India, Mandelson said. With increased focus on climate change, low carbon business is another area of cooperation between the two countries, he added.
India to stay at top in global milk production In 2007-08, India achieved the feat of becoming the world’s largest milk producer, and NDDB expects that the country is set to stay at the top for the year 200809 too. Milk production in India for the previous stood at 104.8 million tonnes, and the figure is expected to be 110 million tonnes in 2008-09. The spokesman said the world’s milk production was expected to be 688 million tonnes in 2008-09, a marginal 1.7 per cent increase over the
previous year as against about four per cent increase achieved by India. Within India, farmers’ milk cooperatives showed a better performance. They procured about 9.2 million tonnes, an increase of 9.7 per cent over the previous year, handling over 14 per cent of the national marketable surplus. The cooperative sector covered about 21 per cent of the country’s villages and over 18 per cent of the total milk-producing households in rural
areas. The NDDB had prepared a Rs. 173 billion plan for the next 15 years to increase milk production with better productivity, strengthening and expanding the infrastructure for procurement and human resources development substantially. A Centre for Analysis and Learning in Livestock and Food at Anand in Gujarat has also been set up. It would provide reliable and efficient laboratory services for livestock, dairy and food sectors.
Zydus Cadila's eggbased inactivated vaccine has been developed by the group's experts at its Vaccine Technology Centre in Ahmedabad. The H1N1 vaccine market at present is estimated to be US$676 million. The market is expected to cross USD 7 billion by 2011.
Surat is no. 1 globally in big diamond processing
Surat, known as the diamond city of India and one of the most prosperous cities in Gujarat has become the top player in diamond industry globally, with almost 80% of solitaire diamonds – big diamonds of above one carat being processed there. Israel and Belgium once enjoyed this spot. According to estimates by experts, Surat diamond hub accounts for total annual diamond processing worth Rs. 500 billion and 30% of this is large diamonds. As against just 10 to 15 players in the large diamond processing some five years ago, the numbers have gone up to more than 200 in that segment. The market share of Israel and Belgium in cutting and polishing big size stones is likely to go down to just 5% in 2010, with Surat garnering all the business. A recent KPMG study says the prime reason for this trend is rising labour costs and the industry being unable to retain manpower as also facing increasing competition from emerging centres like India.
Indian exports turn positive after 13 months Lower imports help reduce trade deficit in Nov. 2009 There are more signs of India being on a fast track to recovery, as the country’s exports registered a rise of 18.2% in November 2009. The positive trend is significant as in previous 13 months, the exports were falling. The export growth also led to lowering of the trade deficit. A nominal
decline in India’s imports for November also contributed to the lower trade deficit. Exports amounted to $13.2 billion, while the imports went down by 2.6% to $22.88 billion, as compared to $23.48 billion in November, 2008. The trade deficit came down to $9.69 bn against
$12.33 bn a year ago. Commerce Secretary Rahul Khullar projects exports to be in the range of $165 to 170 bn this financial year, lower than $182.6 billion last year. The downfall in exports started in October 2008 due to the global economic slowdown that began after the collapse of
the US investment banking giant Lehman Brothers. As most of the advanced economies slipped into recession and faced major reduction in consumer demand, the exports communities in emerging economies including India took a beating.