Oil majors plan team approach to face deregulation
With barely a week to go before the first phase of the oil reforms comes into effect, four state-run oil units have decided to work together to ensure some sort of price stability for the products that will be decontrolled. Indian Oil Corporation, Bharat Petroleum Corporation, Hindustan Petroleum Corporation and the stand-alone marketing company, IBP, will join hands from April 1 to pave the way for a "smooth transition" to a market-determined pricing mechanism (MDPM) for select petro products. The products to be decontrolled are naphtha, furnace oil, LSHS (low sulphur heavy stock), bitumen and paraffin wax.
SAIL Bokaro unit to roll out sheets for car exteriors
The Steel Authority of India's Bokaro Steel Plant and Tisco are locked in a race to become the first local supplier of coated cold-rolled (CR) sheets for car-body exteriors. Bokaro is ahead in the race now, having engaged SAIL's Centre for Engineering & Technology (CET) to prepare a feasibility report on modernising its cold-rolling mill (CRM). Tisco's plans may be slightly delayed following its decision to set up its cold-rolling mill at Jamshedpur and not in Gopalpur as was planned earlier.
Pal-Peugeot's Kalyan unit may house M&M Scorpio project
PAL-Peugeot's Kalyan plant in northeast Mumbai has emerged as a key contender for Mahindra & Mahindra's ``Project-Scorpio'' which would see production of the latest offering from the company, a state-of-the-art new generation utility vehicle. While M&M will still exercise the option of scouting for a greenfield site for the project, a section of the industry say that the Kalyan facility will be considered seriously as it offers a ready-made plant with all facilities in place.
Institutions set new terms for JCT synthetics unit selloff
Financial institutions have set fresh terms for granting a no-objection certificate (NoC) to JCT's proposal to sell its synthetics division to its joint venture with Polysindo. The institutions want Polysindo to take the term loan of over Rs 170 crore on the books of the joint venture. The JCT-Polysindo proposal had envisaged the transfer of term loans of about Rs 126 crore to the new venture.
Flurry of activity likely in anti-dumping cases
With the new BJP government expressing its commitment to protect domestic manufacturers from unfair global competition, all eyes are focussed on the the single-most import instrument for ensuring this: anti-dumping duties. Till late last year, industry protests were written off as bogeys born of a protectionist mindset. But on October 6, the newly-formed anti-dumping cell (the Designated Authority) of the Union commerce ministry finally consented to investigate a complaint jointly lodged by the Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL) and Essar Steel.
CESC pins hopes on Bengal approval for surcharge recovery
CESC Ltd, the RPG power utility, faces the daunting task of recovering over Rs 450 crore from its consumers on account of fuel surcharge for the period -- 1993-94 to 1997-98. This includes fuel surcharge of Rs 123 crore from 1993-94 till 1995-96, according to the report submitted by SR Batliboi & Co Ltd, which is contrary to an earlier report by the DK Bose committee.
