TPT July 2007

From the AmericaS

for offshore oil rig construction as well as alternative energy sources like wind turbines.

2.5 million tons per year of slabs is projected for the first phase. There was no official notice that the US and Canadian operations would be combined, although Metal Producing & Process (Penton Media) reported that one Essar official acknowledged that possibility. Algoma Steel, in Ontario, will have a raw steel capacity of about 3 million tpy when capital improvements, now underway, are completed. Metal Producing & Process also reported that a number of equipment contracts have been let for the Minnesota plant. HYL Technologies (Mexico) will supply a 1.8-million tpy DRI (direct rendering infrastructure) module, while Danieli & C SpA (Italy) will provide a 1.6-million tpy electric melt shop and thick-slab and thin/ soft-reduction slab casters. Algoma Steel is similarly equipped, but is fed by blast furnaces rather than a DRI plant. The Minnesota and Algoma deals will give Essar Global, the international division of the Essar Group conglomerate, a significant presence in North America. Essar already employs more than 3,000 people in the US, of a global workforce of 20,000. Essar Global chairman Shashi Ruia stated, “Minnesota Steel is exciting as it gives us a cornerstone in the North American market. From this we will further expand our global steel business.” Essar produces more than 4 million tpy of steel in India, and is expanding in such low-cost markets as Vietnam and Trinidad & Tobago. Indian firms are prominent in a consolidation trend in the steel industry, driven by surging demand from fast-expanding economies – China’s in particular.

“We like energy,” Mr Sutherland told the Times .

• Of related interest, also on May 4 it was reported that Norilsk Nickel of Russia had made an all-cash bid of US$4.8 billion for the Canadian nickel and gold producer LionOre Mining International, topping the $4.1 billion bid by Xstrata, of Switzerland. Analysts said they expected Xstrata, based in Zug, to respond with a new bid. LionOre, based in Toronto, has operations in Australia, Botswana, and South Africa. Moscow-based Norilsk is one of the world’s largest producers of nickel and palladium. India’s Essar Group is buying Minnesota Steel, Algoma Steel On April 19, Essar Global Ltd – which earlier in the week announced a $1.63-billion takeover of Canada’s Algoma Steel – said it had also agreed to acquire privately owned Minnesota Steel Industries and invest $1.65 billion to build an integrated steel plant in Nashwauk, northwest of Duluth. The site in the Mesabi Iron range has abundant taconite reserves in an open-pit mine, and according to Minnesota Steel management this would be the first vertically integrated ‘mine mouth’ steel plant in North America. Construction is due to start in the third quarter, with the first phase scheduled to be commissioned in 2009. Raw steel capacity of

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J uly /A ugust 2007