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Wire & Cable ASIA – January/February 2012 29
India
during the quarter compared to Rs 11,123 crore last year.
The steel maker plans to spend just under Rs 14,700 in the
current fiscal year on capacity expansion projects as part of
a programme to swell total capacity at its five integrated
plants to 21.4 million tonnes by March 2013.
The impact of higher costs was partially offset by higher
sales volumes, and an increase in net sales realisation to Rs
36,230 per tonne during the July-September quarter against
Rs 31,320 a year-ago, Verma said.
Elaborating on the steel maker’s joint venture with South
Korean major POSCO, Verma said talks with the Korean
company were “positive” but refused to give any time frame
for signing the agreement.
“We are having a dialogue on a very, very positive
note.” The two firms plan to set up a plant to produce three
million tonnes a year of auto-grade steel, but they are yet to
agree on the shareholding pattern in the Rs 16,000-crore
joint venture.
Steel Authority of India Ltd – India
Fax: +91 011 243 67015
Email:
Website:
Family deal to keep the
network connected?
In a move that may bring the two Ambani brothers closer,
Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries Ltd is in talks to hire
the infrastructure of younger sibling Anil’s firm RCom for its
telecom foray.
According to sources in the know, Anil Ambani-led RCom
will be providing all infrastructure towers, fibre, backhaul as
well as its national and international long distance facilities
to RIL’s high-speed broadband services.
RCom has 50,000 towers, 2.77km optical fibre network and
over one million retails outlets (including company-owned,
franchisee and distributors).
According to market reports, Reliance Industries (RIL) is
initially looking at about 30,000 towers. If this deal goes
through, it will positively impact valuation of RCom’s tower
arm, for which the company is in talks with PE firms to sell
the majority stake of 95%.
According to sources, RCom might also provide wholesale
voice services to RIL and the latter will bundle this with its
broadband or 4G data offerings.
Reliance Industries Ltd – India
Email :
Website:
Policy unveiling a month
later than expected
The National Telecom Policy-2011 will be unveiled this
month (January), Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal has said.
The policy was expected to be unveiled by December last
year, but delays in receiving recommendations caused the
delay.
“Industry wants some more time to respond, we will give
them time. All that will happen is finalisation of the policy will
happen in January instead of December,” Mr Sibal said in
New Delhi.
He added that Telecom Regulatory Authority of India’s
recommendations on the National Telecom Policy have just
come in and the Department of Telecommunication is
looking into the same.
“The TRAI recommendations have just come, we will
consider them,” added Mr Sibal.
He added said the media is confusing between TRAI’s
recommendations and the Telecom Policy.
“People must understand the difference between policy and
TRAI’s recommendation. The TRAI recommendations deal
with the nitty-gritty of mergers and acquisition and all the
other specific issues which never go in to policy,” he added.
Multi-million investment
for its own cables
India’s Tata Power Company – the country’s largest private
power distributor – plans to invest around Rs 1,000 crore
(US$217m) over the next three years to lay its own cable
network in Mumbai.
TPC executive director Sankaranarayanan Padmanabhan
said the company uses the wire networks of BEST and
Reliance Infrastructure to distribute electricity in the city and
suburbs, respectively.
Prior to a Supreme Court order, the company was not
allowed to provide a parallel network, but now it can roll out
its own network.
Tata Power Company – India
Fax: +91 226 665 8801
Email :
Website:
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