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Myiris and others report on this. Following is an excerpt.

Larsen & Toubro (L&T) announced on Monday that the company led consortium  bagged orders worth Rs 10.70 billion for supply & installation of Sinter plant and other packages from Tata Steel.

Tata Steel is setting up an integrated steel plant with capacity of 6 million tons per annum (MTPA) in Kalinganagar industrial complex at Duburi in Jajpur district of Orissa to be completed in two phases of 3 MTPA each. The orders are for the first phase of this greenfield project.

Sinter Plant

L&T in consortium with Outotec, Germany bagged EPC (engineering – procurement – construction) contract for 5.75 MTPA Sinter plant valued at Rs 8.36 billion. The company`s share of this order is Rs 6.23 billion. This would be the single largest Sinter plant to be built in India. This is scheduled for completion in 30 months.

Steel Melt Shop

L&T has also been awarded the contract for civil and structural steel works of steel melt shop valued at Rs 2.33 billion. This is scheduled for completion in 28 months.

Money control reports on this about Deepak Fertilisers And Petrochemicals Corporation Ltd. (DFPCL). Following is an excerpt.

Land acquisition process for the Company’s 300,000 MT Ammonium Nitrate project at Paradip in Orissa is in progress and, in the meanwhile, the Company has completed the process of acquiring key equipment and placed orders for long lead items in addition to commencing the detail engineering process for the new plant.

Market watch reports that POSCO expects to complete land acquisition by year end for it’s Orissa steel plant. Following is an excerpt.

‘Lee also said Posco expects to be able to secure all necessary land for its planned 12 million ton-a-year plant in Orissa, India, by the end of 2007, with construction projected to start in the first half of next year.
Posco is set to invest $12 billion to complete the plant by 2016. Orissa’s state government has so far allocated 1,135 acres of land to Posco, which has requested 4,000 acres. ‘

Other news to be seen is that it has had massive profits due to improved cost-savings from FINEX technology.

Odisha.com reports on this.

Financial express reports that Orissa growth rate for the current year is better than national growth rate. National Industrial growth rate increased at 6.93% for the 11th plan period while in Orissa the growth rate was 11.34%. Simultaneously, while agricultural growth rate in the National context was 1.03% , in Orissa the growth rate was 3% across the 10th 5 year plan period. The overall growth rate was 7.3% for orissa as opposed to National growth rate of 6.5%. Excerpts from the article are as follows:

‘‘The growth rate of Orissa ws 7.3 % during the 10th plan period against the national average of 6.5%,’’ state finance minister Prafulla Ghadei said while replying to the discussion on Appropriation Bill in the state assembly.

Ghadei said the state was on growth path due to the strict fiscal discipline maintained by the government after Patnaik took over the reigns. ‘‘While the growth rate during the previous Congress regime was below the national average in 9th plan period, it increased in the 10th plan period,’’ he said.

Seeking to justify his argument, the finance minister pointed out that while national growth rate in agriculture was 1.03% during the 10th plan period, it was 3% in Orissa which was higher than many other states in the country.

While the national growth rate in industrial sector was confined to 6.96% in the 10th plan period, it was 11.34 % in Orissa, he said quoting what he claimed data obtained from the national sample survey. ‘‘Isn’t it an achievement of the Orissa government,’’ Ghadei asked the opposition, which earlier described the government as ‘non-performing’’. Referring to poverty, Ghadei said Orissa was ahead of neighbouring states like Jharkhand and Bihar in controlling poverty.”

The above reports prove a point that the state has gone beyond signing MOUs and creation of fruitful economic activity in the state, since that is reflected in the survey results.

We just need fruition of the big ticket investments which will result in even greater growth in the next 5 year plan. A note of caution though, current agricultural productivity is still below National average. A plan needs to be formulated to change the per hectare output in the state.

Following are some tables from the May 1-15th issue of Pratisruti Plus. The Government of Orissa Steel and Mines department website on MOUs also lists the current MOUs, but does not tell there exact up-to-date status.

Following are tables from Pratisruti Plus May 1-15th issue on cement and auto MOUs and their status.

Pratisruti Plus is a bimonthly newspaper/magazine published in Orissa. Its May 1-15th issue has a lot of data on Orissa industries. I disagree with a lot of the articles in that edition, but the data compilation there is very handy.

Statesman reports on this. Following are some excerpts.

Badamba-based Balaji Sugar is all set to start its sugar refinery unit by November this year with an investment of Rs 40 crore. The company has also planned to set up an ethanol plant with a capacity of 40000 litre.

… he said that the company through a special programme would lend soft loans at six per cent interest through banks to farmers as well as fertilizers and supply seeds at subsidized rates to more than 10,000 sugarcane farmers in all command areas of Jajpur, Kendrapara, Jagatsinghpur and undivided Cuttack district.

The company has announced a special plan for the farmers named Swarna Varsha in which farmers can get fabulous prizes against the number of sugarcane trucks they supply.

The new refinery will be of 2000 TCD with 100 per cent EOU (export-oriented unit) which will be manufactured from imported raw sugar from Brazil and Malaysia and will be exported to Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Pakistan. Besides this, the company is also installing 40,000 litres per day extra neutral alcohol to be used as base product for all the distillery units in Orissa as well as neighbouring states. They are also having the plan to manufacture ethanol keeping in mind the global warming, which is an environment-friendly substitute of petrol, which is 5–10 per cent as per government directives.

On the other hand, the company has decided to set up a 20 MW power plant using crushed cane instead of coal. The factory at Badamba was sold by the state co-operative department with zero liability as well as to select the co-operative staff as per choice and head of the company without any compulsion to recruit them in the management by Balaji Sugar.

Telegraph reports the information on this given by the Science and Technology minister in the assembly. Following are some excerpts:

… Science and technology minister Sanjeev Sahoo today told the Assembly that the proposed Biotech-Pharma-IT park would be developed in an area of approximately 260 acre in two phases on a public-private partnership mode.

In the first phase, a park would be constructed over 63acre of land in Andharua Mouza on the outskirts of Bhubaneswar. The Biotech park at Andharua will have a BT corridor, an IT corridor and a commercial infrastructure. A biotech incubator would be set up there over 10 acre, he added.

Sahoo said the companies, which have expressed their interest for participating in the global bid process, are Akruti Nirman Ltd, Ambience Developers and Infrastructure Pvt Ltd, Bharat Biotech International Ltd, Bhubaneswar Entertainment World Developers Pvt Ltd, Eldeco Infrastructure and Properties Ltd, Ramkay Infrastructure Ltd, TCG Urban Infrastructure Holding Ltd and Unitech Ltd.

The private partner would play the role of the lead developer and would be responsible of the plan, design, construct, finance, market and operate the proposed park.

Once a private partner is selected, a Special Purpose Vehicle(SPV) company in the form of a Joint Venture between the private partner and the State government will be created for the development and maintenance of the Park, Sahoo said.

For the biotech park at Andharua, IDCO has been given Rs 2 crore for construction of wall, land development, digging of borewells and setting up transformers.

The state-of-the-art Biotech Pharma-IT park will have modular R&D labs, a biotech incubator, and administration support infrastructure. The Park will stimulate and manage the knowledge flow and create linkages between universities, R&D institutions, companies and markets.

(Thanks to Deba Nayak for the pointer to this report.)

The PIB release states that the Board of Approval of SEZ recommended grant of formal approval of an SEZ with developer Hindalco Industries Limited in Sambalpur for aluminum and aluminum products. The SEZ will come up in an area of 115.94 hectares.

Myiris reports on this. Following is an excerpt.

Rashtriya Chemicals and Fertilisers (RCF) may be forced to go ahead with a Rs 35 billion coal-to-gas project at Talcher in Orissa to feed its plants, …

RCF has tied up with Reliance Industries and Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) for supplying gas. There may be delays due to the Reliance gas pricing issue yet to receive an approval from the centre.

The company is also in talks with Gail India for fuel supply. If the availability of gas become an issue, then it might think of setting up the Talcher project.

Talcher is the most viable site in terms of infrastructure, facilities and proximity to coal mines. The latest coal gassification technology will be utilised to allow the use of coal with high ash content of up to 30-35%.

Earlier news mentioned about IBM expanding to or eying various tier 2 cities including Bhubaneswar. Economic Times now reports that the center in Bhubaneswar will be a development center. Following are excerpts from that report.

IT major IBM will soon open its third development centre in Orissa’s capital city. …

Sources said TCS, Infosys and Satyam already had their centres here while Wipro, Mindtree and Hexaware were expected to decide on their plan soon. Genpact had already committed to invest at Infocity-1, the state government’s IT cluster. …

The IBM team, on its part, assured the state government that they would provide technical know-how for Orissa’s ongoing e-governance programme.

Brain has also assured Patnaik that IBM would help the government to develop the proposed Indian Institute of Information Technology (IIIT) in Bhubaneswar.

IBM already has two centres, one in Chennai and another in Coimbatore, the sources added.

Hindustan Times reported that,

the Orissa government is examining a proposal from the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd (NPCIL) to set up a 4,000 to 6,000-megawatt capacity nuclear power plant, which could be the largest in the country, which today has a total nuclear power generation capacity of only 4,120 MW.

The project is being proposed in the wake of the US government’s offer of technology under the bilateral nuclear cooperation agreement with India.

“The NPCIL made their initial selection of the site based on satellite images,” Orissa Energy Minister Suryanarayan Patro told Hindustan Times on Monday.

A nine-member committee of NPCIL had visited Bhadrak and Ganjam districts for site selection and had finally selected Pati Sonapur in Chikiti Block of Ganjam,he said “They have asked the Orissa Hydro Power Corporation to drill six deep borewells as part of their investigations,” he said.     

Statesman reports on an IBM Center in Bhubaneswar. Following is an excerpt.

IBM is likely to establish a development centre in Bhubaneswar. A release issued by the CMO here said that indications to this effect were given by Mr Stephen W Braim, the vice-president, IBM Asia Pacific, today. Mr Braim met chief minister Mr Naveen Patnaik and discussed IT development and human resource development to meet the growing demand of such professionals. IBM has two development centres in the country and the one proposed to come up in Bhubaneswar will be its third centre, said the release.

Myiris.com reports on this. Following is an excerpt.

Shri Ramrupai Balaji Steels announced on Tuesday that the board decided to set up a cement plant with a capacity of 3 million tons in the state of Orissa involving an estimated investment of about Rs 11 billion.

The Economic Times reports on NALCO’s plan about a cement venture and its plans to convert fly-ash to salable product. Following are excerpts from that report.

… (Nalco) has decided to diversify into cement manufacturing and is looking for global joint venture partners to float a medium to large sized cement plant. Nalco’s proposed cement venture is part of its decision to use fly ash generated at its captive power plant at Angul in Orissa and convert it into sale-able products. …

Nalco is primarily looking at the possibility of manufacturing Pozzo-lana Portland Cement (PPC). A byproduct of coal-fired power plants, fly ash can replace a proportion of the clinker used in cement plants. However, the company is also open to any other form of utilisation of fly ash in the JV.

The company is also seeking JV partners for classification and marketing of cementitious applications in the domestic and export markets. Cementitious products have cement-like, cementing, or bonding type properties. As the largest state owned producer of aluminium, Bhubaneswar-based Nalco operates alumina-aluminium complex along with a captive power plant, and has embarked on a major expansion programme to raise metal capacity.

The project also involves enhancing installed captive power generation capacity from 960 mw to 1,200 mw at Angul. Fly ash is commonly used as a high-performance substitute for Portland cement or as clinker for Portland cement production. Cement blended with fly ash is becoming very common. Building material applications range from grouts and masonry products to cellular concrete and roofing tiles.

Nalco has eight power units of 120 mw each, while the expansion project involves setting up two more identical units of 120 mw. These will be commissioned by the year 2008.

Typically, such units generate about 5,000-6,000 tonnes of ash per day, of which fly ash consists of 4,000-4,800 tonnes. A project is un-derway to allow easy loading of fly ash from the plants. By 2009, the quantity of fly ash that can be utilised is expected to touch 4,500 ton-nes per day. At present, this volume is about 900 tonnes.

“Nalco is yet to decide on the size of the cement plant. However, rough estimates show that a one million tonnes cement plant can be put up to utilise three lakh tonnes of fly ash. Nalco’s current fly ash generation per annum is 3.2 lakh tonnes,” a Nalco official said.

Some of the other topics that were discussed in the assembly include the following:

• Insurance for fishermen
• Monthly electricity generation
• Progress on second Infocity
• Foreign demand for handlooms
• Conservation of ancient documents

Following is Samaja’s report on the above.

Following is from Samaja epaper. It gives the reaction of Orissa on the mining policy recommended by the GOM.

Livemint reports that RCF (Rashtriya Chemicals and Fertilizers) plans to revive the FCI plant in Talcher. Following are excerpts from that report.

Public sector enterprise Rashtriya Chemicals and Fertilizers (RCF) has planned a capital expenditure of Rs 10,000 crore for the next five years and will consider tapping the capital market for raising funds.

The company is talking to the government on its initial public offer and the process would take six to eight months, …

Of the Rs 10,000 crore capex planned, the debt-equity ratio would be 2:1 and hence the company could borrow up to Rs 7,000 crore while the rest could come from its IPO, he said.

“The company expects to finance its projects largely through internal generation and debt, apart from other modes of generating funds as may be appropriate,” it said in its annual general report.

With the capex money, RCF wants to revive two units–Hindustan Fertilizer Corporation’s unit in Durgapur, West Bengal, and Fertilizer Corporation of India unit in Talcher, Orissa.

Both the units would absorb about Rs 6,500 crore, Jha said.

Livemint reports on NALCO’s expansion plan. Following are excerpts from that report.

State-run aluminium producer, Nalco, will tap the overseas market to raise $250-million by August-end for its ambitious capacity expansion plan.

Nalco is undertaking a major expansion, including ramping up of its alumina capacity at the cost of Rs 5,040 crore. …

In between, Nalco has placed orders on foreign equipment suppliers for its expansion project and the deliveries are due in 2008.

The project involves expansion of capacity of its bauxite mine, alumina refinery, captive power plant and aluminium smelter by about 33%, he said.

Under the expansion, the capacity of bauxite mine in Koraput district of Orissa would be increased from 4.8 million MT a year to 6.3 million MT.

The alumina capacity would go up to 2.1 million MT annually from the present 1.58 million MT, he said. Besides, the capacity at the captive power plant at Angul in Orissa would be ramped up to 1,200MW, he added.

The PSU also plans to enhance its aluminium smelting capacity from 345,000 MT to 460,000 MT per annum.

In the medium-term, after the completion of the expansion project by 2008-end, a growth of 30% is targeted, the official added.

The Orissa government’s call for expression of interest on this is here. (Thanks to Manoj Padhi for the pointer.)

The economic times reports that the new mineral policy has been announced. Excerpts are mentioned in another post. Here, we list it’s salient features.

• The GoM has accepted the views of the mining industry while recommending no changes in the guidelines for exports.[This decision supports POSCO’s case for captive mines]
• More powers provided to state government. The state governments will be able to give preference to companies undertaking value addition within the state while allotting iron ore mines. This will reduce standalone mines.
• The policy will provide captive mines to all steel units in operation up to July 2006.[I’m not sure about it’s implications for POSCO]
• The policy will now aim towards procedural simplification for attracting investments in the sector.
• It will also benefit the states as under the new policy, the present system of specific rate royalty will shift to ad valorem rate of 7.5%.[This will have great benefits for Orissa and other mineral rich states]. Once notified, the proposal will increase royalty earnings by almost six times.
• The states sitting over mining applications of companies will be penalised as delays will transfer their powers to the Centre.
• Another important aspect of the new policy is that a process of competitive bidding can be initiated for allocation of captive coal blocks. This is presently done by a screening committee within the coal ministry. The bidding process will also be started for all other major minerals.
• Besides, the government will auction mining areas where full prospecting has to be done.
• Companies will have to earmark 3% of turnover for undertaking rehabilitation and resettlement of displaced people under a sustainable development model. However, the ministry of environment and forests will work out fresh guidelines separately to introduce environment-friendly mining practices in the industry.

The economic times states that mining areas will be auctioned for prospecting but the Telegraph says that Auctions mean global giants such as Posco and ArcelorMittal will not be allowed to negotiate for leases with Jharkhand and Orissa on the basis of plans for units in these states. Of course, this statement is speculative. But the states need to be careful before agreeing to this proposal.

Perhaps, We will have to wait and watch for the final notification on the policy.