Steel consumption in the country grew by 3.5 per cent in April, marginally higher than the average 3.3 per cent growth in the entire last fiscal.

Steel consumption grew to 5.6 million tonnes (MT) in April from 5.4 million tonnes in the same month last year, according to the data by steel ministry body Joint Plant Committee (JPC).

The country’s steel consumption was at 73.3 MT steel in 2012-13, higher by 3.3 per cent over 71 MT consumed in the previous fiscal.

Meanwhile, production grew by 4.5 per cent year-on-year to 6.4 MT in April, from 6.1 MT in the year-ago period. Among main producers, both state-owned steel producers SAIL and RINL clocked negative growth during the month.

Exports, however, grew by 44.4 per cent to around 450,000 tonnes in the month from 310,000 tonnes in April, 2012.

 The final sections of the 408-ft steel spire for One World Trade Center were lifted to the top of the building earlier this month and installed this last week. The skyscraper now stands at a symbolic 1,776 ft high, making it the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere and the third tallest in the world.

Eighteen barrel-shaped sections of steel make up the spire, which weighs nearly 760 tons and will function as world-class broadcast antenna.

The steel for the building topped out last August when the last of the spandrel beams were installed between the parapet columns. The 104-story high-rise will open in 2014 on the northwest corner of NYC’s World Trade Center site — overlooking the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island — with 3 million sq. ft of office space.

 The American Institute of Steel Construction (AISC) has recognised 13 standout structural steel buildings at the 2013 Innovative Design in Engineering and Architecture with Structural Steel awards (IDEAS2).

A panel of design and construction industry professionals identified National and Merit winners in three categories, based on constructed value: less than $15 million, $15 million to $75 million and greater than $75 million. In addition, the panel awarded a Presidential Award of Excellence in Engineering to one project for outstanding structural engineering achievement.

The National Award for Projects Greater than $75 Million went to the NASCAR Hall of Fame in Charlotte, North Carolina. The building was designed by Pei Cobb Freed & Partners and Little Diversified Architectural Consulting with Leslie E. Robertson Associates as structural engineers.

Curving, sloped forms are evocative not only of the dynamic and sinuous shape of the racetrack but also of the perception of speed, which is at the heart of the NASCAR spectacle.

The first of two National Awards for Projects $15 Million to $75 Million went to the City Creek Center Retractable Roof in Salt Lake City, Utah. The project was designed by Hobbs + Black Architects with Magnusson Klemencic Associates as structural engineers. Developers wanted an urban, open‐air setting but also needed the assurance that retail businesses would be protected during inclement weather.

The second National Award went to HL23, New York, a luxury residential building designed by Neil M. Denari Architects with DeSimone Consulting Engineers. Clad with a mega-panel glass and stainless steel curtain wall system, the project’s distinct form comes from the dramatic sloping of the south and east facades, creating a dynamic and undulating three-dimensional composition.

The winner of the National Award for Projects Less Than $15 Million was the El Dorado Conference Center in El Dorado, Arkansas, designed by Polk Stanley Wilcox Architects with TME as structural engineers.

The Presidential Award of Excellence in Engineering went to the Chelsea Piers Connecticut in Stamford, designed by James G. Rogers Architects with WSP Cantor Seinuk as structural engineers. The project sees the reuse of an old manufacturing plant to house a new sports facility. Although the building had ample square footage to encompass the new facility, the lack of large column-free spaces needed for sports use was a challenge and required the removal of 23 columns from the building in order to achieve the column-free zones.

The other winners were:

Projects Less Than $15 Million:

Merit Award: Sierra Bonita Mixed-Use Affordable Housing, West Hollywood, Calif.

Merit Award: Solar Canopy, Chicago

Merit Award: The Corner Condominiums, Missoula, Mont.

Merit Award: Twilight Epiphany (James Turrell Skyspace at Rice University), Houston

Projects $15 Million to $75 Million:

Merit Award: UC Berkeley California Memorial Stadium Press Box, Berkeley, Calif.

Merit Award: Lee Hall III – Clemson University, Clemson, S.C.

Projects Greater than $75 Million:

Merit Award: Barclays Center arena, Brooklyn, N.Y.

Merit Award: National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency headquarters, Springfield, Va.

 India plans to impose safeguard duties on some iron and steel pipes, tubes and profiles to protect domestic producers from a flood of imports from countries like China and Italy.

The Directorate General of Safeguards under the Finance Ministry has initiated an investigation on impact of large scale import of seamless pipes, tubes and hollow profiles of iron or non-ally steel from countries such as China and Italy.

“It has been found that prima facie increased imports of seamless pipes and tubes have caused and are threatening to cause serious injury to the domestic producers… and as such it has been decided to initiate an investigation in the matter,” it said in a notice.

It sought comments from interested parties by May 21. The application for imposition of restrictive duties was jointly filed by Jindal Saw Ltd and Indian Seamless Metal Tubes Ltd and was supported by Maharashtra Seamless Ltd. The applicants account for more than 50 per cent of the total domestic production of seamless pipes and tubes in India. The DGS will investigate imports between 2009-10 and 2012-13.

“The imports have increased from 307,581 tons in 2009-10 to 373,777 tons till 2012-13, recording an increase of 22 per cent,” it said adding even though there was a decline in 2012-13 over the previous fiscal, but quarter wise analysis showed a sharp rising trend from Q2-Q3 on absolute basis. An immediate safeguard duty is being sought for a period of four years.

 Steel Authority of India Ltd is set to increase its crude steel capacity. The Cabinet Committee on Investment headed by the Prime Minister has issued instructions for clearance to the Environment Ministry. The Maharatna company had applied for forest clearance for the Gua iron ore mines in Jharkhand for an area of 635.986 hectares.

Now, CCI has directed that “after obtaining the requisite information from the State Government, the clearances be issued by the Ministry of Environment and Forests within one month.”

According to a statement from the Prime Minister’s Office, the clearance will enable SAIL to raise iron ore production from these mines from 2.4 million tonne per annum to 10 million tonne per annum through an investment of INR 3,000 crore along with installation of beneficiation plant and a pallet plant.

This is required for increasing crude steel capacity of Eastern sector steel plants by 5.44 million tonne per annum at an estimated cost of INR 43,000 crore, out of which an investment of INR 33,000 crore has already been made.

This expansion and modernisation of the various plants will take the iron ore requirement to 39 million tonnes from the current 24 million tonnes.

 Steel Authority of India Limited is expecting the domestic demand for the metal to grow by 7% to 8%in 2013

SAIL Chairman Mr CS Verma said the demand for the first four months of the current calendar year, YoY basis globally, even in China, even in India, it is better than the corresponding period of 2012.

He said “In India, demand has to be definitely more than 6%, because our GDP growth is projected to be 6.2%. So, the growth in steel demand has to be 7% to 8%.”

World Steel Association, the leading industry body, has forecast that India’s steel demand will grow by 5.9% to 75.8 million tonnes in 2013.

Demand for steel in any economy generally grows by 1.1 to 1.2 times of the GDP. However, this was not the case for India in last fiscal. During 2012-13, although the economy expanded by an estimated 5 per cent, India’s steel demand grew by just 3.3 per cent due to the other factors.

 The absence of iron-ore linkage has forced India’s JSW Steel to delay its $6.43-billion, 10-million-ton-a-year steel project in the east province of West Bengal.

According to a company official, the project had been stalled since there was no progress in securing iron-ore supply commitments, with the official saying that the project would not be stalled until a long-term iron-ore supply could be established for the steel mill, which included 1 600 MW captive power plant.

The provincial government of West Bengal had already provided other logistical and infrastructure requirements, including land, water resources and coal blocks for the project, which was announced in 2007.

JSW Steel had already spent around $184-million on preliminary construction work related to the project.

 The Steel Ministry has asked the two PSUs to focus on improving profitability.

Official sources said that “In view of reduction in profit, all PSUs/units have been advised to focus on operating as well as non-operating areas to improve the profitability of the companies.”

Though financial results of the two steel PSUs for the January-March quarter are yet to come out, their performance till the December quarter of FY’13 showed that a turnaround would be required in the last quarter to match the bottom lines of earlier years.

SAIL’s net profit is declining since 2009-10. The company had clocked INR 6,754.37 crore net profit in FY’10, INR 4,904.74 crore in FY’11 and INR 3,542.72 crore in FY’12. It was INR 1,723.82 crore till the December quarter fo 2012-13.

Vizag-based RINL’s net profit for FY’13 is also likely to fall. It had INR 796.67 crore net profit in 2009-10, INR 658.49 crore in 2010-11 and INR 751.46 crore in 2011-12 fiscal and could manage to clock only 250.78 crore till end of December quarter of 2012-13.

Meanwhile, the operating costs of both the two firms have gone up over the years from INR 16,114 crore in 2010-11 to INR 17,944 crore in 2001-12 for SAIL. Till December of 2012-13, it stood at INR 14,287 crore.

They said that “In addition to improvement in production, sales, product -mix, value-added products, techno-economic parameters, the companies are also taking necessary action in areas such as sale of surplus scrap, sale of non-moving/obsolete stores and spares, and maximising sales of coal chemicals, by-products and secondary steel.”

 Luxembourg is open to lend support to ArcelorMittal for taking forward its plans in India, its Ambassador Gaston Stronck said.

“We are ready to support if ArcelorMital wishes and seeks help,” Stronck said recently.

 
Arcelor Mittal, which had shifted its headquarters to Luxembourg, had approached the authorities for related licences and tariff for market access to India. Though initially, tariff and market access matters were handled by the European Commission, but if ArcelorMittal is not satisfied with the outcome, then Luxembourg would take up the matter with the Indian government, he said.

ArcelorMittal had inked a Memorandum of Understanding with the Odisha government in December, 2006 to set up a 12 mtpa steel plant in Keonjhar district at an investment of Rs 40,000 crore.

 Tekla, a leader in bringing building information modeling (BIM) software and online tools to the architectural, engineering and construction (AEC) markets, and RISA Technologies, an analysis and design software company, announced they have partnered to bring together two leading steel design solutions.

The new RISA-Tekla Link gives users the combined benefit of the design, detailing and collaboration strengths of Tekla Structures and the comprehensive steel connection design features of RISAConnection.

With Tekla Structures, users create and manage accurately detailed, highly constructable 3D structural models that can be used to ensure success across the entire building process from conceptual design to fabrication, erection and construction management. The RISA-Tekla Link extends these capabilities to include steel connection design, a critical piece of the overall design process, directly within the Tekla Structures environment. This eliminates the need to manually enter connection components into separate design software. The result is increased accuracy and a reduction in the time and cost associated with steel connection design.