Toyota Kirloskar begins Etios exports to S. Africa

Chennai: Toyota Kirloskar Motor today entered the export market with the shipment of 247 units of the Etios series to South Africa from the Ennore Port near Chennai.

The export model of Etios will be built on the same platform as Etios and Etios Liva, manufactured and sold in India.

The Etios is manufactured at Toyota Kirloskar’s second plant in Bidadai industrial area on the outskirts of Bangalore. The export model will also be manufactured in the same plant.

Japanese car maker Nissan also uses the Ennore Port for exports.

Indian oilmeal exports volume up by 8% in FY11-12

Kolkata: The Indian oilmeal export in FY11-12 has clocked a 8% growth in volume and touched a figure of 5,480,083 tons as compared to 5,071,779 tons in FY10-11.

In value terms there has been a marginal growth of 1% to Rs 8,300 crore in FY11-12 as compared to Rs 8,200 crore in the previous fiscal, according to the Solvent Extractors' Association of India. The export of oilmeals during March 2012 is reported at 575,972 tons compared to 579,907 tons in March 2011.

Oilmeal import by Japan from India during April 2011 to March 2012 reported at 1,296,436 tons compared to 1,259,870 tons last year consisting of 1,266,840 tons of soybean meal and 29,596 tons of rapeseed meal. Vietnam, another major market, imported 903,554 tons compared to 853,869 tons last year consisting 668,114 tons of soybean meal, 58,715 tons of rapeseed meal and entire quantity of 176,725 tons of rice bran extraction.

South Korea, a major importer of oilmeal imported 836,223 tons compared to 624,699 tons last year, consisting of 427,229 tons of rapeseed meal, 317,106 tons of castorseed meal and 91,888 tons of soybean meal.

China imported 351,003 tons of oilmeal as compared to 536,604 tons consisting of 272,078 tons of rapeseed meal, 76,637 tons of soybean meal and 2,288 tons of groundnut meal. Europe and others have imported 386,107 tons of oilmeal compared to 299,770 tons in previous fiscal.

Indorama set to invest Rs 1,000 cr in new plant in Himachal Pradesh

Chandigarh: Polyester fibre producer Indorama Industries on Tuesday said it was investing Rs 1,000 crore at its new plant in Himachal Pradesh's industrial town of Baddi.

Indorama Business Head, Mr R.D. Gupta, told reporters here that the company had already set up a Spandex manufacturing plant with 5,000 tonnes annual capacity at an initial investment of Rs 400 crore.

“The company intends to expand the capacity to 15,000 tonne per annum in two phases by investing Rs 1,000 crore in three phases. This is a state-of-the-art manufacturing set-up equipped with zero-discharge facility as well as rain water harvesting facility,” Mr Gupta said.

Indorama Industries Ltd is a subsidiary of the Singapore-based Indorama Corporation, an $8 billion company with business diversified in polyester fibre, filament yarns, spun yarns, fabrics and other material. It has 38 manufacturing plants in 19 countries and a customer base in over 90 countries.

“India's Spandex domestic growth is expected to be 15-20 per cent compared to the world's growth of 7-8 per cent per annum. Direct consumption of bare Spandex in the country currently stands around 6,000-7,000 tonnes per annum, all of which is imported at present,” Mr Gupta said.

Indorama Director, Mr Rajeev Kshetrapal, said t the company would create over 300 jobs in the hill State in the first phase.

Cairn India made oil discovery in Krishna-Godavari basin block

New Delhi: KG basin Cairn India, a Vedanta group company, has announced an oil discovery in its onshore block in the Krishna-Godavari basin where it had made a gas discovery about a year ago said.

The company has informed about the discovery to the block's management committee (MC) and awaiting its approval, a company spokesman said. The committee, which is chaired by the director general of hydrocarbons and represented by an oil ministry official, regulates affairs of the block.

Nagayalanka SE-1 is an oil discovery whereas Nagayalanka SE is predominantly a gas discovery, the spokesman said. The company has found about 57 meters oil bearing hydrocarbon column and experienced flow of oil at an average rate of 70 barrels per day and 0.6 million standard cubic feet per day gas from the discoveries.

"Further testing is ongoing," it said in a statement. Company could not disclose details of oil and gas reserves pending appraisal of discoveries.

"Further appraisal will be required to establish the commerciality of the Nagayalanka-SE discovery," the statement said. The block, KG-ONN-2003/1 is currently in the second phase of exploration, where the company has completed the committed minimum work programme. Cairn is the operator of the block with 49% stake while state-run ONGC holds balance 51%.

Sugar output up 13% in Oct-Mar

New Delhi: Sugar output in October-March 2011-12 rose 13 per cent to 23.2 million tonnes (mt) against 20.45 mt last year, the Indian Sugar Mills Association (ISMA) said.

The industry body expects output in the sugar year-ending September 2012 to exceed its initial estimates of 26 mt. About 385 sugar mills continued to crush cane as on March 31, 2012, against 329 in the previous year.

Output in Uttar Pradesh stood at 6.63 mt till March-end (5.88 mt). Maharashtra produced 8.01 mt, about 8 lakh tonnes more than last year. Karnataka, the third largest producer, recorded an output of 3.5 mt, about 5 lakh tonnes more than last year.

With a projected output of 26 mt and domestic consumption pegged at 22 mt, ISMA believes that another 1.5 mt could be exported in the current year. The Government has so far permitted exports of 3 mt.

“With the current trend of sowing across the country, it seems certain that sugar production in 2012-13 season will be higher than the domestic requirement and the country may continue to remain a net exporter next year too. A firmer estimation of production would be available only after a couple of months,” ISMA said.

“Since the window for exports seems to be available only for the next couple of months before Brazilian sugar production hits the international market, the Government should allow the fourth tranche of sugar exports of around 15 lakh tonnes” it said.

NABARD reports 50% higher funding in Gujarat in FY2012

Ahmedabad: NABARD's financial assistance for supporting agriculture, rural development and rural infrastructure development in the Gujarat increased by 50%. It touched Rs 4340 crore during the financial year 2011-12 as against Rs 2894 crore in the previous fiscal.

NABARD assistance consists of Rs 3270 crore refinance support to banks for expanding farm and non-farm sector loans, Rs 780 crore loan to the government of Gujarat under the Rural Infrastructure Development Fund (RIDF), Rs 205 crore direct finance to district co-operative banks, Rs 69 crore support for developing warehouse and cold storages and Rs 16 crore loan for setting up two innovative solar power projects.

During the year 2011-12, 161 new projects involving RIDF loans of Rs 1516 crore were sanctioned to Government of Gujarat under RIDF for taking up infrastructure projects in rural areas. This is the highest ever sanction in a single year so far for irrigation, rural drinking water project, construction of underground drainage system and construction of warehouses.

"With this, the cumulative sanctions under RIDF reached Rs 10,877crore. The disbursements under RIDF were at Rs 780 crore during the year, taking the cumulative disbursements to Rs 7935 crore," NABARD - Gujarat CGM HR Dave said in a media statement.

In 2011-12, under a new scheme NABARD Infrastructure Development Assistance (NIDA) two solar power projects were sanctioned with term loan assistance of Rs 59 crore.

The refinance released to the coopverative banks and regional rural banks stood at Rs 2429 crore as against Rs 1334 crore disbursed during 2010-11, registering a growth of 82 %. For the first time, NABARD provided direct finance to District Co-operative Banks for diversification of their business portfolio.

An amount Rs 205 crore was disbursed to Rajkot and Sabarkantha district co-operative banks for supporting their new and innovative ventures.

To improve the storage capacity of agricultural produce in the state, as part of government of India initiative, NABARD provided concessional refinance of Rs 69 crore to banks for financing construction of warehouses and cold storages.

Tablet sales touch 4.75 lakh in 2011: CyberMedia Research

New Delhi: Low-cost tablets are getting traction in the Indian market. According to CyberMedia Research, about 4.75 lakh units of tablets were sold in India last year.

Mr Naveen Mishra, Lead Telecoms Analyst, CyberMedia Research, said, “The Indian market has become very competitive in the five quarters since fourth quarter of 2010, when the first tablet model was introduced in the country by Samsung.”

“Going forward, with the launch of new, competitively priced models from vendors such as Intex and Micromax, CyberMedia Research expects bigger marketing spends to popularise the tablet form factor as well as signal brand strength by leading players,” he added.

Over the past few months, number of companies have launched low-cost tablets in the market. This includes the INTEX itab at Rs 11,900, Zync tablet at Rs 8,990 and Wishtel's tablet at Rs 4,000

According to CyberMedia Research, the competition is expected to intensify further with new vendors launching their products during 2012. “In a short span of time, the market has already seen ‘verticalised' product offerings and during 2012 this will become an even stronger trend. For now, education seems to be the vertical with highest priority of adoption and a large number of models are positioned at this segment,” Mr Mishra said.

However, he cautioned that the success in adoption of tablets will largely depend on product performance and availability of relevant content as well as affordable and widespread 3G services.

Reliance Power's first thermal power at Rosa project becomes fully operational

Lucknow: Reliance Power has successfully commissioned its fourth unit of 300 MW at Rosa Thermal Power plant making the 1,200 MW project fully operational. The fourth and last phase of 300 MW was scheduled to be completed by July 2012 but the company was able to speedily execute the work and commission it four months ahead of schedule.

Reliance Power announced on Monday that the last phase of 300 MW was synchronized and achieved full load on March 28.

Chairman and Managing Director, UP Power Corporation Ltd, Avnish Awasthi said that after successful completion of 72 hours full load test the fourth unit of the Rosa project was declared commercially operational on March 31. He said that the additional power they would get from this unit would come as a major boost to the state as the summer months start.

CEO, Reliance Power, JP Chalasani said that the 1,200 MW Rosa plant is consistently operating above 95% Plant Load Factor and ranks among the best.

The Rosa power plant set up with an investment of over Rs 6,000 crores in Shahjahanpur district, comprises of four units of 300 MW each and is the first new thermal power project to be set up and become operational in Uttar Pradesh during the last two decades.

JP Chalasani, said "The Rosa project is special to us as its is Reliance Power's first operating power plant. Our team has once again demonstrated its ability in construction and commissioning of big projects".

He said that the 1,200 MW Rosa plant would supply its full capacity to the state. It would contribute about 15% of UP's total energy requirement and provide 5,000 direct and indirect jobs.

Railways to sign a JV for setting up wagon component manufacturing facility in April 2012

Kolkata: The Railways is poised to sign a joint venture agreement in April 2012 for setting up a wagon component manufacturing facility at Jellingham, East Midnapore with work on the over Rs 200-crore project likely to commence from September 2012.

The production of bogies and couplers from the new facility is expected to take place from March 2014. Keshav Chandra, Member Mechanical, Railway Board and A K Verma, General Manager, South Eastern Railway visited the site at Jellingham on Sunday. Other senior officials of Burn Standard Ltd SAIL and WBIDC were also present.

The project was sanctioned to set up a steel foundry for manufacturing of wagon bogies and wagon couplers at Jellingham where Burn Standard Ltd has 128 acres on lease from Kolkata Port Trust. The steel foundry will be set up on 35 acre.

The feasibility study for the project has already been conducted by RITES and report was submitted in September 2011. The feasibility report was approved by Burn Standard Ltd in September 2011 and by SAIL in March 2012. The project cost is estimated at Rs.201.66 crore.

The project will be financed on a 70:30 debt and equity ratio by a joint venture company between Burn Standard Ltd. and SAIL which will have equal participation from the two partners.

While the joint venture agreement will be registered in April 2012, the jv will subsequently float tenders for construction of foundry. The plant will be set up for manufacturing 10000 wagon couplers and 10000 bogies per year and the Railways has agreed to an assured off-take of 5000 couplers and 5000 bogies per annum.

Bilfinger Berger to invest 100 mn euros in India

Ahmedabad: Leading German engineering and services company Bilfinger Berger on Monday said it plans to invest more than 100 million euros in India in the next couple of years.

The recent acquisition of the Surat-based Neo Structo Construction Ltd and Spetech Plant Equipments Private Ltd represents an initial milestone in the German company’s objective of strengthening its commitment in Asia. Bilfinger Berger has a financial scope of more than €1 billion for investment in the next two years globally in the expansion of the services business.

Growth markets in the Asia-Pacific and the Gulf region are a key focus in this strategy, Mr Robert Koch, Chairman of the Executive Board of Bilfinger Berger SE, said in a statement on Monday.

Earlier this year, Bilfinger Berger had acquired engineering firm Tebodin, operating in Chennai since 2007.