Petrobas In Saudi PetCoke JV

Plant To Be Built on East Saudi Coast

Brazil's Petrobras has signed an agreement with Saudi Arabia's Modern Mining Holding Co. to study plans to build a $450 million calcined petroleum coke plant in Saudi Arabia.

The plant, to be built in Jubail, on Saudi Arabia’s east coast, is expected to produce 700,000 mt of calcined coke a year using raw petroleum coke – ore ‘green coke’ - produced by Petrobras’ refineries. The plant is scheduled to open in 2012.

The two partners in the joint-venture will provide equal amounts of finance for the project and are looking for capital from government and non-government banks.

Goa Carbon In Calcined Petroleum Coke JV

Goa Carbon Ltd has announced that the Board of Directors of the Company at its meeting held on July 17, 2009, has decided to form a Joint Venture Company in China through a wholly owned subsidiary to be formed outside India for setting up a project to manufacture Calcined Petroleum Coke (CPC) up to a capacity of 1 million MT per annum utilizing a Vertical Shaft Kiln Technology.

EU Petcoke Imports Rise Despite Recession

Figures from the European Union show that despite the global recession, imports of calcined petroleum coke into the EU rose by almost 54% to just under EUR138 million during the first quarter of 2009 compared to a year ago. However, the calcined petroleum coke trade between EU member states fell during the period by 6% to EUR79 million.

China and the USA were the chief sources for calcined petroleum coke, which is mainly used in the aluminium industry. The United States accounted for 45% of imports from outside the EU at EUR63 million, a rise of 15% over the first quarter of 2008. Despite the appreciation of the Yuan, China’s rise in imports was even more spectacular showing an increase of 225% from EUR9.59 million in Q1 of 2008 to EUR31.2 million in the first quarter of 2009.

Japan also saw a significant increase as its CPC exports to the EU trebled to EUR18.9 million in the quarter.

There were significant falls in imports from Argentina – down 33% to EUR2.9 million – and from Bosnia-Herzegovina, which sold EUR1.5 million to the Netherlands in Q1 of 2008, but zero in the first quarter of 2009.

Among the 27 EU nations, The Netherlands was the single biggest importer with EUR66.3 million worth of imports of which EUR59.7 million came from outside the EU, a rise of 30% on the first quarter of 2008. Two-thirds of the Netherlands’ imports came from the USA.

Germany imported EUR31.3 million – a rise of 85% - though almost half of that came from other EU countries, principally from the Netherlands and the UK.

Sesa Goa Picks Up Dempo Mining Assets

Sesa Goa, a Vedanta Group company, has agreed to acquire the mining assets of Dempo Group for Rs 1,750 crore [note 1 crore = 10 million] in an all-cash deal. The assets include mining leases, rights and related infrastructure in Goa.

Sesa Goa on Thursday signed a definitive share purchase agreement to acquire VS Dempo and Co Pvt Ltd, which owns 100 per cent equity shares of Dempo Mining Corporation Pvt Ltd and 50 per cent in Goa Maritime Pvt Ltd.

The deal will be funded by Sesa Goa through internal accrual, which stands at Rs 4,143 crore as on March 31, 2009, the company said in a release late on Thursday.

Mr Anil Agarwal, Chairman, Vedanta Group, said the integration of Sesa and VSD’s operations will achieve greater synergy and it was an opportunity to consolidate the company’s iron ore business.

VSD, one of the largest exporters of iron ore from Goa, owns the rights to mine-able reserves and resources estimated at 70 million tonnes of iron ore in Goa.

The company’s assets include processing plants, barges, jetties, trans-shippers and loading capacities at Marmugao port. It produced 3.94 million tonnes of iron ore and sold 4.36 million tonnes in FY’09.

VSD’s unaudited revenue was about Rs 976 crore and EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation) in FY’09 was Rs 417 crore, the release said.

“We are extremely pleased to have reached this agreement with Sesa Goa, which will ensure long-term sustenance of VSD’s operations,” said Mr Shrinivas V. Dempo, Chairman and Managing Director, Dempo Group.

Sesa Goa, one of the large iron ore exporters, has also diversified into the manufacture of pig iron and metallurgical coke. The company also has mining operations Karnataka and Orissa and operates a 280,000 tonnes a year metallurgical coke plant and a 250,000 tonnes a year pig iron plant in Goa.

Goa-based Dempo Group is a diverse industrial house with interests spanning across mining, calcined petroleum coke, pig iron, shipbuilding, food and travel. V S Dempo & Co Pvt Ltd and Dempo Mining Corporation Pvt Ltd constitute the Goa mining business of the Dempo Group.

Dempo has been involved in iron ore mining, beneficiation and exports for nearly 60 years.

Ambit Corporate Finance acted as financial advisor and J Sagar and Associates was the legal advisors to VSD. Luthra and Luthra was the legal advisors to Sesa Goa in the transaction.

Sesa Goa exported about eight million tonnes to China in 2008-09.

Miners in Goa have lower costs as mines are located near the port, and so avoid road and rail charges.

India produces over 200 million tonnes of iron ore annually and exports about half the production. There are about 500 mines held by about 80 companies. However, only 250 mines are operational.

China is the major importer of iron ore from India, with its proximity helping to secure ores with low freight costs.

The demand for iron ore has been on the rise and the prices have surged 10 per cent in first week of June, touching a four month high on account of large scale imports by China which imported 55.5 million tonnes in May, up 25 per cent over the same period last year.

Source: The Hindu Business Line

Rain Implements New Technology At Plant

Indian calcined petroleum coke producer, Rain Commodities, has announced that Rain CII Carbon (India) Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary has implemented `Oxygen Lancing’ at its Indian calcinations plant.

In a statement to the Bombay Stock Exchange on Tuesday, the company said it has a continuing focus on improving productivity across its operations. The implementation of `Oxygen Lancing’ process would result in substantive fuel savings. The technology would replace the usage of low sulphur heavy stock oil (LSHS) with oxygen that is produced within the plant. This will result in a saving of about 9,000 mt of LSHS and thereby an annual saving of Rs 150 million at current market prices of LSHS.

Source: The Hindu