MUMBAI: Two global steel giants — ArcelorMittal and Nippon Steel — are teaming up to jointly bid
for bankrupt Essar Steel BSE 0.41 %, said two senior executives who did not want to be named. The
asset is expected to go under the hammer in the second week of February.

ArcelorMittal and Nippon Steel had originally planned to submit independent bids for Essar Steel,
which is among the five steel companies up for sale following RBI’s directions to refer 12 companies
to bankruptcy court in June last year. The other key contenders for Essar Steel are Tata Steel BSE 0.54
%, Vedanta Resources and the promoters of Essar, the Ruias, in partnership with Russia’s VTB
Capital.

Japan’s Nippon Steel and billionaire Lakshmi Mittal-promoted ArcelorMittal decided to bid jointly for
Essar last week, said the people cited above. “The final contours of the tie-up are being worked out.
We don’t really know the rationale for the tie-up as yet,” said one of the persons.

ArcelorMittal declined comment on what it said was speculation. Nippon Steel couldn’t be reached
over the weekend and there was no response to an email.

PARTNERSHIP TO INTENSIFY BIDDING

“Nippon Steel has deep pockets but it does not have any presence in India and therefore partnering
with those who are familiar with Indian regulations is comforting,” said one of the persons. “For
Arcelor-Mittal, partnership will add to the financial muscle needed for acquiring the company.”

This partnership will intensify bidding for Essar Steel and result in lower haircuts for lenders. Essar
Steel faces Rs 54,851 crore in claims from financial creditors and Rs 22,914 crore in claims from
operational creditors. The five steel companies among the 12 are Electrosteel Steels, Bhushan Steel,
Monnet Ispat and Bhushan Power & Steel besides Essar Steel.

Of the five, the respective resolution professionals have accepted binding bids for Monnet Ispat and
Electrosteel Steels, while the other three will be up for sale after the February 1 Budget. JSW Ispat in
partnership with AION was the sole bidder for Monnet Ispat. Vedanta Resources emerged the
highest bidder for Electrosteel Steels.

Tata Steel has sought fresh bids for Electrosteel Steels after a clarification was issued on tax liability
for acquiring distressed companies a day after deadline. JSW Ispat has tied up with a Japanese fund
and Piramal to bid for Bhushan Steel and is expected to face stiff competition from Vedanta. “These
developments show that bidding for steel companies, particularly Essar, will attract intense
competition and no one wants to take a chance in losing good assets at a discount,” said one of those
aware of the development .

The Ruias will make every effort to retain their prized asset and their bid may be the most aggressive
among all bidders, said people with knowledge of discussions.

Better mining policy is the need of the hour to encourage the segment, says Chairman, IREFCON NEW DELHI, MARCH 11

Considered to be a ‘dying industry’ till recently, domestic refractory makers are suddenly finding their place under the sun, thanks to the spurt in prices of Chinese imports.

Earlier, apart from finished products, nearly 40 per cent of the raw materials for refractory bricks — such as magnesite, graphite, fused and calcined alumina and high grade clays — were imported from China. However, with China clamping down on mining and introducing stringent pollution control norms, the supply of raw materials has been impacted. This has shifted the focus on to domestic refractory makers, said Parmod Sagar, Chairman, India International Refractories Congress (Irefcon).

Refractory products are vital in all high-temperature processes in the making of metals, cement, glass and ceramics. The steel industry is one of the biggest consumers of refractory products, accounting for nearly 60-70 per cent of the total production.

“Till about a year back refractory was considered a dying industry, everyone was ignoring it. But this China issue has brought a change in the way refractory is viewed as a product for steel and cement making,” Sagar told BusinessLinerecently at an Irefcon conference.

Despite refractory being a key component for the steel industry, it has hardly found mention in the government’s steel policy, he said.

Price surge

According to Sagar, while the price of refractory products has increased by 30-50 per cent, that of the raw materials surged by 10-150 per cent across various categories.

The ₹6,500-crore domestic refractory industry, which has not taken any ‘significant’ price hike in the last three to five years, has managed to pass it on to its consumers thus far. However, any further price hike would be difficult to manage, he said.

Need for mining policy

To encourage players to set up plants in India, the Centre should focus on supporting the refractory industry with a better mining policy, and allocate funds for research and development of raw material in India, he said. There is also a need to bring down import duty on raw material for refractory to zero so as to encourage domestic production.

REUNIONES JUNIO OVIEDO HOTEL AYRE OVIEDO.

Martes 12 de Junio de 2018:

16.00 Reunión Comité Técnico (Solo asociados)

16.00 Reunión Comité Montadores (Solo asociados)

18.00 Coffee Break (Solo asociados)

18.30 Junta Directiva (Solo asociados)

21.00 Salida Hall Hotel para Cena apertura Congreso en el Real Club de Tenis

Miércoles 13 de Junio de 2018:

8.30- Entrega de acreditaciones

9.00-9.15 – Apertura del Congreso. Bienvenida del Presidente de Anfre

9.15- 10.00 – Ponencia de Unesid-“ La industria siderúrgia española. Mercado Nacional y entorno internacional”. Alfonso Hidalgo

10.00- 10.35 – Ponencia de Midegasa- “ Silica fume grade for Application in Refractory. Properties and advantages”. Christian Lengdobler.

10.35- 11.10 – Ponencia de Cementos Molins- “ Soluciones y tendencias refractarias sostenibles con aluminatos de calcio”. Christian Iglesis

11.10- 11.40 – Coffee Break

11.40- 12.15 – Ponencia Informed. “ Year of the Dog: is its bark worse than its bite? China´s refractory minerals outlook”. Mike O´Driscoll.

12.15- 12.50 – Ponencia de Imerys. “Improvements for a better rehability of low Cement castables.” Fabien Simonin

12.50- 13.25 – Ponencia de Elkem. “EMSIL-DRY^TM: Hormigones de secado rápido , ventajas tanto para el fabricante de Refractarios como para los Usuarios finales.”Jordi Hernández.

13.25- 14.00 – Ponencia Arciresa.“Bauxstar 90. Una nueva Bauxita producida en España”. María F. Torío y Fernando López.

14.00- 15.30 – Comida

15.30- 16.15 – Ponencia de Oficemen .” La industria española del Cemento”. Ricardo López

16.15- 16.50 – Ponencia de IMCD España. “ Hormigones refractarios para aplicaciones industriales: aún tenemos margen para mejorar”. Adrián García

17.00 – 18.00/18.30 – Mesa redonda de Materias Primas. Cierre de Congreso

If ever there was a time to acknowledge and try to understand the significant influence of Chinese policies on refractory mineral supply to western markets that time is now. The upshot is thar 2017 will be remembered as the «Year of the Perfect», or perhaps… «Imperfect Storm» – depending on whether one is a Western refractory mineral producer/developer or a Western consumer of Chinese refractory minerals, respectively.

The exact knowledge of the material properties of refractories in the region of their, usual very high, application temperatures is the key to their successful application as well as to the development of new refractory materials. A particularly important question is the behaviour of a refractory against thermal shock and thermal cycling. While many techniques and standards deal with changes between high temperature and room temperature, the more realistic load is often the fast change between two high temperatures. In this work, we explain the capabilities of a new ThermoOptical measuring device called TOM_wave, which was developed for hot thermal shock and thermal cycling tests and determination of further high temperature properties of refractories.