Europe Power-Cal '13 at four-week high on weather

Mon Jan 30, 2012

* German Cal '13 baseload at 52.70 eur/MWh
* Spot mixed, France up, Germany down
* Coal and gas prices higher

FRANKFURT, Jan 30 (Reuters) - Europe's power forwards curve continued a price recovery begun last week on signs of colder weather settling in and higher fuels prices, with the benchmark German Cal '13 contract at four week highs.Traders said that a firmer spot price trend needed to become visible for Germany before a lasting curve uptrend could be expected.

"There just have not been any surprising prompt prices all winter, any explosions there and the curve could jump as a matter of general power sentiment," one said.German baseload for delivery next year was at 52.70 euros a megawatt hour, up 45 cents from Friday's two-week high and the highest since Dec. 30's 53.25 euros level, according to Reuters data.French Cal '13 base was at 52.50 euros, up 1.35
euros from Friday.

The country is extremely sensitive to cold snaps as it relies more on electrical heaters than Germany which has a well established oil and gas-based heat infrastructure. Temperatures in the region will slide to minus 1 to minus 9 for the daytime maximum levels by Wednesday compared with a range of minus 4 to plus 2 degrees Celsius recorded on Sunday, according to a report by German met office DWD.

French Tuesday power jumped 1.25 euros compared with what was paid for Monday to 54.75 euros, at a 5.65 euros premium over Germany. Germany's day ahead delivery position eased 1.15 euros to 49.10 euros as greater demand was more than offset by projections for wind power capacity usage reaching 10,000 MW on Tuesday and Wednesday. Thermal plant outages were limited and the trend this week is anticipated for around 4 percent more capacity becoming available in the Germany/Austria region.

(sourced Reuters)

EU-27 unemployment rate at 9.7 percent in September

Tuesday, 1 November 2011

On October 31, Eurostat, the Statistical Office of the European Communities, reported that the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate in the European Union member states (EU-27) was 9.7 percent in September this year, rising sligthly from 9.6 percent recorded in August. The unemployment rate in the region was 9.6 percent in September 2010.

Among the member states, the lowest unemployment rates were recorded in Austria at 3.9 percent, in the Netherlands at 4.5 percent and in Luxembourg at 4.8 percent, and the highest rates were seen in Spain at 22.6 percent, in Greece at 17.6 percent (in Q1 2011) and in Latvia at 16.1 percent (in Q2 2011).

Meanwhile, in the US the unemployment rate was 9.1 percent in September this year, while in Japan the unemployment rate was 4.3 percent in August.

Tags: European Union , economics

sourced:steel orbis

NMDC sings pact for sinter plant

Saturday, 05 Mar 2011 By BL

National Mineral Development Corporation has concluded an agreement with a consortium comprising SVAI of Austria and Nagarjuna Construction Company for turnkey execution of a sinter plant complex, marking the first contract among the nine packages for the 3 million tonne steel plant it is setting up at Nagarnar.

The sinter plant will be catering to 80% of the ferrous feed to the blast furnace.

The schedule of the project is 33 months from the effective date of contract.

Mr Rana Som CMD of NMDC said this would be the fastest commissioned steel plant either in Greenfield or Brownfield in the country.

Russian steel plants need investments - Siemens VAI

Sunday, 06 Feb 2011
According to Mr Werner Auer, CEO of Austria based plant maker Siemens VAI, Russian steelmakers have made up for the collapse of production in 2009 caused by the worldwide economic crisis.
Mr Auer said "2010 saw an increase in steel production again almost to the level of the record breaking year of 2008 and companies have started again to increase their investment in the expansion and enhancement of their production.”
He went on to say that he has observed an increased demand for new technologies to be used primarily in new plants or in the context of modernization.

Mr Andreas Lemp Siemens VAI manager responsible for systems business in Moscow said "Contrary to many other steel nations, Russia has its own raw materials and energy. This puts Russia in a good position to become a cost leader in production, and also among international competition."

Mr Auer said the expansion of production capacities in Russia is in line with transformation efforts and technological modernization. He said that "This is because Russian steel producers will better utilize their raw material, save on energy costs and fulfill stricter environmental regulations. Russia will also increasingly produce more sophisticated products.”
Mr Auer stated that therefore, existing steel plants need to be modernized and enhanced.(sourced:steelorbis.com)