Essar Steel News

The St. Marys River is closed to commercial vessels from the Soo Locks to 6 Mile Point, after a 629-foot U.S. cargo ship ran aground on the north side of Sugar Island, Wednesday, at about 11:40 p.m. The merchant vessel, Calumet, departed Essar Steel in Sault Ste. Marie, Ont. and was transiting downbound on the St. Marys River to its next port of call in Brevort, Mich., when it ran aground. The vessel was not carrying any cargo. There was no pollution, and no injuries have been reported. The U.S. Coast Guard is monitoring the vessel, and the U.S.

A 629-foot U.S. cargo ship ran aground on the north side of Sugar Island in the St. Marys River, Wednesday at 11:40 p.m. The merchant vessel Calumet departed ESSAR Steel in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario and was transiting downbound in the St. Marys River to its next port of call in Brevort, Michigan, when it ran aground. The U.S. Coast Guard is on scene and no injuries have been reported. The vessel is currently aground and stable. There are currently no signs of pollution. The St. Marys River is closed to commercial vessels from the Soo Locks to 6 Mile Point. The vessel’s company, Grand River Navigation Inc., is taking precautionary measures to help ensure the safety of the environment and developing a salvage plan. The cause of the grounding is under investigation. Source: U.S.

The Ruia brothers-led Essar Shipping Limited (ESL) of India has added a Panamax vessel of 74,005 Deadweight Tonnage (DWT) to its fleet of vessels. With this new induction, Essar Shipping now has a fleet of 14 vessels that include VLCCs, Capesizes, Mini-capes, Panamax, Supramaxes and Handysize bulk carriers. Essar Shipping’s total DWT capacity now stands at 1.6 million and its average fleet age has fallen to 12 years from erstwhile 13.5 years, according to a company statement here on Tuesday. This 2000-built Panamax bulk carrier, rechristened 'MV Mahavir', will be deployed for transporting pellets, coal and limestone from Essar Steel's pellet plant in Paradip to the steel plant in Hazira, the statement said.

Essar Bulk Terminal Paradip Ltd (EBTPL) has surpassed several of its own performance benchmarks in the first few months of the current fiscal. In the period, EBTPL achieved the highest load rate ever recorded at Paradip port. This was made possible through loading of bigger parcel sizes, faster turnaround of vessels and minimised berth stay durations. EBTPL successfully loaded more than 100,000 tonne of pellets into MV Shravan (sailed) at an average load rate of almost 4,300 tonnes per hour (TPH), which is a record. In contrast in FY2016, EBTPL had loaded 75,000 tonne in a vessel in 18 hours, achieving a load rate of nearly 4,200 TPH. Overall cargo handling by Essar Ports Ltd (EPL), which is the holding company of EBTPL, has witnessed a significant jump in the last four months.

Post the taking over of Vishakhapatnam Port Trust’s (VPT's) Iron Ore Handling Complex (OHC) on a Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) basis for a period of 30 years in May’ 15, Essar Vizag Terminals Limited (EVTL), a wholly owned subsidiary of Essar Ports Limited (EPL) has boosted the EPL’s strategy of diversifying its customer profile. Through addition of this facility EPL has seen its third party cargo share jump to more than 8% in FY 16 alone with the likes of JSW, NMDC/ MMTC etc. Once upgraded the mechanized system will be able to reach a capacity of 8000TPH, which will be one of the highest cargo-handling rate in Indian Major Ports. During QI FY 17…

On the back of increased production by its anchor customers, Essar Ports Limited (EPL) has registered significant growth in cargo handling over the last three months. In March 2016 alone, EPL’s four operational ports handled total cargoes of 6.25 million tonnes (MMT), which translates to a run rate of 75 million tonnes per annum (MTPA). With the recent commissioning of the 20 MMT Salaya Bulk Terminal, cargo handling will see a further boost in FY2017. The contribution of third-party traffic to overall cargo handling stands at about 10% currently. About 90% of the cargo handled at EPL’s Hazira, Vadinar, Vizag and Paradip ports is contracted with captive businesses, like Essar Steel India Ltd, Essar Oil Ltd and Essar Power Ltd.

The Government of Canada joined Irving Shipbuilding and its employees today marked the signing of the $2.3 billion Arctic Offshore Patrol Ships (AOPS) build contract at Halifax Shipyard. The Honorable Diane Finley, Minister of Public Works and Government Services Canada and the Honorable Peter MacKay, Attorney General and Minister of Justice of Canada and Minister Responsible for Nova Scotia participated with Irving Shipbuilding as well as provincial, municipal and community leaders…

India said on Tuesday it may appeal against parts of a World Trade Organization ruling against countervailing U.S. duties on some of its steel exports, despite being partly vindicated in a trade dispute. States impose countervailing duties, or punitively high import tariffs, when they suspect another country of gaining an unfair trade advantage through subsidies. The WTO, ruling on the April 2012 case, said on Monday that the United States had acted wrongly in claiming some Indian subsidy programmes had given steelmakers such as Tata Steel an unfair advantage. "Important issues have been in our favour but there are still some issues on which we are not happy," India Commerce Secretary Rajeev Kher told reporters. "There are several procedural issues which are in U.S.

The Tata group is looking at the possibility of entering the shipbuilding business even as India looks to boost its shipbuilding capabilities to meet growing global demand for cargo carrying ships. The Tata group has shown interest in building a shipyard near Shivrajpur in Gujarat after the state government invited expressions of interest from private firms, according to a senior Gujarat government official. The group, which makes everything from salt to cars, is conducting a feasibility study on the project, said people familiar with the matter who did not wish to be identified. Tata Steel Ltd makes steel, a key input for constructing ships.

Indian firms are increasingly getting into ship building and repairing as shipbuilding orders are expected to rise significantly to meet the boom in seaborne trade and increased offshore oil exploration. The local industry is expected to expand to $20b by 2020 from close to $5b now, a report by maritime consultants i-maritime Consultancy Pvt Ltd said, which is about 1 percent by value of total global shipbuilding orders. Besides subsidies given by the Indian government to local shipbuilders, which is a big incentive, a major part of the world shipping fleet is very old and due for replacement, Chief Financial Officer Dhananjay Datar of ABG Shipyard said.

RINA issued the first Information Security certificate in India and certified Essar Steel Ltd. to ISO 27001:2005. RINA has certified Essar Steel's Global Data Center (GDC), situated in Hazira, 250 km from Mumbai. The Center supports the group's business functions and offers server, desktop, applications, database and help desk management services. Certification was performed in the Indian offices through a system of audits which concentrated on all the aspects of security management, assessing their implementation and effectiveness. Through recognition and compliance with the reference standards set down by ISO 27001, Essar Steel will be able to protect the confidentiality, integrity and availability of information in a dynamic and efficient way.