News

Vale is in talks with two South Korean firms to reduce its stake in a joint venture to build an integrated steel mill in Brazil. Vale's stake may decrease from 50% to 30% in the second phase of construction of the plant, while POSCO and Dongkuk Steel could increase their stakes to 35% each. Currently, POSCO and Dongkuk Steel hold a 20% and 30% stake in the project, respectively.

Solar Trust of America is constructing two solar thermal plants in California. The two 242 MW plants, worth USD 2.1 billion, form the first phase of Solar Trust's 1000MW Blythe Solar power project in Riverside County. The project will use parabolic trough concentrating solar thermal technology and will generate electricity sufficient to power more than 300,000 homes.

Tata Steel conducted the groundbreaking ceremony for the 600,000tns/yr continuous annealing and processing line (CAPL) project, at the Tata Steel works. This is part of the joint venture agreement to set up India’s first CAPL for the production of automotive cold-rolled steels at Jamshedpur signed between Tata Steel Limited and Nippon Steel Corporation in January 2011.

Chevron has appointed Paul V. Bennett as vice president and treasurer, effective 1 May 2011. Having served in several senior corporate and operating financial positions, including oversight of Chevron's credit and receivables operations, Bennett is highly qualified to guide financing strategies for the company's overall corporate capital structure as well as their major development projects. He is broadly experienced in treasury and risk management and in his current position, Bennett played an instrumental role in helping to streamline the Downstream and Chemicals business, transforming it into a more profitable, lower-cost organization.

Cleeve Technology, supplier of wire & cable and interconnect products to electronics markets, has expanded its operations into Western Canada. This further enhances the company’s servicing abilities for its clients in the Mountain and Pacific Time Zones. Established 12 years ago, Cleeve operates worldwide with offices in the United Kingdom, The Netherlands, Germany and Australia.

POSCO approved a USD 1.98 billion investment plan at its shareholders' meeting. The investment is for the construction of its third FINEX blast furnace, a No. 4 wire rod plant and a new stainless steel plant. Building the third FINEX blast furnace will improve its competitiveness, while constructing the No. 4 wire rod plant will allow the company to meet the rising demand for wire rod.

India-based Taurian Manganese is building a manganese processing plant in central Zambia with an investment of USD 150 million. Construction of the plant is expected to start by June 2011. It will have three furnaces with a combined peak capacity of 60,000 tns/mo. Production will start in 2012, with planned production of 720,000 tns/yr by 2014 dependent on Zambia’s power company Zesco being able to fulfill the power requirements of 100MW by that time.

Ocean Power Technologies, Inc. (OPT) has awarded four major new contracts to Oregon companies in connection with the manufacture of its PB150 PowerBuoy® wave energy generating device, and its deployment off the coast of Reedsport, Oregon. Including the previously awarded contract to Oregon Iron Works (OIW) for the fabrication of the buoy’s steel structure, or spar, the new contracts bring the total amount invested by OPT in the local economy to over USD 6 million.

International Finance Corporation, a branch of World Bank, will invest USD 30 million in Kalyani Gerdau Steels to help revive the company’s operations that were shut down for more than 18 months. A JV between the Brazilian steel firm Gerdau and India’s Kalyani group, the company discontinued operations upon realizing that they were unviable due to certain technical issues.

Petroleos de Venezuela SA and state-run Vietnam Oil and Gas Group (PetroVietnam) have agreed to join a project to upgrade the country's sole refinery. They will work together, selling refined oil products to the Asian market. The PetroVietnam-PDVSA refinery agreement coincides a string of similar multi-billion-dollar pacts seen elsewhere in Asia