23 Feb 2010;business-standard.com:New Delhi: The devastating fire at Indian Oil Corp’s (IOC) Jaipur fuel depot has delayed commissioning of Cairn India’s pipeline for transporting crude from its Rajasthan oil fields. Cairn had laid a 600-km heated pipeline, from Barmer to Salaya in Gujarat, to transport Rajasthan crude oil to IOC’s refineries but, the fire in October last year delayed its commissioning, sources in the know said. The pipeline was to carry Rajasthan oil to Gujarat, from where it had to be pumped into IOC’s Mundra-Panipat pipeline for onward transportation to Panipat refinery in Haryana. But the fire destroyed a pumping station of Mundra-Panipat pipeline at Jaipur, reducing the line capacity by one-third. Sources said as Cairn crude was waxy, it turned solid at room temperature and had to be blended with normal oil in not more than 10 per cent ratio for transportation in non-heated pipelines like Mundra-Panipat. It was planned that 18,000 barrels per day (bpd) of Rajasthan crude could be transported per day through the Mundra-Panipat pipeline. But with the fire destroying the Jaipur pump, the pipeline capacity fell to 6.5 million tonnes, which meant that only 13,000 bpd of Rajasthan crude could be transported. Cairn, however, felt that this quantity was too low for safe operation of its Barmer-Salaya pipeline.
23 Feb 2010;economictimes.indiatimes.com:TOKYO: Toyota Motor's global sales in January were up 15.3 percent year-on-year, the company said on Tuesday, as the Japanese automaker showed resilience despite being hit by massive recalls that month. Toyota sold 537,454 vehicles in January, excluding subsidiaries Hino and Daihatsu Motors, a spokeswoman said. The world's largest carmaker sold 416,411 Toyota cars, buses and trucks overseas and 121,043 units in Japan, she added. January domestic sales jumped 45.3 percent from the previous year, while overseas sales excluding Japan gained 8.8 percent. Toyota said it does not have global sales figures for Hino and Daihatsu. The new figures underlined robust demand for the iconic Japanese automaker although it faces a deep crisis over its flawed accelerator and brake systems that have forced it to pull 8.7 million vehicles worldwide. The major recalls in the United States, its biggest overseas market, as well as Europe and parts of Asia came toward the end of the month and may have had a stronger impact on consumer sentiment in February. The company also said worldwide production jumped 55.8 percent to 643,925 units in January from the previous year. Including Daihatsu and Hino vehicles, that figure amounted to an increase of 46.5 percent to 716,570. Company president Akio Toyoda is set to face a grilling by US lawmakers Wednesday, after the company revealed Monday that it had been subpoenaed in a US criminal investigation of its handling of the recalls.
Toyota India to double sales in 2011 on the back of Etios
Sunday, 21 February 2010
22 Feb 2010;business-standard.com:Mumbai/Ahmedabad: Unabashed by the crisis that hit the company's US operations, Toyota Kirloskar Motors(TKM), the Japanese carmaker's Indian subsidiary, is bullish on doubling its sales in 2011 from an estimated 70,000 units this year on the back of its upcoming B segment car, the Etios. Etios will also be the first car that Toyota will export from its Indian operations. The company had sold 55,497 units in the country in 2009 calendar year , which was mainly led by Innova sales. The popular sports utility vehicle(SUV) from the Toyota stable sold around 42,700 units as against 9100 units of the Corolla and 3150 units of the Fortuner. "We hope to sell around 70,000 units of the Etios only in 2011, taking our net sales to well above 1.4 lakh units", informed Koji Nagata, executive managing coordinator and director(marketing), TKM. The company will start production of the Etios from December 2010, and while the exact time of the launch is yet to be decided, the car is expected to hit Indian roads in the first quarter of 2011. Toyota has developed a sedan and a hatchback variant on the Etios platform and has also set up a separate plant for its India small car project at its Bidadi premises near Bangalore with an investment of Rs 3200 crore that will have a manufacturing capacity of 70,000 units in the first phase expandable up to one lakh units per annum. Toyota's Bidadi plant is spread over 425 acres and already had an 80,000 units per annum manufacturing facility for the Innova, Corolla and the Fortuner that used up only around a quarter of the available space. "We plan to export the Etios from India too, but after consolidating our sales here.This is a car developed specifically for the Indian market.", said Hiroshi Nakagawa, managing director of TKM. While exports can start by the end of 2011, volumes are yet to finalised. The company is also yet to arrive at a pricing for the Etios, but Nakagawa said that it could be priced in the range of the Maruti Suzuki Swift, its sedan variant Swift Dzire and Hyundai i20. Toyota was so far not present in the volume segment of the Indian market, which happens to be the small cars. The small car market in the country, roughly around two million units now, is likely to touch four million by 2015. The company is now taking the Etios concept car to major Indian cities through an auto show, Toyota Q World,that also showcases the entire portfolio of Toyota cars along with the future line up of Toyota products like the LC 200 and the Toyota Prius. The ten cities to host the event are Chandigarh, Lucknow, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Pune, Cochin, Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad and Kolkata.
22 Feb 2010;economictimes.indiatimes.com:SINGAPORE: Oil topped 80 dollars a barrel in Asian trade Monday as a strike at French energy giant Total and concerns over Iran's nuclear programme rattled the market, analysts said. New York's main futures contract, light sweet crude for delivery in March, was up 63 cents at 80.44 dollars a barrel in morning trade. Brent North Sea crude for April delivery gained 61 cents to 78.80 dollars. "The sentiment is quite bullish at this time because of the refinery strikes in France and the concerns over Iran's nuclear issues," said Victor Shum, senior principal at Purvin and Gertz energy consultants in Singapore. A strike by workers of energy major Total entered its sixth day Monday. On Sunday, drivers on France rushed to fill their tanks ahead of the travel-intensive mid-term school holidays amid fears of petrol shortages. Total's management said Friday it had started gradually halting refining operations after unions announced an open-ended stoppage at all of its six French refineries, in protest at the closure of a plant in Dunkirk. Total supplies about half of France's filling stations. Tensions between crude-exporter Iran and the West over Tehran's alleged nuclear weapons ambitions also helped boost prices, analysts said. The US and other world powers are drumming up support for a fourth round of UN sanctions against Iran for its refusal to comply with repeated ultimatums to suspend uranium enrichment and agree to a UN-backed nuclear fuel deal. However, Shum warned that the rally might run out of steam due supply continuing to outstrip demand. "I think it is not sustainable at this level... there is still a lot of inventory and a lot of spare refining capacity," he said.
20 Feb 2010;dailypioneer.com:New Delhi: NTPC Ltd has signed agreement to buy 1.2 million cubic meters a day of more gas from Reliance Industries’ eastern offshore KG-D6 fields at the government-approved price of $4.2 per mmBtu. NTPC signed Gas Sale and Purchase Agreement (GSPA) to buy more gas on February 16, taking its total supplies from KG-D6 to 1.81 mmscmd, sources said. The government had in October 2009 allocated NTPC 3.85 mmscmd, beyond the 0.61 mmscmd it had earlier signed for. But NTPC did not want to use the KG-D6 gas at its Kawas and Gandhar power plants in Gujarat, which are connected with pipelines ferrying KG-D6 gas from the Andhra coast. So, a swap arrangement was worked out wherein GAIL India was to divert gas from other sources to NTPC and supply Reliance gas to its existing customers.
20 Feb 2010;business-standard.com:Mumbai: The new offer will include cash and stock options for shareholders and creditors. Mukesh Ambani-promoted Reliance Industries may spring a surprise in the tussle to take control of LyondellBasell, by raising its offer for the Dutch company at the last moment. Today would be the deadline for a revised proposal. Sources at RIL said the company was still working on its offer and may hike it marginally after taking into account the latest development. The earlier RIL offer had valued the bankrupt petrochemicals maker at about $13.5 billion. The new offer would include cash and stock options for shareholders and creditors. On Tuesday, LyondellBasell's unsecured creditors had agreed to settle the dispute over their claims and decided to support the reorganisation plan of the present management. The management offered an additional $150 million towards the claims of unsecured creditors, for settling the dispute. The unsecured creditors, who had part-funded Basell in a leveraged buyout of the US-based Lyondell in 2007, were supporting the entry of potential investors such as RIL to rescue it. Unsecured creditors, including bond holders, are estimated to hold around $3 billion of debt in the company. The reorganisation plan of Lyondell’s management offered to convert $18 billion debt of secured and unsecured creditors, including bridge loans, into equity. Moreover, the existing promoters will subscribe to the $3-billion rights issue of the company to continue management control. After implementing the plan, the chemical giant would value around $21 billion, said analysts. Once Lyondell emerges out of Chapter 11 (a legal provision where a company gets breathing space to restructure itself as an alternative to formal bankruptcy) ain the US, RIL would prefer to have a controlling stake in the company by buying out a part of the shareholders’ equity and subsequently subscribing to fresh shares. It had been building a financial war chest in the past six months by selling its treasury shares, eyeing "global opportunities". While it has a cash reserve of over Rs 9,000 crore through the sale of its treasury stock, it is in a position to raise another Rs 13,000 crore by selling the remaining treasury shares. A team headed by Ambani’s right hand man, Manoj Modi, had even been sent to negotiate with the management and creditors to thrash out an acquisition plan. Agencies quoted David Harpole, the spokesperson of LyondellBasell, as saying any alternative to its reorganisation plan needs to be much better and attractive, that maximises the value for creditors. Analysts said RIL would have to quote more than $15 billion to make the bid attractive for Lyondell.
News 
