New Delhi, January 12
Hyundai is planning a major expansion in the diesel segment, including possibility of manufacturing diesel engines in India in another two or three years.

"In another two to three years if our overall diesel car sales volumes touch about 50,000 units then definitely we would make diesel engines in India," Hyundai Motor India Ltd Managing Director H.S. Lheem said here.

Currently, the company sells about 2,500 units of diesel vehicles a month, he said at the launch of the diesel version of its top-end sedan Sonata Embera tagged at an introductory price of Rs 14.75 lakh (ex-showroom Delhi).

Hyundai is also getting ready with a diesel 'Getz' to be launched in the second half of the year. Maruti, the country's largest carmaker has already set up a diesel engine manufacturing plant at Maneshar in Haryana.

Hyundai is also preparing to launch a compact car, which will be positioned between its flagship model 'Santro' and premium hatchback 'Getz' and let the former take on Maruti's most popular model 'Alto'.

A company source said Hyundai was looking at the yet-to-be launched compact car code-named 'Pa' compete with the likes of 'Zen Estilo' and 'Wagon R'.

'Pa' was expected to be launched in the fourth quarter of this year or early next year. — PTI

Seoul, January 12
The union at Hyundai Motor, South Korea's largest auto firm, today decided to launch a strike to press demands for payment of a disputed bonus, a union spokesman said.

The decision was made at an emergency meeting of some 400 union representatives in the south-eastern city of Ulsan where Hyundai Motor's main plants are located. "The union decided to launch a strike," the spokesman said. — AFP

New Delhi, January 12
Amid possibility of a 0.5 per cent cut in the interest rate for the current fiscal, the Employees Provident Fund Board will meet here on January 27 to finalise the EPF rate, which is 8.5 per cent at present.

EPFO sources said the organisation was facing an acute shortage of funds and would be left with a surplus of only Rs 10.25 crore if it paid 8 per cent interest in the current financial year. If the existing rate of 8.5 per cent had to be retained, the EPFO would face a deficit of Rs 450 crore.

The Central Board of Trustees of EPF at its last meeting here on December 7 had failed to arrive at a consensus on the interest rate because of the financial position.

While trade unions, particularly those affiliated with the Left parties, demanded a 9.5 per cent interest rate, representatives of employers and state and central government officials were of the view that the rate should be in proportion to the returns on the investments of the fund.

The government had last year cut the rate to 8.5 per cent for 2005-06 from 9.5 per cent in 2004-05.

The January 27 meeting is likely to firm up a decision on investing a part of the fund in the stock market as the income from investing in government-run Special Deposit Scheme (SDS), which gave only 8 per cent interest, did not suffice, the sources said.

Trade unions, mostly affiliated to Left parties, which support the government from outside, are angry over the fall in the EPF interest rate and have opposed any more cut. — PTI

New Delhi, January 12
The government will monitor steel prices continuously with a view to keeping a check on private producers from raising prices artificially.

"We have set up a joint public-private steel price monitoring committee (SPMC) to monitor price movements of various steel products so that small consumers could get steel at reasonable prices," Steel Minister Ram Vilas Paswan said. He, however, emphasised that this was not to regulate steel prices.

The committee will work as an interface between producers and consumers to stabilise the prices.

Meanwhile, SAIL will invest over Rs 100,000 crore till 2020, higher than the combined investment of Rs 90,000 crore announced by global giants Mittal and Posco for India,Mr Paswan said.

Mr Paswan said these investments would make SAIL a 40 million tonne entity.

SAIL was in the process of expanding its capacity to over 23 million tonnes at an investment of Rs 39,433 crore in the first phase, which would be completed by 2010.

SAIL Chairman S.K. Roongta, however, said investment figures to expand to 40 million tonnes were yet to be finalised by the Board and this was a directional plan for future expansion. — PTI

Panipat, January 12
The government will review the petrol and diesel prices on January 31 and a reduction is likely if the international crude prices fall further.

"There will be a review on January 31. If the current average continues there will be no cut. For a reduction to happen prices have to fall further," Petroleum Secretary M.S. Srinivasan said here.

The international crude prices have fallen to 19-month-low this month. The Indian basket of crude oil is currently averaging around $51 a barrel and a reduction in the petrol and diesel prices was possible only if the crude prices slip below $50 a barrel on a sustained basis.

In November, the petrol and diesel prices were cut by Rs 2 and Re 1 a litre, respectively, when the basket of crude that Indian refiners buy was at $56.8 per barrel. The Indian basket has since fallen to just under $53 per barrel, the lowest this fiscal.

State-run oil companies are currently incurring a loss of Rs 0.22 per litre on petrol and Rs 1.42 a litre on diesel, he said. Kerosene was being sold at a loss of Rs 13-14 per litre and domestic LPG at a loss of Rs 50 per cylinder.

Indian Oil, Bharat Petroleum, Hindustan Petroleum and IBP together are losing about Rs 100 crore a day on fuel sales. — PTI

Ahmedabad, January 12
It rained moolah on Gujarat's industrial horizon today with business tycoons, led by Reliance Industries

chief Mukesh Ambani, signing MoUs worth Rs 2,10,000 crore with the Narendra Modi-led government to give a momentum to its development saga.

Participating in the inaugural session of the third edition of the two-day 'Vibrant Gujarat Global Investors Summit' at the Science City here, Mr Mukesh Ambani said his company would invest Rs 67,000 crore in a host of projects like the Jamnagar SEZ, lignite coal

gasification, port city of Jamnagar, city gas pipeline and retail chain.

Mr Ambani said the MoUs would include bringing in gas from the Godavari basin.

''Gujarat will be our first state where we will bring our corporate governance to create logistics in rural Gujarat. This will provide through our investments in the coming year jobs for 2 lakh persons,'' he announced.

He said 'Vibrant Gujarat' had been a milestone for Reliance Industries when it signed MoUs worth Rs 9,300 crore in 2003 in the petrochemical and chemical projects, all of which had gone on stream.

In 2005, he said the company had signed an MoU for setting up a refinery in the Jamnagar SEZ, which was likely to be completed next year.

Mr Ambani said he had already invested over Rs 35,000 crore in the Jamnagar SEZ.

In yet another bonanza for the state, he announced that Reliance would create a world-class university in ''my father's name'' for enhancing competency and development skills of the future workforce.

In his rather brief speech, Mr Ratan Tata, Chairman, National Investment Advisory Commission, said the Tatas would help in setting up a 4,000 MW power plant in Gujarat and the details of its implementation were being worked out.

Mr Kumaramangalam Birla, Chairman of Aditya Birla Group, promised additional Rs 3,700 crore of investment in the state.

''We have invested Rs 7,000 crore. With our investments so far, we have provided employment to more than 8,000 persons,'' he said.

Essar Group Chairman Shashi Ruia said his group investments in Hazira would be Rs 10,500 crore. He supported the special economic zones being developed in the country.

Mr Das Gupta, Chairman and Managing Director of Petronet India Ltd, said a partnership with Adani is being worked out and Petronet will be investing Rs 7,000 crore by 2010.

Mr Sudhir Mehta, Chairman, Torrent Group, said his company would invest Rs 9,000 crore for a 2,000 MW power project at Pipavav.

Mr Pankaj Patel, CMD, Zydus Cadilla, promised investments worth Rs 5,300 crore plus setting up of two SEZs in Ahmedabad and Bharuch.

Indravadan Modi of Cadila Pharmaceuticals, said he would be signing MoUs worth Rs 2,300 crore tomorrow. ''And this will be multiplied in times to come,'' he added. — UNI 

Chandigarh, January 12
Uttar Pradesh-based Rs 590-crore Simbhaoli Sugars Ltd is in an expansion mode. The group is planning to set up distilleries for Indian made foreign liquor (IMFL) at its plants and plans to increase its power generation.

Talking to TNS here today, Mr Sanjay Taparia, Director, Finance, Simbhaoli Sugars Ltd., said they would increase the capacity of its distilleries to over 2 lakh litres a day by setting up a distillery in Brijnathpur.

“We already have two distilleries in our sugar plants at Bahraich and Simbhaoli, and the third distillery at our Brijnathpur plant will become operational in the next cane crushing season this year. Though our distillery at the Simbhaoli plant has been manufacturing only country made liquor, we are now getting this distillery to manufacture IMFL,”he said. The Bahraich distillery has a capacity to produce 60,000 litres of ethanol.

Mr Taparia also said the power generation capacity at two of its sugar mills were being increased. “We are increasing the power generation capacity at Simbhaoli by 14 MW per hour and at Bahraich by 16 MW per hour. This additional power will be sold to the Uttar Pradesh Power Corporation,” he said, adding that the power generation at the Brijnathpur mill was 6 MW per hour.

He hailed the lifting of ban on sugar export by the government and said this would allow Simbhaoli Sugars to export at least 10 per cent of their total produce (2.50 lakh tonnes) to countries like Indonesia, Syria, Israel, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and some countries in North Africa. 

Mumbai, January 12
Mastek Ltd has posted a net profit of Rs 16.94 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2006, as compared to Rs 8.81 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2005.

The total income increased from Rs 94.26 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2005, to Rs 128.50 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2006.

The total Income has increased from Rs 175.15 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2005, to Rs 209.76 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2006.

Tokyo, January 12
Japan's Canon Inc said today that it had agreed to buy Toshiba Corp's stake in their joint venture making a new type of flat television panel because of a legal wrangle in the US.

Austin, Texas-based Nano-Proprietary Inc, is suing Canon for allegedly breaking their 1999 patent licence agreement for key technology in the production of surface conductor electron emitter display screens (SED).

The purchase price is believed to be around $83 million, the Nikkei business daily reported.

SED television sets are due to be introduced in Japan in the fourth quarter of 2007. — AFP