Current Scenario on Metal & Metal Trading

Metals and their varied usage, makes it the backbone of an economy. They mark the economic growth of a country. Metal industry has two main segments: Non-ferrous metals and ferrous metals.


Ferrous
 

• Ferrous metals primarily consist of iron and different varieties of steel. Demand for ferrous metals comes from construction, automobile, engineering and infrastructure.
• India is increasing its presence in the global steel market as a result of domestic steel consumption. India has seen a rapid rise in production over the past few years, which has resulted in India becoming the fourth largest producer of crude steel with an output of 76.7 million tones. It has been envisaged that steel production will reach 110 million tonnes by 2019-20. However, based on the assessment of the current on-going projects, it has been projected that the crude steel capacity in the country is likely to be 140 mt by 2016-17 and has the potential to reach 149 mt.

Non – Ferrous

Demand for non-ferrous metals comes from sectors such as agriculture, automobiles, railways, telecommunications, construction and chemicals. Non-ferrous metals include aluminium, copper, zinc, lead, nickel and tin. 

Copper: India is among top 20 major producers copper globally. Falling prices of copper in international markets would benefit India, as it is one of the world’s biggest importers of the metal, alongside China, Japan, South Korea and Germany. As a consequence, volatility in prices of the metal on the LME has a significant bearing on Indian copper trading. 

Ushdev trades LME registered Copper Cathodes, Non LME registered Copper Cathodes, Copper scrap, Copper Rods and Copper concentrates.

Nickel: Nickel finds its usage in various industries such as engineering, electrical and electronics, infrastructure, automobile and automobile components, packaging, batteries etc. Among base metals Nickel is the most volatile owing to its strong demand and tight supply .Nickel demand is derived demand based on the growth of different industrial sector thus exhibits high volatility. About 65 per cent of nickel is used in manufacture of stainless steels, and 20 per cent in other steel and non-ferrous including "super" alloys, often for highly specialized industrial, aerospace and military applications. Major producers of Nickel are Russia, Australia, Canada, new Caledonia and Indonesia which represents over 65% of total world production. Nickel market in India is of total import dependent. India imports around 50,000 mt of Nickel.

UIL uses the most recent and state of the art facility for generating wind power.

In March 2005, the Company had installed and commissioned a new wind mill project in Chinnaputhur Village, Dharampuram Taluk, Erode District, comprising of 2 Enercon make E-48 WEC's of 800 KW each totalling 1.60 MW at a cost of Rs. 7.80 crores spread over 10 acres of land. The Company installed 2 machines of 800 KW each in Chitradurga district of Karnataka at a cost of 8 crores, and 3 machines of 800 KW each in Jaisalmer District in Rajasthan at a cost of 12 crores.

Going further the company continued its capacity addition by installing 2 more WEGs in Jamnagar District in Gujarat in March 2007 costing around 8 crores and 4 WEGs in Jamnagar District in Gujarat in July 2007 at a cost of 16 crores.

In September 2009, the company installed 6 machines of Vestas make of 1.65 MW each in Theni District of Tamil Nadu, totalling to 9.9 MW at a total cost of 60.90 crores. The project achieved more than 30% Plant Load Factor (PLF) in the Financial Year 2012-13.

In the year 2010, the Company has installed new power plant of 8 MW in Maharashtra. The Company has diversified the risk by spreading windmill locations into several states of India. 
 

Current Scenario on Wind Power

UIL diversified into the wind energy business in the year 1997. Today, UIL is a well-known name in the Wind Power Industry. Currently UIL has installation base of 28.3 MW of wind power with plants located in Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Karnataka, and Maharashtra which were set up in 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009 & 2010. UIL has diversified its risk by spreading windmill locations into several states of India.

Worldwide there are now over two hundred thousand wind turbines operating, with a totalcapacity of 282,482 MW as of end 2012. The European Union alone passed some 100,000 MW nameplate capacities in September 2012, while the United States surpassed 50,000 MW in August 2012 and China passed 50,000 MW the same month. World wind generation capacity more than quadrupled between 2000 and 2006, doubling about every three years.

At the end of 2012, worldwide capacity of wind-powered generators was 282gigawatts (GW), growing by 44 GW over the preceding year. According to the World Wind Energy Association, an industry organization, in 2010 wind power generated 430 TWh or about 2.5% of worldwide electricity usage, up from 1.5% in 2008 and 0.1% in 1997.Between 2005 and 2010 the average annual growth in new installations was 27.6 %.Wind power market penetration is expected to reach 3.35 % by 2013 and 8 % by 2018.

Renewable energy accounts for approximately 12% of a total 200 GW of power generation capacity installed in India. The Indian wind energy sector has an installed capacity of 19,050 MW as on 31st March 2013. In terms of wind power installed capacity, India is ranked 5th in the World. Today India is a major player in the global wind energy market. Wind energy, with over 16 GW installed capacity, accounts for nearly 66% of the renewable energy installed in India. According to the sources, new wind energy installations in the country so far this fiscal contributed just 1,200 MW, against 3,200 MW the previous year. By March-end, another 200 MW may be added. The wind energy sector in India will see a turnaround in 2013 as the Union Budget 2013-14 proposed generation-based incentives (GBI) to wind energy projects and provided Rs 800 crore for the purpose to the New and Renewable Energy Ministry.

Leading states where Wind Power projects have been installed are Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh. Majority of installed capacity belongs to Private Sector in seven states. As on 31st march 2012, the total installed capacity was 17,365 MW. Tamil Nadu had the largest installed capacity of 6,987 MW. Maharashtra ranking number three in the list recorded a capacity of 2,733 MW.

The highest capacity addition during 2012-13 happened in Rajasthan (approx 36%) followed by Maharashtra (approx 17%) and Gujarat (approx 12%) Capacity addition during 2012-13 indicates growth @ 9.79% against growth @ 22.58% during 2011-12. The reason of reduction in capacity addition during 2012-13 is withdrawal of Accelerated Depreciation benefit and Generation Based Incentive.