April 6th, 2006: Global Steel 2006 was inaugurated with a bang at the Park Hyatt Goa Resort and Spa. Neil J Bristow, Chief Analyst of the Carbon Trading Group, BHP Billiton, Australia, the world’s largest Resource company, and Conference Co Chairman, gave the welcome address.

Global Steel 2006, will discuss threadbare the implications of Vision 2020 and its necessary corollary, Mission 100 Million MT of Steel. The Three day Seminar cum exposition has been structured, keeping in view the need of the hour – interactive, no holds barred discussions that will seek to view things from a macro economic point, trying to soak in the 360 degree view.

Arun Kumar Jagatramka, of Gujarat NRE Coke then took stage and started with a little story, that spanned 5000 years and charted India’s rich socio-economic heritage, leading the audience on to her legacy of steel making and her rightful place on the world steel map. He also established his point by explaining India’s infrastructure plans and co relating it to her growing hunger and capacities steel.

Hon. Mr Ian McDonald, NSW Minister of Mineral Resources, Natural Resources and Primary Industries, started by inviting Indian interest in the mineral rich state, which incidentally accounts for 35% of the GDP of Australia. He pointed out that NSW has significant coal reserves and that India as an importer (at present India imports about US$ 1 billion worth of coking coal from Australia) is already a `significant partner'. He pointed at Gujarat NRE Coke as a successful case study in Indo-Australian business partnership, which has acquired and is successfully running coal mines in Australia and has other significant stakes in the Australian mineral resources sector.

Mr J P Singh, Chief Secretary, Government of Goa continued on the same vein stating that the steel industry is not only buoyant, but also that the times are very exciting.

He foresaw significant increase in the demand for steel emanating from a boost in infrastructural spending and in the conversion of the latent rural demand. He also skimmed issues of raw material security, especially those relating to coking coal.(it is estimated that by the year 2020, Indian steel industry will need to import 70 million tonnes of coking coal). He also pointed out to the assembled delegates that for attaining the cherished vision of a 100 million MT of steel, issues of knowledge, technology and environment, relating to the sector will also have to be addressed on a war footing. He ended his deliberation by stating that the Government of Goa is highly in favour of Public-Private-Participation (PPP) and that, sectors like hydro electric power generation, North-South Corridor, Cruise Terminals and Global Convention Centers have been identified.

Hon. Mr Neville Wran, former Premier, NSW, Australia, pointed out the fact that already 1500 Australian companies are working in tandem with Indian companies and

that the heartening fact is that the numbers are growing at a very healthy pace. He took the example of Gujarat NRE Coke, which he called a `trail blazer' in terms of Indian investment in Australia.

He called for the use of the Global Steel platform for the sounding of a `clarion call' to the industry, both in India and Australia towards working to achieve the full potential that exists for cooperation between entities from both countries.

The conference was then officially `inaugurated' by the lighting of the ceremonial lamp. The evening was marked by a fascinating display of fireworks and explosive networking by the sea side as local music maestro Emiliano and his troupe regaled the audience with their lilting tunes.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Mr Peter Marcus of World Steel dynamics and acknowledged expert of matters steel, will be addressing Global Steel 2006 via a video conferencing from his headquarters in New York. The link will be established at 10 AM (Indian Time) on April 7th, 2006 (12:30 midnight US Time).

Starting with investment histories in India and China he explained how India can muster the resources required to attain the trigger off stage in steel production. He also foresaw tumultuous happenings in the industry, especially in the short to the medium term – a gradual shift towards the trading in futures and the merging of units, including those in China on the path to greater economies.

Dr Amit Chatterjee of Tata Steel and one of the most respected scholars in matters steel, then took the audience through the process of steeling the march ahead to a hundred twenty million mt of steel and beyond.

Dr A.S. Firoz, of JPC, noted economist, then took the podium and kept the audience spellbound with news far better than what they had anticipated – showing with hard figures and the interpolation of graphs, how India’s consumption will be far in excess of

what is being conventionally looked at. He also went on to surmise that India’s production of steel too, will grow at paces that are comfortably beyond the surmise of a hundred million mt by the year 2020.

Dr Sanak Mishra of Mittal Steel, CH Kwag of POSCO, S Maitra of Maruti Udyog, A K Rai of Sesa Goa shared the panel with Dr Firoz and Dr Amit Chatterjee of Tata Steel, that discussed in detail the pitfalls on the way to India’s rapid investment in the sector. Mr Kwag pointed out the fact that POSCO will be bringing into India their proprietary FINEX technology which will do justice to the high phosphorous, high alumina contained Indian iron ore. Speaking from the corner of the end users, Mr Maitra of Maruti Udyog pointed out that India is still dependent on imports for high grade steel, In response to Mr Maitra’s jibes, Dr Amit Chatterjee maintained that while raw materials can be confined within man made boundaries, “steel has no nationality”, continuing that Indian companies are capable of matching qualities with the best in the world, if input materials of desired qualities are made available.

The post lunch session saw a battery of speakers from Australia that included Hon. Ian MacDonald, Hon. John McCarthy, Hon. Neville Wran, Neil Bristow and Arun Kumar Jagtramka. The panel discussed about the growing hunger of India for energy, Australia’s unique position as a resource provider and the potential of these two great Nations to come together for mutual benefit. What started as a session dedicated to “Australian Mines in Indian Minds” slowly took a different shape –the emerging trend was clearly “Indians in Australian Minds.”

Gerard McCloskey, Neil Bristow, Andrew Jones, Alan Coutts, Prof B.B. Bhattacharya and Naresh Sharma then joined a panel that discussed the state of the economy. High strung presentation by sultans of steelmaking rawmaterials talked about trends in the coal, coke and the steel industry and how they will affect global consumption patterns. It was also deliberated that Australia is most likely to remain as the largest exporter of coking coal

The evening, which followed close to 10 hours of intense deliberations of very high caliber of a battery of high profile speakers ended on a soft tone as steel was replaced by silk as models from around the world recreated the eternal stories of five extraordinary women and the wars that paid tribute to their love in an exclusive Steel RX creation, Love and Steel. NRE Miss India – Australia, Ms. Tahira also took part in the proceedings.

Delegate response to STEEL LIFE was overwhelming and on compilation, the results show that the winners are:
1st Prize of Rs. 50,000/ - to Mr Arvind Yadav of HT, Delhi
2nd Prize of Rs 30,000/ - to Mr Sanjoy Sekhri of TOI, Delhi
3rd Prize of Rs 20,000/ - to Mr Amit Dave of Reuters, Ahmedabad

The special door prize went to Mr Naresh Jain. (Mr Jain being a teetotaler is looking for fellow delegates who wish to help him uncork the bubbly!)

IMPORTANT:

A similar prize awaits one lucky delegate from those that have submitted their feedback form. Please note, only delegates who are in the hall during the prize distribution on 8th April before lunch break will be eligible for the same. Please ensure your feedback forms are included as part of the draw.

April 8th, 2006: The morning session unwrapped the Indian riddle and the Chinese enigma as one speaker after the other shared their insights into matters Hindi-Chini, unraveling the mystique of the Chinese Checkers as well as the Indian Chakkar.

Mr Marcos Moll of SMR Austria, who needs no introduction to the audience, shared his world view on matters stainless and presented some thought provoking numbers.

Mr Sushim Banejee of SAIL set the pace by comparing the two giant civilisations on the common parameters of Steel Intensity, Labour Productivity and Investment to GDP ratio. His surmise simple : “the growth of the steel industry cannot happen in isolation – holistic view is needed” (for the road ahead).

Philip Thomlinson of CRU International UK, reiterated the view that “global consolidation (in the steel industry) is meaningless without China”. As one wag quipped from the audience, M&A, now stands for Mittal and Arecelor.

The panel discussion that followed, had on it apart from the aforesaid speakers, Dr Amit Chatterjee of Tata Steel, Mr K Ranganath, Director (Marketing) Coal India and Prof M Chakraborty of IIT Kharagpur.

The next session brought together some of the minds that will fuel India’s march towards its vision of 2020. The panel comprised of Mr M M Agarwal of UTI Bank, Mr Peter Britz of the Royal Bank of Canada, Mr Rajnikant Patel of the BSE, Mr D K Burman of National Insurance and Mr D R Dogra of CARE. The unanimous feeling that emanated from the panel and the animated floor participation was that India is indeed on the verge of zooming ahead. Here too, references to the Chinese model and the urgent need for India to not only identify her shortcomings, but actually take rectifying steps was sounded.

The Conference ended with Mr YPS Suri CEO of SteelRX Corporation, the organizers of the event, recounting all the points that had been discussed in Global Steel 2006 over the last 45 hours and officially drew down the curtains. Mr Arun Kumar Jagatramka, of Gujarat NRE Coke pointed out that, barring a vote to the contrary by the delegates, the venue will remain the same for Global Steel 2007 and invited everyone to reconvene thereat.

Mr Jagatramka also announced the formation of a high powered committee of thinkers who will take the feelings expressed in Global Steel 2006 to the logical recipients and concerned authorities. “The idea is to continue the good work till we meet again at Global Steel 2007. Let this forum be one that will be a continuous effort that will keep the good work on.”