Mumbai, May 7
The Indian rupee breached the 41-level against the greenback for the first time in nearly nine months at 41.35/36 today as the demand for the US currency from oil firms multiplied after the global crude hit yet another high.

The rupee last closed above 41-level at on August 16, 2007, when it settled the day at 41.36/37 a dollar.

In active trade at the Interbank Foreign Exchange market, the local currency resumed weak at 41.01/92 a dollar from its last close of 40.94/95 a dollar.

The rupee moved in a range of 40.9900 and 41.4075 before ending at 41.35/36 following sustained demand from banks and corporates.

Forex dealers said oil companies were seen taking up dollar positions in the light of soaring oil prices in the global market.

The rupee premiums on forward dollar ended higher due to fresh paying pressure from banks and corporates.

The benchmark six-month forward dollar premiums payable in October ended at 34 - 36, up from 31-1/2 - 33-1/2 paise on Tuesday and the far-forward maturing in April also moved up to 60 - 62 from 57- 59 paise previously.

Dealers said the sky-high oil prices caused fears of a widening trade deficit, exerting pressure on state-owned oil companies as well as a further slowdown in portfolio inflows.

They said there was consistent dollar buying from oil companies amid fears that the Indian unit might weaken further due to the widening deficit and continued slowdown in FII inflows into equity markets.

World oil traded only a little below $122 per barrel today after concerns over supply in key producer Nigeria helped push prices to record highs in frenzied trading, dealers said.

Weakness in local equity markets also weighed on the rupee sentiment. Indian benchmark Sensex fell further by 34 points or 0.19 per cent.

The Reserve Bank of India, however, fixed the reference rate for US dollar at Rs 41.20 and that for single European unit at Rs 63.76.

In cross-currency trades, the rupee also continued to rule easy against the British Sterling, the Euro and the Japanese yen.

The rupee fell against the Pound sterling to end the day at Rs 80.91/92 from its overnight close of 80.64/66 per pound and also dropped against the single European currency at Rs 63.81/83 form its last close of 63.53/55 per euro.

The Indian unit dipped against the Japanese yen to close the day at Rs 39.26/28 per 100 yen from its previous close of Rs 39.12/14 per 100 yen. — PTI

New Delhi, May 7
Steel producers today agreed to roll back prices of the alloy after an assurance from the government that it would look into their demand for not imposing duty on steel exports.

Steel makers, including Tata Steel, SAIL, JSW, Ispat and Essar and RINL, decided to cut prices by up to Rs 4,000 a tonne and hold the prices for the next three months.

Ispat Industries vice-chairman and managing director Vinod Mittal told reporters after a meeting with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh that the government has assured the industry of putting on hold the notification for implementing the export duty on steel.

While replying to the debate on the Finance Bill in Parliament last week, Finance Minister P Chidambaram had announced up to 15 per cent duty on steel exports as a measure to increase domestic supply of steel, whose high prices were feeding inflation. The duty is yet to be notified.

Steel accounts for over 21 per cent of inflation, which has been hovering over 7 per cent.

"We endorse the government's concern on steel prices contributing to inflation. Major steel producers have decided to reduce prices of flat products by Rs 4,000 per tonne and prices of rebars and structural steel by Rs 2,000 a tonne and hold these prices for next three months," state-run steel giant SAIL's chairman Sushil Kumar Roongta said.

This reduction in flat steel prices will be done by all those producers who effected price increase last month.

This price reduction would, however, not be applicable on exports or negotiated prices. — PTI

New Delhi, May 7
Despite the fact that some steel producers are saying that they have reduced the price of steel by Rs 4,000 a tonne, the industry players have different opinion in the matter. Industry sources say that steel producers that have captive mines are not affected by the price reduction, as the cost of production is far less than the selling price. On the other hand, some steel producers say that the prices have been reduced by Rs 1,000 per tonne in the past 15-20 days and there is not much scope to reduce the prices, certainly not by Rs 4,000 per tonne.

In the face of inflation, steel producers have constantly been blamed for price rise by the government. Analysts say that steel mills need to be controlled to roll back the unjustified prices, which have risen from Rs 27,000 to Rs 47,000 per ton in one year. “This rollback of Rs 1,000 per ton or Rs 4,000 per tonne is an eyewash and it should be somewhere around Rs 10,000-15,000 per ton.” The finance ministry’s step on imposing duty on export of steel to the magnitude of 15-25 per cent is definitely justified, as in any case, most of the steel mills get cheap ore either from captive mines or from public sector miners, say analysts and economy watchers.

The domestic steel mills have been taking advantage of the global steel run and are actually overcharging customers in India without any justification. They are linking domestic prices to the international prices, but they manufacture steel in India and sell at international rates, but in India how is this valid, argue analysts . There have been slight shortfall in the last year when China had reduced its steel export to the global market due to some internal problems. Besides, there were slight hiccups felt by the industry as the supplies from Australia of a key raw material coke had been interrupted due to some congestion at their port of export, but that is not a good enough reason for the prices to stay high still, say analysts. In the international market, the price of iron ore in the past one year has risen by approximately 61 per cent and that of coke by roughly around 138 per cent.

Commodity watchers say that big bulls are trying to take advantage of the situation and companies are also a part of the commodity price hike. The government is absolutely right when it blames the industry for cartelisation and needs to take serious action, if it has to set things right in the future for the common man, who is indirectly suffering due to high costs of houses and other infrastructure, where steel is used, say analysts.

New Delhi, May 7
Eying a big potential for luxury bikes in India, where tastes are changing from mass-market machines to high-end bikes, Italy's Ducati Motor Holding today announced entry into the country with its full range of premium bikes, priced between Rs 15 lakh and Rs 50 lakh.

"We are very impressed with evolution of the Indian market. It is no longer an emerging market, but a strong economy. I am very proud to officially announce our entry in the Indian market," Ducati Motor Holding CEO Gabriele Del Torchio told reporters here.

The company has entered India with the objective to be a market leader in the premium segment, he added.

He, however, refused to give any specific volume or revenue target for the company.

"We will be importing 50 bikes this year. If we are able to sell these (50 units) in the current year, then it will be more than enough," Torchio said.

Besides, the company is also exploring possibilities for considerably increasing its component sourcing from the Indian market.

"We are currently sourcing engine parts and other key components from here. We plan to increase it considerably and holding discussions to five different players," Torchio said without divulging details.

The company currently sources auto components to its only manufacturing facility in Italy worth 50 million euro from all over the world.

The Italian racing bike manufacturer today introduced four different models in multiple variants, which would be available in the range of Rs 15 lakh to Rs 50 lakh, said Ashish Chordia, CEO of Precision Motor India Pvt Ltd, the sole distributor of Ducati bikes in India.

The bikes would first be available through two exclusive showrooms in Mumbai and Delhi, he said. "By early next year, we will open three more exclusive showrooms in Hyderabad, Bangalore and Chennai," Chordia said. — PTI

Gurgaon, May 7
In a week's time, gullible customers of garments will feel empowered, courtesy Amartex, a well-spread chain of retail stores and garments manufacturer. The company is going to offer highly subsidised facility enabling customers to make out the real stuff from the fake one.

Though in business parlance it is termed backward integration, but for its CMD Arun Grover, it is a more of a value-added service for the customers who are often duped by the unscrupulous garment sellers, who, for instance, get away by selling garments made of polyester viscose priced at Rs 80 per kilogram in the name of pure wool whose price range starts from Rs 1,500 onwards. Similarly, polyester mixed cotton products are often sold in the name of pure cotton.

"By end of the next week, we are offering customers to get any garment tested at our state-of-the-art laboratory set up at the cost of Rs 1,000 crore for just Rs 50 per garment. We call it a service because the total test would cost us Rs 250. As of now, no such garment verification facility in general is available in the country," Grover told The Tribune here today. So shall we call it charity in business? "Frankly not. We perceive in this indirect gain as it might help brand image of Amartex in terms of customers' faith," he observed.

All that the customers have to do is to bring the garment at any of the 70 outlets of the company spread across the country. The report of the test would be available in five days. The facility is not meant for the buyers of Amartex products, but for buyers in general. And they can get garments of any other brand tested as well. For the buyers from places where there is no company owned store, they can avail the service by courier.

New Delhi, May 7
States have been asked to reduce the tax on aviation turbine fuel (ATF) as high taxation meant higher fares for airlines, minister for civil aviation Praful Patel told a meeting of the consultative committee of the Members of Parliament.

Patel said: “The sector is on a high growth trajectory and the positive aspect of this was that the sector is now growing. There are now better fares, more choices and better connectivity for the people. The airport infrastructure is also getting a lot more attention.”

The minister said he had tried to convince all state governments to rationalise sales tax on ATF. This, he said, would give a relief to the airlines.

Morinda, May 7
Claas India, a Germany-based group in combine harvesters, started its assembly line function from Morinda-based new plant today. The complete production facilities are estimated to be competed in the fourth quarter of the current year.

Almost 95 per cent of components in the machines are indigenous and are assembled at this plant. "We have capacity of producing 1,000 units of combine and will gradually increase as per the demand," said Jan-Hendrik Mohr, group executive vice-president, Grain Harvest. This is the second plant of Claas in India, the first being in Faridabad.

Besides its Crop Tiger 60 combine harvester, the company has also invested in its smaller harvester series. New versions of the Crop Tiger 30 and Crop Tiger 30 Terra Trac machines have been introduced in market. The Terra Trac combine harvesters, which run on rubber tracks, were specially developed to suit wet soils in rice-growing areas.

Deputy chairperson of the shareholders committee of firm, Cathrina Claas said Punjab had highly mechanised agriculture practices. Keeping this in view, the group has come up with a plant at Morinda, which would also cater to the need of neighbouring states.

The Claas factory is built on a land measuring about 25 acres and an investment of about Rs 85 crore has been made in the first phase. While in first step, about 300 persons will be employed at new location, number of employees will grow to around 500 in mid-term.

The Crop Tiger 60 can harvest wheat, soybean, mustard, variety of rice, including basmati, muchal, etc. and many more crops. The company claims that it has an ability to provide an output of up to 9 tons of wheat per hour, which is much more compared to other local combines available in India.

Besides India, the markets for Crop Tiger machines are mainly South Korea, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Iran and many other countries in South East Asia. 

Chandigarh, May 7
Delhi-based GD Foods plans to go international this year. The group, which retails its products under the Tops brand name, is planning to export its foods to the UAE, USA, Canada and UK, beginning September.

The group will also foray into functional foods, the current flavour of the food industry; breakfast cereals; and, ready-to-eat foods. The research and development in the three areas is on, and the products are likely to hit the shelves next year.

Talking to TNS here today, Parminder P.S. Sandhu, president (sales and marketing), said the new facility of the company has been set up in Neemrana (Rajasthan), earlier this year. “With the commissioning of this facility, we will be able to produce foods worth Rs 11 crore in a month, if the factory runs for eight hours. The enhanced production capacity will help us foray into the foreign markets,” he added.

Sandhu said the foods being developed for the export market would have a distinct Indian flavour. “The instant mixes will have a flavour of traditional Indian herbs, condiments and spices. Even in the pickles category, we are targeting the unconventional pickles made from bitter gourd, gooseberry (amla), mushrooms and wild berry (dela). Even the breakfast cereals and juice concentrates will have a distinct Indian flavour,” he said.

The company president said with these expansion initiatives, the company hopes to clog an annual turnover of Rs 115 crore this fiscal, up from Rs 63 crore in 2007-08. “We have made a provision for almost Rs 7 crore for greasing the new business model and thus increase our stakes in the Rs 1,800 billion food products industry.

Sandhu added that they have also tied up with big retail chains like Reliance Fresh, Big Bazar, 6 Ten, More and Trinetra. “Since we get eight per cent of our business through modern trade (retail chains), we have made additional allocation of Rs 23 crore for modern trade. We will soon be launching our retail operations through a shop-in-shop concept,” he said. 

Chandigarh, May 7
Punjab Tractors Limited (PTL) has managed to defy pressure from weak market conditions in domestic tractor industry and improved its market share to 10.6 per cent as against last year’s 8.1 per cent.

At a board meeting of PTL, held this afternoon, the members were informed that by increasing retail sales, reducing channel inventory, improving collections and expanding its dealer network, the company has increased its total revenue by Rs 9 crore (Rs 972 crore against Rs 963.1 crore).

The tractor sales volume for 2007-08 reached 28,045 against 30,045 sold last year. Despite lower volumes, the profit before tax at Rs 97.1 crore was only marginally lower when compared with previous year’s Rs 98.5 crore. The board of directors has also recommended an equity dividend of Rs 5 per share for 2007-08.

BRIEFLY

Futures trading in 4 agri items suspended
New Delhi: The government has suspended futures trading in channa (gram) refined soyoil, potato and rubber with immediate effect, a top government official said today. “The Forward Markets Commission (FMC) has issued the order tonight delising channa, (gram) refined soyoil, potato and rubber contracts with immediate effect,” consumer affairs secretary Yashwant Bhave told PTI. The FMC is the regulator for commodity markets in the country. — PTI

JSW to form jv with Toshiba
Mumbai: JSW Group on Wednesday said it would set up a joint venture company in India to manufacture and market super-critical steam trubines and generators for thermal power plants. Toshiba would hold 75 per cent in the joint venture, while JSW Energy would have 20 per cent stake and the remaining would be with JSW Steel, the flagship company of the Sajjan Jindal-led JSW Group. — PTI

Asia MotorWorks
Ludhiana: Asia MotorWorks Ltd. (AMW), the latest entrant in the heavy commercial vehicle industry and the first to launch the higher tonnage vehicle of 49 tonnes, has set up the world's largest single location wheel rim plant at Bhuj in Gujarat, according to Anirudh Bhuwalka, its managing director. — TNS

YouTube’s site in India
New Delhi: Video sharing website YouTube on Wednesday launched local Indian site featuring video search for the content relevant to India. The internet giant has already signed partnership with Eros Entertainment, Rajshri Group, IIT Delhi, NDTV, UTV, Room TV, India TV, Krish Cricket, IINA, among other production houses to bring Indian content to the site. — UNI

Sutherland campus in Chennai
Chennai: Sutherland Global Services, a BPO company with significant offshore operations in Chennai, Kochi and Mumbai, will set up its first global campus in the ITeST/IT corridor in Chennai. According to a company press release, Sutherland will also set up its first global campus in the ITeS/IT Corridor of Chennai. When fully operational, the Sutherland Campus in Chennai will occupy over 10000 persons. — UNI

SABMiller to invest 2,000 cr
New Delhi: UK-based beer manufacturer SABMiller plans to more than double its capacity in India in the next five years with an investment of around Rs 2,000 crore. This was announced by SABMiller India director, corporate affairs and communication, Sundeep Kumar today. — PTI

Fiat plans Palio CNG
New Delhi: Fiat India plans to launch the CNG variant of its bread and butter model Palio in the country by early next year. “We will launch the CNG variant of the Palio by early next year,” Fiat India President and CEO Rajeev Kapoor told PTI here on Wednesday. The car is currently available in both petrol and diesel variants. — PTI