Singapore, March 11
Japan’s earthquake forced port closures and shutdowns of oil refineries and metal plants in the world’s third-biggest economy on Friday, rattling commodity and energy markets as participants weighed up how quickly activity could return to normal. The magnitude 8.9 earthquake, the biggest to hit Japan in 140 years, struck the northeast coast, triggering a 10-metre tsunami that cleared everything in its path from houses to cars and set farm buildings on fire. At least 59 people have been killed.

“This natural disaster could result in another sharp rise in risk aversion on markets and a continuation of yesterday's correction on commodity markets," Commerzbank said in a report. "The demand for oil could be lower, at least temporarily, because of the earthquake.”

ICE Brent crude oil fell more than 2 percent to around $113 a barrel, partly due to the earthquake.

Tokyo gold futures rallied about 0.4 per cent soon after the quake, but has since turned lower by around 0.7 percent at 3,473 yen per gram. Tokyo rubber fell 3.6 percent to 384.1 yen.

Metals firm Mitsui Mining said operations at its Hachinohe zinc smelter, with a capacity of 112,000 tonnes a year, were halted by the earthquake, and employees evacuated.

All Japanese ports have closed, with discharging operations stopped, shippers said. Top refiner JX Nippon Oil & Energy Corp halted operations at three plants, while fire engulfed a storage tank at a unit of Cosmo Oil Co. The two make up about 20 per cent of the country's total refining capacity.

“It’s a big mess. All discharge operations are suspended in the area,” said one shipbroker.

TV footage showed several ships damaged by the tsunami including a large panamax vessel, which typically could carry up to 80,000 tonnes of coal, iron ore or grain, a second Tokyo-based shipbroker said. A ship carrying 100 people was also swept away, the Kyodo news agency reported.

"Most or all coal stocks will be washed out at many of the coal-fired power plants," he said. "Ports will be closed at least for a short period until damage assessments can take place."

Around 4.4 million homes were without power in northern Japan, media said.

Hokuriku Electric Co said all three reactors at its Onagawa nuclear plant in northern Japan shut down automatically.

Some 2,000 residents living near a nuclear plant in Fukushima prefecture, north of Tokyo, were told to evacuate but the government said no radiation was leaking. It said the evacuation was a precaution after a reactor cooling malfunction.

Electric Power Development (J-Power) has also halted operations of its Isogo thermal plant in Yokohama, Jiji reported.

Mitsubishi Chemical halted operations at two naphtha crackers at Kashima after a power outage. The units produce 828,000 tonnes per year of ethylene, or around 11 per cent of Japan's overall capacity.

Asian fuel oil's front-month timespreads climbed $1.00 a tonne on Friday, after the earthquake forced nuclear plants to shut down, possibly boosting fuel demand, traders said.

Japan is expected to seek more supplies of low-sulphur fuel oil (LSFO) for power generation due to the shutdown of several nuclear plants, traders said.

"I would expect that to happen and soon, and they would probably have to pay up if the demand is for prompt-arrival cargoes and in large volumes, as overall supply in Asia is quite small and quite niche," a Singapore-based LSFO trader said.

Most of the region’s supply of 100,000-150,000 tonnes a month comes from Brazil's Petrobras, which produces the residual fuel from its refineries. Supplies also come from traders such as Vitol, Trafigura and Westport, who blend the cargoes, and Indonesia's Pertamina, which exports about 2 million barrels of low-sulphur waxy residue (LSWR) a month. — Reuters

New Delhi, March 11
Industrial growth grew 3.7 per cent in January, which was better than the previous month but much less as compared to last year given the base effect. There are concerns that investment in manufacturing is slowing down. However, consumer durables demand has rebounded indicating that inflation and consumer budgets may be easing.

The IIP growth was pulled down by poor performance of the manufacturing sector, particularly capital goods. However, growth in factory output in January was better than the 2.53 per cent expansion seen in the previous month.

In January, manufacturing growth fell to 3.3 per cent from 17.9 per cent a year ago and the the capital goods sector contracted by 18.6 per cent in the month under review.

Commenting on the January - 2011 IIP data released today, Dr Rajiv Kumar, director general, FICCI said “The growth of manufacturing sector is moderating. The performance of the capital goods sector is of particular concern as it has witnessed negative growth for the second consecutive month. This is a worrying sign as it may imply that the sector is suffering from strong capacity constraints and the needed investments are not forthcoming.”

FICCI said it is reported that in the case of some commercial banks upto 90% of their credit off take since July 2010 has been by non-core manufacturing sectors and pre-dominantly for infrastructure. This perhaps reflects that manufacturing capacity expansion may not be feasible in the light of rising cost of borrowing and increased competition within domestic market from imports. He said labour intensive sectors like cotton textiles, apparels and leather have picked-up growth momentum which is good sign for the economy.

Chandrajit Banerjee, director general, CII said that the IIP numbers show that growth bottomed out in December last year and is likely to accelerate as the impact of very high growth rates in the previous year wears out. 

Chandigarh, March 11
The Punjab Assembly today unanimously passed a resolution requesting the the Centre to immediately reinstate central Excise exemptions granted to the hosiery industry which have been withdrawn in this year’s budget. The resolution moved by Punjab Industry minister Manoranjan Kalia also demanding the withdrawal of 1 per cent central Excise duty levied on cycle parts, sewing machine parts and sports goods.

.Kalia said the 30 per cent excise duty Exemption given to the hosiery industry was withdrawn in this budget and that hosiery units, who imported raw material would be adversely affected by this move. He added there were 1,000 ready-made garment manufacturers in Ludhiana with an annual turnover of Rs 1,500 crore.

The Industry minister said there were around 2,000 units making cycles or cycle parts with an annual turnover of Rs 1,000 crore. He said similarly there were around 2,000 sports goods manufacturers who had an annual turnover of Rs 1,500 crore and around 300 sewing machine manufacturers with an annual turnover of Rs 100 crore.

Kalia said the industry in Punjab was already finding it difficult to compete with that in Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir and Uttarakhand because of concessions in the form of 100 per cent exemption from excise duty as well as exemptions from income tax, sales tax and VAT. 

Ludhiana, March 11
The franchise business pegged at Rs 1,000 crore in India is now targeting Tier-II and Tier-III cities. Perceived to be less risky, the business has grown 30-35 per cent. The most popular sector in the franchise business is education. Garment franchisee runs a close second.

An event titled the ‘Opportunities Show’ was organized by Franchise India Holdings Ltd in Ludhiana. Nearly 1,200 queries were received in a single day. “The government does not have infrastructure when it comes to education and people depend upon private education. Women are coming forward to invest in this organised sector and franchisees for Euro Kids, Edify Pre School, Mexus Education and VIA are in great demand,” said Ritu Marya, director, Franchise India Holdings Ltd.

“Currently, franchise is a Rs 1,000 crore industry; in another five years it will be a Rs 2,000 crore in India,” said Ritu.