Bringing cheer to the industry and aiming at a marginal relief to the government revenues as well, the government on Tuesday slapped a 5% import duty on specified iron and steel products, and a basic customs duty of 20% ad valorem on crude soyabean oil. However, there is however no change in the import duty on refined soyabean oil.

A wholly owned subsidiary of JSW Steel, JSW Building Systems, has announced to form 50:50 joint venture with Severfield Reeve Structures. Severfield Reeve Structures is a UK based company, a wholly owned subsidiary of Severfield-Rowen. It is known for high quality structural steel across the world.

Owing to a slowdown in the manufacturing sector and the ongoing economic crisis, leading steel manufacturer Ispat Industries Ltd is planning to cut production further by 10 percent by December.

The company's Vice-Chairman and Managing Director, Vinod Mittal, told reporters on the sidelines on the India Economic Summit the company has already cut its production by up to 30 per cent in the current month, and would further cut it by up to 40%.

While Steel industry across the country is seeking 10 per cent import duty on steel products, the primary and secondary steel manufacturers opposed any increase in import duty. Steel industry said that international steel prices are coming down and some CIS countries and China are exporting steel at quite lower prices to secondary producers causing huge loss to domestic steel producers.

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Maharashtra Seamless Ltd, a leading seamless steel pipe maker, has informed that it has pocketed a contract worth Rs 757 crore from the state-run Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC).

According to the sources, the proposed order has been bagged for the supply of seamless casing pipes.

The sources further revealed that with this contract, the order-book of the conglomerate stood at Rs 1,370 crore.

According to the reports, in June, Maharashtra Seamless Ltd had won an export order of 45 million dollar from a US firm.