Gold opened firmer in Europe at $291.50/$292.50 a troy ounce against Tuesday's New York close of $288.40/$290.40. After dropping through technical support levels on Monday and Tuesday, gold turned upwards in Asian time zone trading as a fall in the dollar against the yen prompted Japanese buying. Silver also steadier at $5.22/$5.24 an ounce versus New York's closing $5.17/$5.20. Platinum was up at $411.00/$416.00 against the closing $409.60/$414.60. Palladium was up $1.00 at $391.00/$396.00 against the closing $390.00/$395.00.

Steel industry's problems

The steel ministry will hold a round table discussion on Thursday to discuss problems faced by the domestic steel sector and efforts made by the government to help the industry. The meeting, to be addressed by steel minister Dilip Ray, will be attended by captains of the steel industry, heads of financial institutions, steel experts and senior officials, an official release said in New Delhi on Wednesday. Reasons for the sluggish demand in steel consuming sectors, lack of investment by government and private sector in major infrastructure projects, cost escalation in input materials, reduction in import duty and increase in excise duty on iron and steel items and dumping of finished steel in the country will be taken up at the meeting. Initiatives by the ministry to boost demand for steel, measures for strengthening of anti-dumping mechanism, issue of floor price mechanism will also be evaluated by the participants at the discussion. The meeting aims to provide the industry with an impetus to sustain thegrowth which has been evident in the first six months of the current fiscal, it said. Production of finished carbon steel has gone up by six per cent during April-September 1999 compared to the corresponding period in 1998 with exports increasing by 15.3 per cent also. Domestic and international prices have firmed up and are expected to go up further, the release added.

OIL suspends operations

Oil India Ltd (OIL) has suspended operations in its Khagorigan oil fields in Assam following an agitation by the local villagers against alleged pollution caused in the river Brahmaputra. OIL was expected to extract crude oil from the field from August 15, but the operations had to be suspended after the villagers launched an agitation demanding cleaning of the river, company officials said. OIL chairman and managing director BB Sharma told PTI that the company was negotiating with the state government on the issue and hoped that a solution would soon be worked out. The oil field with four wells now has estimated reserves of about two million tonnes. OIL had also created the necessary infrastructure by constructing roads and other facilities at a cost of Rs 75 crore, they said. Meanwhile, the company is seeking support from the petroleum ministry and the surface transport ministry for early commencement of production in the field, they said. Officials said that the stoppage of work would result in a revenueloss of about Rs one lakh every day in terms of royalty to the government. The OIL officials claimed that the state government was in the company's favour and was also talking to the village representatives. OIL, which posted a net profit of Rs 291.60 crore on a turnover of Rs 1,469.38 crore during 1998-99, has planned an investment of Rs 2,700 crore during the Ninth Plan period, including Rs 1650 crore towards exploration and development. The company is also planning to diversify into downstream refining and pipeline sectors for assured profits besides plans to acquire 10 per cent stake in the Numaligarh refinery at an estimated investment of Rs 100 crore. The company has already engaged Ernst & Young as the consultant for working out the strategic and corporate planning exercise, officials said adding OIL's crude output during 1998-99 was recorded at 3.294 million metric tonnes while its natural gas production was at 1,713 million metric cubic metres.

Menthol, caustic soda up

Prices of menthol and caustic soda flake increased on the local chemical market New Delhi on Wednesday due to local demand. Menthol bold crystal and flake went up by Rs 10-15 to close at Rs 785 and Rs 715 from the last close of Rs 770 and Rs 705 respectively. Caustic soda flake DCM, KCI and Gujarat increased by Rs 5 each at Rs 710 from the previous close of Rs 705. The volume of business was small. Following are the prices of various chemicals on Wednesday: Ammonia bicarb (25 kg) 270-275, ammonium chloride (50 kg) 450-650, acetic acid (1 kg) 23, boric acid-technical (50 kg) 2200-2300, borax granular (50 kg) 1500-1550. Caustic soda flake (50 kg) (DCM) 710, caustic soda flake (KCI) 710, caustic soda flake (Gujarat) 710.