Saudi Iron and Steel Company (Hadeed) has partially resumed production, its parent Saudi Basic Industries Corp (SABIC) said last week. A SABIC statement said the damaged main power cable which feeds Hadeed's complex in Jubail had been repaired. Production was halted in May after a fire damaged the main cable. "The damaged cable has been repaired. The company resumed operating its plants," SABIC vice-chairman and managing director Ibrahim IBN Salameh said. "One oven has started production on Saturday...Another two ovens, God willing, will soon be operational," IBN Salameh said. SABIC had fulfiled its commitments to customers during the stoppage without any delay, he said.

SABIC, 70 per cent held by the Saudi government, owns Hadeed.

Pakistan gold rates seen up

Pakistan gold rates are likely to rise further after a 4.2 per cent devaluation of the rupee, dealers said last week. "The bullion rates gained during the last few weeks on high domestic demandfrom investors who hedged their investments against inflation and devaluation of the rupee," a dealer said. "As the devaluation has finally been done (on Saturday), the imports will now be costlier which will push the bullion prices further up," he said.

Western Metals commissions mine

Western Metals Ltd said last week it had commissioned its Pillara zinc mine and treatment plant, the final stage of a four-year expansion of its mining operations in Western Australia's Lennard Shelf region. "Overall production from the expanded operation will be 170,000 tonnes of zinc in concentrate and 63,000 tonnes of lead per annum," WestMet said in a statement. Production for the 1998/99 (July/June) year will be about 1.2 million tonnes, it said. By June 1999, West Met said it expects to be processing oreat Pillara at a targeted rate of 1.5 million tonnes a year, the company said. "This annualised rate will result in concentrate production of 102,000 tonnes of zinc and 28,000 tonnes of lead per year," thecompany said. WestMet's board has rejected a 97 cents a share takeover offer by Spanish zinc group Asturiana de Zinc SA, which is conditional on West Met abandoning its own hostile bid for fellow Australian miner Aberfoyle Ltd. Asturiana said it hoped to channel zinc concentrates from West Met's mines to its smelter in northern Spain and was uninterested in Aberfoyle's copper mining business. West Met has said an acquisition of Aberfoyle, valued at A$270 million, would enable it diversify into low-cost copper cathode production. Aberfoyle's board has recommended its shareholders reject the offer.

Chile not to utilise copper fund

Chile is not planning to utilise its copper fund even though sagging copper prices have taken a bite out of the government's expected revenue, finance minister Eduardo Aninat said last week. To the question whether Chile would dip into the funds, Aninat replied: "No, we hope to keep them as they are."The copper fund, which totals $1.7 billion, was established in 1986 as amechanism to offset the budgetary impact of sharp swings in the price of copper, Chile's largest export. State-owned copper giant Codelco contributes to the fund whenever copper prices rise by a set amount above the government's projections in any quarter of the year. The government divides the extra revenues between the copper fund and the treasury's coffers. When copper prices fall below a certain amount in any quarter, the government can draw on the fund. Both operations have to be carried out in the following quarter.

US stainless steel imports increase

In the United States, stainless steel imports have increased 24 per cent in the first quarter over corresponding period last year, according to Specialty Steel Industry of North America, a Washington trade group. "Business has been simply dreadful," said one physical merchant. "Simply put, there's plenty of nickel around in the US and there's not enough demand." What little stainless demand there is has been satisfied by scrap. "We're doing bitsand pieces of business from the foundries," another trader said. "But the stainless steel guys have been quiet. Because of all of the imports coming in from Japan and South Korea, the stainless guys aren't doing much outside of their contractual obligations. Scrap is plentiful, so primary demand is pretty thin." Stainless steel consumption increased 7 per cent in the first quarter over last year's corresponding period. Imports accounted for 26 per cent of domestic consumption in the first quarter versus 22 per cent last year. Producers have taken a slightly less bearish view. "We're only now starting to see a downturn," said one producer. "And it's more of a function of the seasonally slow demand period that occurs in the summer. "We were completely sold out of material in the first quarter," he added. "We found demand to be exceptional." He acknowledged, however, that spot material was becoming increasingly available from producers.

St Barbara to buy Reedy gold mine

St Barbara Gold Mines Ltd saidlast week it has completed an agreement to purchase the Reedy Gold project in Western Australia from Mt Lyell Mining Co Ltd for A$2.5 million. St Barbara said a gold processing plant at Reedy was not included in the purchase but that the deal included tenements adjoining the southern boundaries of its Bluebird gold mine project. Published resources indicated the the Reedy project'stenements held 580,000 ounces of gold contained in two million tonnes of ore, grading 3.5 grammes a tonne. The mine was discovered in 1901 by Tom Reedy and was previously operated by Mt Lyell under its former name Gold Mines of Australia (GMA). GMA changed its name to Mt Lyell Mining earlier this year after reaching a debt restructuring agreement with Citbank that provided A$25 million in loans for working capital for the Mt Lyell copper mine in Tasmania. Part of the terms of the restructuring agreement called for the company to divest its gold mine assets.

Japan steel demand seen down

Japan's demand for crude steel inthe July-September period is expected to fall 10 per cent from the same period a year earlier to 23.44 million tonnes, the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) said last week. MITI also said domestic demand for steel products in the July-September period is expected to fall 5.0 per cent from a year earlier to 24.30 million tonnes.

Steel prices may fall

Global steel prices could fall in the near future after low demand from South-east Asian markets and an anticipated rise in world production, Steel and Mines Minister Navin Patnaik said last week. "Although steel production is expected to increase further in 1998, slackening demand in South-east Asia may lead to a highly competitive market with possible drop in prices in the near future," Patnaik told a meeting of steel producers and buyers.

"These trends in the steel sector are significant for the Indian steel industry," he added. Patnaik said Indian domestic steel producers currently faced stiff competition from imported steel.Exports from India were also facing competition because of low global demand. He said Indian steel producers needed to produce better quality steel using methods which were environmentally-friendly so as to meet the challenges of increased global competition.

Lepanto Mining gold output rises

Lepanto Consolidated Mining Co said last week its gold output nearly tripled in the first five months of the year to 3,250 kg from the year-ago 1,128. Revenues from the gold production reached 726.792 million pesos from the year-ago 224.705, it said in a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange. Earlier, Lepanto said it expected to produce more gold this year with the increased output of its mill at the Victoria gold mine in Mankayan town in northern Benguet province to 2,000 tonnes of ore per day from 1,300 last year.Victoria mine, which started commercial production in April last year, was projected to produce 170,000 ounces of gold this year from last year's 106,000.