China has lodged a protest with India over the anti-dumping investigations initiated by the Indian authorities concerned against the former's commodities over the past two years. Under the Indian anti-dumping laws, investigations are carried out by the designated authority after taking into account the views and submission made by all interested parties, including the governments of the exporting countries. In the case of met coke, as in all the other anti-dumping cases against China till date, the designated authority has issued findings after considering views expressed by all parties, including the Chinese government.

Iraq doubles petrol price

Iraq has doubled the price of petrol, diesel and engine oil to cover production costs, an oil official said. A litre (0.26 gallons) of regular petrol now costs 10 dinars (five cents), while high-grade petrol's price has jumped to 30 dinars (1.5 cents), the head of the state's oil distribution company, Radwane Asaadi said."The increase is aimed at creating a balance between the cost of production and the sale price and the (oil) ministry has tried to ensure it will not be too heavy a burden for the people to carry," Asaadi said. Iraqi petrol is believed to be the cheapest in the world. The sanctions-hit state has the second largest proven oil reserves in the world after Saudi Arabia.

Leather industry bags $5 m orders

India's leather industry has bagged orders worth more than $5 million from Latin America this fiscal and was expecting a three-fold rise in the figure for 1999-2000, Council for Leather Exports (CLE) officials said. The CLE, which had sent trade delegations to five Latin American countries -- Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Peru and Colombia -- last year, cornered orders totalling above $5 million, with Chile emerging as the most promising market for the future, CLE executive director PS Karthiresan said. He lamented that Brazil, which was also a good market for Indian leather goods, had suffered economicreverses recently, and could not be relied on any longer.

NALCO's production decline

The National Aluminium Company (NALCO) has reported a massive 30.4 per cent decline in production during April-January 1998-99 while other Public Sector Undertaking (PSU) Bharat Aluminium (BALCO) registered a nominal increase of 2.3 per cent during the same period. Other psus under the department of mines which have reported higher production during first 10 months of current fiscal include Hindustan Zinc Ltd (HZL) Bharat Gold Mines (BGML). During the period, BALCO reported a production of 75,944 tonnes compared to 73,933 tonnes during the corresponding period in the previous year, while NALCO produced 1,14,529 tonnes of aluminium against 1,64,709 tonnes.

Agriculture information shops

A chain of information shops at block levels should be set up to service requirements of the farming community, secretary in the Department of Agriculture and Cooperation, Kamal Pande, said. Inaugurating the 18th nationalworkshop on Planning and Management of Agricultural Extension Training in New Delhi, Pande said agricultural extension system would have to be redefined for achieving full inter-connectivity between the credit and marketing linkages in the farm sector. He welcomed the contributions of different groups and associations such as the corporate sector, non-governmental organisations (NGO's) and farmers associations in the management of agriculture extension system in the country. Copra rules firmPrices of copra office Alleppey firmed up on renewed demand in an otherwise dull and featureless spices market here today. Copra office Alleppey hardened by Rs 20 to Rs 3,450 as against yesterday's closing of Rs 3,430. Following were today's closing rates per quintal with previous rates in brackets. Black pepper ready (50 kg) Rs 9,600/10,200 (Rs 9,600/10,200), ginger bleached Rs 3,700/4,000 (Rs 3,700/4,000) ginger unbleached Rs 4,000/4,250 (Rs 4,000/4,250) copra office Alleppey Rs 3,450 (Rs 3,430), copra office Calicut Rs3,500 (Rs 3,500), copra rajapur Mumbai Rs 4,150 (Rs 4,150) and copra edible Mumbai Rs 3,950 (Rs 3,950).