BlueScope Steel Ltd, Australia’s largest steelmaker, has appointed an Orica Mining Services executive to role of chief executive of its Steel Asia division.

Sanjay Dayal, 51, will join the company in January 2009 and will be based in Singapore to lead BlueScope’s businesses in Asia, excluding China.

Mr Dayal is presently general manager of manufacturing and supply train for Orica Mining Services after managing the company’s Asian division for five years.

It is reported that Iran’s rebar prices are still falling current 12 millimeter to 25 millimeter rebar prices have dropped to around USD 1,000 per tonnes compared to USD 1,050 per tonnes a week ago.
 
 Azarbaijan Steel failed in its rebar sale on the Iran Mercantile Exchange because the buyer asked for USD 880 per tonnes which the mill thought was too low. Some agents facing the same situation offered USD 1,020 per tonnes for Chinese rebar.
 
 Rebar shipments have decreased by a large range because buyers are delaying their purchases as prices continue to drop. Some private mills are forced to sell at lower prices for cash under the condition of the current market recession.

The globalCOAL’s NEWC weekly index showed in the week ended September 27th 2008, based on prices at Australia’s Newcastle port, that coal prices for power generators in Australia fell to a 5 month low of about USD 129 a tonne in the latest week, amid worries of slowing demand in Europe and China. Thermal coal prices fell by USD 8.32 from a week earlier to USD 137.30 a tonne.
 
 While there has been no shortage of bullish news for the coal market in recent weeks, prices have fallen for four consecutive weeks on concerns of slackening demand.
 
 Mr Mark Pervan a senior resource analyst at Australia and New Zealand bank in Melbourne said that “The market is focusing on the bearish news at the moment, such as evidence of slowing demand in China with rising coal stockpiles at ports and power plants. What has also dragged coal prices down further is the slump in freight rates, which are a pretty good indication of demand in the next 3 to 6 months.”
 
 Coal is also piling up in China’s top shipping port for the fuel, as manufacturing weakness and slackening power demand undermine a market that was badly overstretched this summer. Coal supplies at Qinhuangdao had reached 8.44 million tonnes by September 16th 2008, at least 3 million tonnes above normal levels.
 
 Some traders said signs of easing domestic demand and growing stockpiles in China could also result in Beijing issuing a higher-than-expected quota for the second-batch of export licenses.

It is reported that Indonesian government has terminated to levy import duties on hot rolled coil of thickness under 2mm until end of 2008. An import quota system could allow companies to import a total of 150,000 tonnes per year.
 
 But Essar Indonesia has a cold rolling capacity of 400,000 tonnes per year, while Gunung Raja Paksi of Gunung Garuda Group and Little Giant have 150,000 tonnes per year each. Krakatau Steel supplies all demand only around 150,000 tonnes per year to domestic market.
 
 Import duty on HRC less than 2mm was previously suspended for six months starting August 7th 2007, under a maximum quota of 150,000 tonnes. During that period, Essar Indonesia reportedly imported 115,000 tonnes and Gunung Raja Paksi imported 35,000 tonnes.