India Tata Steel to buy 35 pct in Mozambique project

(Reuters) - India's top private steel maker Tata Steel Ltd. said on Friday it would spend A$100 million to buy a 35 percent stake in a Mozambique coal project run by Australia's Riversdale Mining Ltd..

Tata Steel, which bought Anglo-Dutch Corus for $12.9 billion this year to become the world's sixth-largest steel maker, said it would source coking coal from the project for Corus' plants in the U.K. and Europe, and for Tata's Indian units.


Read more at Reuters Africa

BP Expects Its Whiting Oil Refinery to Return to Full Production Next Year

(Bloomberg) -- BP Plc, Europe's second-largest oil
company, expects its 405,000 barrel-a-day refinery in Whiting,
Indiana, to resume full production in the first half of 2008.

``Repairs are ongoing and we expect to resume sour crude
processing in the fourth quarter of 2007 and to restore the
refinery to its full flexibility and crude capacity in the first
half of 2008,'' BP said today in a statement distributed by the
Regulatory News Service.


Read more at Bloomberg Energy News

Mauritius to benefit from cheap Chinese loans - PM

(Reuters) - Mauritius is set to benefit from $113 million in cheap Chinese loans and grants to develop roads and communications, the Indian Ocean island's prime minister said on Saturday.

Speaking to Reuters less than a week after visiting China, Navin Ramgoolam said the trip had also yielded the promise of a series of private sector investments.


Read more at Reuters Africa

Crude Oil Climbs Above $73 on Speculation U.S. Gasoline Output to Decline

(Bloomberg) -- Crude oil rose above $73 a barrel in
New York for the first time since August on speculation that
U.S. output of gasoline will slow because of unexpected refinery
shutdowns.

BP Plc closed the largest of three crude units at its
refinery in Whiting, Indiana, a person familiar with the plant
said yesterday. The refinery, the biggest in the Midwest,
supplies consumers in the Chicago area. Refineries in Texas and
Kansas shut units last week. The crude-oil market often follows
gasoline during the summer months, when motor-fuel demand peaks.


Read more at Bloomberg Commodities News

Oil Falls From 10-Month High as U.S. Refineries Increase Gasoline Outputt

(Bloomberg) -- Crude oil fell from a 10-month high
on expectations that demand will decline because of the
unexpected shutdown of units at U.S. refineries.

BP Plc is shutting the largest of three crude units at its
Whiting, Indiana, refinery, a person familiar with the plant
said. Units were shut at refineries in Texas and Kansas last
week. Oil rose last week on unrest in Nigeria, Africa's biggest
producer. U.K. authorities said a three-year-old British girl
abducted July 5 in Nigeria was freed yesterday.


Read more at Bloomberg Commodities News

Israel Corp buys Globeleq Americas for $543 mln

(Reuters) - Israel Corp said in a statement to the Tel Aviv Stock
Exchange it financed the payment from its own resources and will
now seek bank financing.




Israel Corp had signed an agreement with Indian partner DS
Construction Ltd under which the companies would each hold a 50
percent stake in Globeleq Americas. But DS Construction has not
yet received regulatory approval in India.


Read more at Reuters.com Mergers News

Unitech, Parsvnath Costs Rise as India Stops Developers Borrowing Overseas

(Bloomberg) -- Unitech Ltd., India's most valuable
real-estate company, and Parsvnath Developers Ltd. will have to
pay more for loans because of a ban on overseas borrowing,
forcing them to incur the highest interest costs in five years.

The finance ministry's May 18 ruling will push up Unitech's
funding charges at least 5 percentage points, Managing Director
Sanjay Chandra said. Parsvnath was quoted 14 percent interest on
a loan from an Indian state-owned bank, Chief Financial Officer
Ravi S. Pani said.


Read more at Bloomberg Emerging Markets News

`Magic Train' Throws a New Lifeline to India's 600 Million Village Folk

(Bloomberg) -- Inside a makeshift tent pitched on a
west Indian railway platform, Daji Mohite awaits an operation to
remove cataracts. He's about to board the Lifeline Express, the
world's oldest charity hospital on train tracks.

``I have waited for so many years for this surgery,'' says
Mohite, 66, a retired factory worker who survives on his one-time
150,000-rupee ($3,700) pension payout. ``One fine day the train
comes here and it is sheer magic. I will be able to see better.''


Read more at Bloomberg Exclusive News

India to Export 500,000 Tons Raw Sugar Next Year for First Time Amid Glut

(Bloomberg) -- India, the world's second-biggest
sugar producer, may export as much as 500,000 tons of raw sugar
for the first time in the year starting October to reduce costs
as global prices slump amid record production.

Indian Sugar Exim Corp., an industry-funded trading firm,
won a contract to ship 200,000 tons to Dubai-based Al Khaleej
Sugar, Asia's largest refiner, Vinay Kumar, member secretary of
Sugar Exim, said today in a phone interview. The company hopes to
secure more orders when it starts supplying in December.


Read more at Bloomberg Commodities News

Kingfisher Plans $3.6 Billion Airbus Order, Including A380s, People Say

(Bloomberg) -- Kingfisher Airlines Ltd., the only
Indian customer for the Airbus SAS A380, plans to order five
more of the superjumbos this month, becoming the latest airline
to increase orders for the delayed aircraft, two people with
direct knowledge of the matter said.

The carrier also plans to order five A340-600s and five
A350s at this month's Paris Air Show, the people said. The
entire order is worth about $3.6 billion based on list prices.


Read more at Bloomberg Emerging Markets News

India's Rupee May Decline on Central Bank Sales of Currency, Survey Shows

(Bloomberg) -- The Indian rupee, the best performing
Asian currency this year, will decline as the central bank sells
it to protect the nation's exporters, a survey of traders shows.

A slowdown in the pace of inflation to an eight-month low
may give the Reserve Bank of India room to increase rupee sales,
after scaling back dollar purchases in March and April. The
currency gained 9 percent this year to a nine-year high, helping
reduce the cost of imports and pressure for price increases.


Read more at Bloomberg Currencies News