Global steel production at 7-month low

Five Turkish companies have been named among the world's biggest steel producers. ANKARA- Turkish companies Erdemir Group, Habas, Icdas, Diler Group and Colakoglu Metalurji were included in the world's leading steel & metal markets publication Metal

Peabody Energy has teamed up with ArcelorMittal to offer $5 billion for Australia's Macarthur Coal , the world's biggest producer of pulverised coal, as demand for steel-making raw materials intensifies. The cash offer of A$15.50 a share represents a 40-percent premium to Monday's close and comes just a day after Australia unveiled a plan to tax carbon emissions from the nation's worst polluters, or about 500 companies, including coal miners.

Much has been made of China’s insatiable appetite for the world’s natural resources but demand growth from another Asian giant is changing the dynamics of the global steel market. Indian demand for steel grew 10 percent last year, helping push global demand to a record 1.4 billion tons in 2010. Over the past two years, India’s renewed economic growth has brought a dramatic increase in the country’s steel production as well as domestic consumption.

While Western mining multinationals are conspicuous in their absence from any bids for Afghanistan's vast resources of copper and iron ore Tata Steel on Thursday joined other Indian steelmakers to bid for the Hajigak iron ore deposits 130km west of Kabul. So far only China has made any firm commitment to the country's mining sector with state-owned Metallurgical Corp's successful $3.4bn bid to build a copper mine – and a $6bn railway to go with it – that should enter production in 2014.

Brazil's Vale , the world's top iron ore miner, expects prices of the steelmaking raw material to remain above $150 a tonne for at least the next five years on tight global supplies, the Financial Times reported on Thursday. Guilherme Cavalcanti, Vale's chief financial officer, said miners would struggle to meet booming Asian demand, according to the newspaper.

Unrest and strikes in Indonesia, Chile, Australia and Africa, a shortage of skilled workers in North America and rising labour costs all over the globe are quickly becoming the most serious downsides of a mining boom that started almost a decade ago. While a historically high overall jobless rate is masking spiking wages in the resources sector in the US, workers in emerging markets are shutting down operations of mining companies deemed not to be sharing record profits fairly.

The destruction of Mongolia's grasslands to access a wealth of mineral riches has sparked an anti-mining movement led by a nomadic herder who says force can be used to bring polluting firms to heel. Tsetsegee Munkhbayar is the head of Fire Nation, a small group on a crusade to put an end to what they say are irresponsible mining operations in the resource-rich landlocked country that are threatening their livelihoods.

Australia-based iron ore development company African Iron Limited (ASX: AKI) is pleased to announce a greater than 80% increase to the aggregate exploration target size at its 80%-owned Mayoko Iron Ore Project, located in the Republic of Congo, West Africa. Image of a drilling rig at the Mayoko Iron Ore Project, by African Iron Limited.

The Top 10 Metals & Minerals Industry projects in Canada are dominated by large-scale oil sands and metal mining projects. What was once considered a large project is being dwarfed by today's mega-projects. Projects exceeding $1 billion are no longer rare, but commonplace. Currently, there are 67 projects in Canada with a total investment value (TIV) of $1 billion or more.