Debt
July 6, 2011
Greece Referendum is set to become the hottest media topic related to the European Debt Crisis in the coming months.In a totally surprising move Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou called a referendum and a parliamentary confidence vote on 31st October just a week after the European leaders had agreed on a package to .Papandreou’s personal and government popularity have plunged amid fresh austerity measures that sparked a wave of social unrest.The PM is calling this vote probably to bolster his government as it loses support of the masses
July 6, 2011
Solar Frontier is a Japanese company which was earlier known as Showa Shell Solar .The company joined the rank of major solar companies once it started the new 900MW “Kunitomi” production plant in Miyazaki.Note only is the company started big in production,it is rapidly signing deals around the globe in India,Middle East and America..The Company has recently signed Two Deals with 2 Global Heavyweights GE and IBM.It has signed a distribution deal with GE to sells its Copper Indium Selenide (CIS) Panels in USA while GE would provides the Balance of Systems components like inverters etc.It next signed a deal with IBM to jointly develop Copper Zinc Tin Sulfure Selenium (CZTS) Thin Film Technology.Note IBM is one of the biggest Technology Innovators and Solar Frontier has a long Thin Film History.
July 6, 2011
Hydro Electric Energy is second largest source of electricity in the world accounting for roughly 20% of the worldwide demand of electricity with around 800 GW of capacity installed.Hydroelectricity power plants are the biggest power stations in the world dwarfing the biggest nuclear and coal power projects.The world’s biggest power plant is the Three Gorge Dam in China which at 22.5 GW is more than 50% larger than the 2nd biggest power station in the world.s.China is the by far the world leader in hydro power plant capacity with around 200 GW which it aims to double to around 400 GW by 2020The advantages of hydroelectricity energy are substantial enough to far outweigh any disadvantages.But like nuclear energy,hydro power has some tail risks which can lead to catastrophic damage.
July 6, 2011
Solar Thin Film Technology has been growing rapidly despite falling costs of the mainstream Photovoltaic Crystalline Silicon Technology.While the current solar supply glut has resulted in some of the thin film solar film companies going out of business,big thin film suppliers continue with their growth plan.Solar Thin Film Technology is supposed to be the 2nd Generation successor to the mainstream Crystalline Silicon (c-Si) Technology which accounts for around 85% of world production.While a number of Weaker Hands in Thin Film have downed shutters,Thin Film Producers continue to grow and expand.The massive growth potential of Solar Energy makes it possible for both of these PV technologies to flourish.Thin Film Technology unlike c-Si has a number of variants.Amorphous Silicon (a-Si),Copper Indium Gallium Sulphide (CIGs) and Cadmium Tellurium (Cd-Te) are the 3 main types of Thin Film Technology.There are a number of manufacturers of all of these 3 types of Technology.CIGs Technology is said to have the most potential in improving efficiency and competing with c-Si,however Cd-Te is currently the top dog as the world’s biggest solar producer First Solar currently uses this technology.a-Si Technology is not that hot with low efficiencies however Oerlikon and Sharp are pushing ahead with developing this technology.
July 6, 2011
Solar Power in Australia has grown massively in 2010 and 2011 driven by state feed in tariffs also known as the solar bonus scheme or solar credits.This has resulted in the capacity limits being reached and most of the state solar subsidy schemes have been withdrawn (see the current state feed-in-tariff schemes below).However the Australian federal government is still offering the Renewable Energy Credit Scheme under which solar power generated is eligible to get solar credits which can be solar in the open market for cash.This will still drive the use of solar energy as the falling prices of chinese solar panels has made solar energy near electricity price parity in a number of places.Australia which gets a lot of sunshine is ideal for solar energy which promotes climate change mitigation as well besides reducing pollution.Australia has the highest average solar radiation of any continent in the world, which means solar industry has the greatest potential.
July 6, 2011
Germany till a couple of years was the home of the biggest solar panel manufacturers in the world.This was driven mainly by the German Renewable Energy Law (EEG) which is the most successful renewable energy subsidy in the world.The German Solar Market has become the biggest in the world for the last 2-3 years and an estimated 25 GW of solar panels would have been installed in Germany.Capitalizing on a large domestic market a number of solar companies like Q-Cells,Solarworld,Solon and others became the biggest in the world.However the rise of the Chinese solar panel manufactures has made these companies shrink with some of them like Q-Cells facing questions of survival.The prices of the Chinese solar panels has become lower than the costs of the German made solar modules putting the economic viability of the German solar panels in question.Though the quality of the German made solar panels is higher and some of the best solar panels in the world are produced by the Germans,the price differential has meant that Chinese have captured almost 70% of the global solar panel market leaving little for the German solar panel companies.The Italian Feed in Tariff Law Contio Energia 3 has given somewhat of a boost to the German solar panel makers as it gives higher subsidies for solar projects,farms using European based modules.However German solar panel producers are in a secular decline with most of them shifting their factories to Asia.Q-Cells and Bosch have set up big solar manufacturing facilities in Malaysia while Solarworld is doing so in the US.Another Big European Solar Producer REC is closing its factories in Norway while expanding it in Singapore.
July 5, 2011
Steel is an essential material used in many industries – it’s the backbone to countless products, structures and services that shape the everyday lives of people throughout the world.One of the major uses of Steel is in the Manufacture of Pipes which are used to transport energy products.Pipelines are a transportation system that enables the safe movement of inordinate quantities of energy products to industry and consumers, literally fueling our economy and way of life. They are arteries of any Nation's energy infrastructure, as well as the safest and least costly ways to transport energy products.
In general Steel Companies in India with the exception of the Jindal Group are not involved in the Steel Pipe production .Most of the Steel makers in India have major operations in foreign countries particularly Middle East.The boom times seem to be over for the sector and competition has become higher.
July 5, 2011
Stainless steel production in India increased from 0.5 million tonnes in 1994-95 to 1.76 million tonnes in 2004-05. India has emerged as one of the top ten stainless steel producer in the world. With a production of 1.1 million tonnes during 2002, the country was ranked 8th in the world. With the economy booming, there is increasing demand for a wider range of products and services in stainless steel.Stainless Steel is manufactured by the mainstream Steel Companies in India beside there are some focused stainless steel companies as well.The Mining Industry in India supplies most of the raw materials used in the production of Stainless Steel.
July 5, 2011
Production of iron ore in the country is through a combination of large mechanised mines in both public and private sectors and several smaller mines operated in manual or semi mechanised basis in the private sector. During 2001-02, 215 iron ore mines were operating in a total 638 leases which increased to 261, during 2005-06 operating in 505 leases. During 2006-07, India produced 172.3 MT of iron ore including lump, fines & concentrate. Normally, iron ore mining in India is done by opencast method and on the basis of mining methods, the mining can be broadly divided into two categories, i.e., manual and mechanized. Majority of the large mechanised mines are in the public sectors whereas manual mines are mainly in the private sector. In order to support steel production of 110 MT by 2019-20, the requirement of iron ore is placed at 190 MT & exports have been estimated to be around 100 MT. World iron ore production was 1,690 MT in 2006. Although iron ore is mined in more than 50 countries, the bulk of world production comes from just a few countries. The five largest producers are Brazil,China, Australia, India & Russia.
July 5, 2011
Sanyo Solar is one the biggest Japanese solar companies along with Sharp,Kyocera and Mitsubishi.After Panasonic bought Sanyo,the emphasis on the renewable energy green division has been increased by Panasonic..Sanyo had been already been metamorphizing into a Green company from an Electronics company before Panasonic bought it for a very cheap price.Sanyo had never found much success in the cut-throat Electronics Sector with Operating Margins very near to break-even.However under Panasonic it could become a potential leader in the extremely fast growing Green Sectors.Panasonic has completely changed its strategy to become a major Green Player targeting a Major Percentage of Sales in the future to come from Green Products.Panasonic which is the world’s biggest Plasma TV producer is going to spend $1 Billion on Green Building investments.Panasonic will combine its Green Strengths with Sanyo’s to sell a complete Eco-Friendly Home complete with Solar Power,LED Lighting and Energy Storage and Efficiency capabilities.In Solar where Panasonic is the No. 3 player in Japan behind Sharp and Kyocera ,it is speeding up the expansion of solar capacity.It will spend more than $500 million aiming to triple its energy solutions business in Europe to 800 Million Euros by 2016.
July 5, 2011
India's Supreme Court took over the investigation of vast amoutnof black money stashed in foreign money accounts from the compromised government.The ruling Congress party has proven to be remarkably reluctant to take action against corruption and black money despite huge pressure from the civil society and the judiciary.The government itself has ministers who are highly corrupt with a telecom minister in jail and the textile minister who may be on the way as well.Other ministers like the Agricultural Minister Pawar has repeatedly surfaced in numerous scams rocking the country.The Supreme Court has also taken the government to task for granting a retail banking license to the Swiss giant bank UBS.Note UBS had not been given a license as it was under suspicion for facilitating the movement of ill gotten money into Swiss bank accounts
July 5, 2011
Solar Panels are sold by hundreds of companies around the world ranging from small to very large and comes in various shapes and sizes as well.Besides this solar panels are also made of very different materials for example silicon solar panels and thin film solar panels.So comparing solar panels and choosing a solar panel is a very difficult process if you want the best solar panel according to your needs.Note solar panels for the most part are brought by the solar integrators or solar installers that you employ to put up solar panels in your house or office.So you are not generally a part of the decision making process in case of solar panel buying.However to ensure that you get a good deal on your solar array installation,you should ensure that you get good quality solar panels and solar inverters.The solar panels should ideally have certification from quality organizations such as TUV,ISO,Clean Energy Council and others.Same with Solar Inverters that you are going to use.
July 5, 2011
In 2007 the World Crude Steel output reached 1343 million metric tons and showed a growth of 7.5% over the previous year.China remained the world’s largest Crude Steel producer in 2007 also (489 million metric tons) followed by Japan (112. million metric tons) and USA (97 million metric tons). India occupied the 5 th position (53million metric tons) (Source: IISI). According to an estimate by Credit Suisse, India’s steel consumption will continue to grow at nearly 16% rate annually, till 2012, fuelled by demand for construction projects worth US$ 1 trillion. The scope for raising the total consumption of steel is huge, given that per capita steel consumption is only 40 kg – compared to 150 kg across the world and 250 kg in China.
July 5, 2011
According to reports coming from Europe where the summit of major European leaders took place to resolve the growing debt crisis,a deal has been reached on Greek debt.The Euro 350 billion debt which dwarfs the size of the negatively growing Greek economy has been a major source of instability in the last 2 years.The private holders of the Greek government bonds have agreed to take a 50% writeoff on their holdings.This means that if they hold Euro 100 of bonds they have become Euro 50 now as the rest has been written off as bad debt.Not that it was not apparent as Greek CDS and Greek bonds were touching all times lows in the secondary market.In fact the only buyers of Greece bonds were the European Central Bank and the Greek banks.The capital markets had been going up in the last month in the hope of some sort of resolution.The deal does not look like a win win as there will be some big losers in this deal (though they were already losing for some time).Nicolas Sarkozy announced the deal which would be voluntary in nature so that the CDS would not be invoked.Here are the winners and losers from this deal
July 5, 2011
Solar Energy is the fastest growing industry in the USA and has been one of the fastest globally as well with solar demand rising by more than 150% in 2010 fueled by massive cuts in prices of solar panels especially those from China.While this has led to a major drop in solar energy stock prices this has also led to a massive boost in volumes due to demand elasticity.Only the top solar companies will be able to survive this brutal consolidation that is taking place with some companies like Solyndra already consigned to the death list.Solar Industry is a global one and has a big supply chain as well.This means that looking at only one stock market will deprive you of better opportunities that might exist in other stock markets.There is also a big supply chain associated especially with crystalline solar panels.There are companies that exist only in Polysilicon,Wafers,Cells,Modules.There are also companies that are suppliers of material like encapsulants and metal alloys to these industries.This article will give you a very broad idea on the complete list of solar energy stocks that exist in each part of the supply and different parts of the world.You can also look at the 2 solar ETFs that trade on the US stock markets TAN and KWT .
July 4, 2011
.The cost of the solar panel can also vary a lot depending on the retailer,size of the solar panel,technology and the brand.This makes buying solar panels a confusing problem though most residential and commercial buyers are not involved leaving the decision to the solar installer/EPC company.The advent of Chinese solar panels has made the Western and European solar panel companies lost marketshare rapidly.In fact most of the European companies are shutting factories to open plant in Asia where the costs are much lower.Japanese solar companies however continue to keep their manufacturing in developed countries as they get a premium for their solar panels which are considered of superior quality.
Kyocera is one of the oldest solar panel manufacturers and is second only to Sharp amongst the Japanese companies.It also manufactures industrial ceramics, telecommunications equipment, office document imaging equipment, electronic components, semiconductor packages, cutting tools, and components for medical and dental implant systems.Kyocera Solar Corp. in Japan was founded in 1996, and Kyocera Solar, Inc. in the U.S. in 1999.The company has production bases in Japan, Mexico, Europe and China and is planning a factory in California as well.The company plans to reach 1000 MW of production by 2013.
July 4, 2011
India's Supreme Court took the matter of hundreds of billions of dollars of Black Money stashed into foreign bank accounts into its own hands as the government has repeatedly failed to take any action stalling the case.The Indian government led by the Congress Party has been repeatedly blasted by the Supreme Court for not acting against corruption matters.Recently the Court in an unprecedented move took over the supervision of the CBI in 2G Telecom Scandal Case Investigation.Note CBI is under the Home Ministry and like other investigations was being tardy to take action government ministers.The 2G Telecom case has resulted in top ministers and corporate CEOs being jailed with prospects of more being convicted.
July 4, 2011
Green Banking in India has started increasing at a rapid pace as concerns over Global Warming increase.Most of India's Banks are pushing for Clean Technology in their separate ways.Though there is lack of regulation on funding of environment friendly projects,Banks are pushing ahead on their own anyway.India's Financial Sector has seen the writing on the wall as the largest bank SBI is using Wind Energy for captive consumption to reduce its carbon footprint.The Bank is also reducing the interest rates for Green Projects beside helping in carbon consulting of customers.SBI is also implementing thousands of Green Kiosks to reduce the need for paper.ICICI Bank is helping funding research in clean technology using TFD while Canara Bank has funded almost 50,000 units of Solar Lighting .
July 4, 2011
Fly Ash Pollution of nearby water bodies had forced the Orissa State Pollution Control Board (OSPCB) to issue a notice to the massive 3000 MW NTPC Talcher Thermal Power Plant.While the notice asked for immediate shutdown of 4 untis of 500 MW,NTPC has only closed down 1 unit citing that closing more units will lead to massive power disruptions in nearby states.The action comes following NTPC bad fly ash managment system which has led to two past incidences of water pollution.There was a danger that the massive amounts of fly ash being generated would lead to breakdown of the storage dykes and lead to more pollution.
July 4, 2011
Indian Electricity Companies are crying for a bailout from the government after coal prices surged last year amidst shortages of coal.Note before the Lehman crisis,Indian private […]
July 4, 2011
Asset Management Companies in India have come a long way since the preliberalization era when only the government owned Unit Trust of India was the sole option for Indian investors.Like the other Finance Companies in India,Investment Management Companies too have grown massively in size as well as numbers.The massive Indian market which is still quite primitive in terms of financial inclusion has attracted a host of domestic and foreign investment companies.Only 4–5 per cent of household assets are in mutual funds and the top eight cities in terms of households penetrated account for 75 per cent of retail AUMs.there are only about 35 fund ‘families’ in India, as compared to the global numbers like 700-odd fund ‘familes’ in the US, 60 fund ‘families’ in China and around 70 in Japan.The Lehman crisis took a toll on the weaker asset managers but the industry continues to thrive as modernization of the Indian economy will lead to a transfer of asset from the informal sector to the formal sector.The Total Assets under Management in India as of June 2011 stands at Rs 7.43 lakh crore ($160 billion).The industry has 43 active players with Reliance MF being the largest investment company in India followed by HDFC MF.
July 4, 2011
The Indian Financial Companies were subject to strict regulations till 1991 when interest rates were administered and asset allocation was governed through various formal mechanisms and strict controls limited the entry of financial companies. In 1991, the government of India initiated a reform programme for India, which encompassed the financial sector.There were numerous reforms that were intitiated which has led to the emergence of a robust financial sector which easily managed to sidestep the post Lehman global financial crisis in 2008.The post 1991 reforms allowed the deregulation of interest rates,entry of new private sector banks permitted long-term lending institutions like ICICI,IDBI,HDFC to carry out banking activities.The banking sector in India has become increasingly more competitive in recent years. Public sector banks have lost their market share to the more dynamic private sector banks .It is not possible to list out all the Finance Companies in India in one post as there are almost 13000 non-bank finance companies (NBFCs) besides Banks,Insurance Companies,Foreign Financial Institutions etc.This post lists out the Financial Companies in the Gold Finance,Travel,Housing,Infra sectors as well as the Top 10 Banks.
July 4, 2011
At the time of independence in 1947, India's capital market was relatively under-developed. Although there was significant demand for new capital, there was a dearth of providers. Merchant bankers and underwriting firms were almost non-existent. And commercial banks were not equipped to provide long-term industrial finance in any significant manner. By the early 1990s, it was recognized that there was need for greater flexibility to respond to the changing financial system. There was a need for these financial institutions to directly access the capital markets for their funds needs.So a number of infrastructure finance companies were set up.Some of them have become fully private like ICICI while others have been partly privatized. like REC and PFC.Besides a number of private companies have recently become big players in the infrastructure financing space like SREI,L&T Finance etc.Note with almost $1 trillion expected to be spent on infrastructure in India over the next 5 years,the scope for these companies is immense if they manage their assets-liabilities in a decent manner
July 4, 2011
The formal housing finance market of India comprises various segments viz. Housing Finance Companies, Scheduled Commercial Banks, Co-operative Sector etc. These institutions offer a variety of products relating to
direct finance, refinance, micro-finance etc, to the borrowers.The share of outstanding housing loan as a percentage of GDP has risen from 3.4 per cent in 2001 to 7.25 per cent in 2007 (estimated). The share of outstanding housing loan as a percentage of GDP has risen from 3.4 per cent in 2001 to 7.25 per cent in 2007 (estimated).
Housing Finance Companies in India
At present, the need for housing finance in India is largely being fulfilled by the more than 40 Housing
Finance Companies and 27 Public Sector Commercial Banks.The housing finance companies' market is dominated by large players such as HDFC, LIC Housing Finance Limited, Can Fin Homes, Dewan Housing Finance Limited, Sundram Home Finance and GRUH Finance Limited (now bought by HDFC)
July 3, 2011
olar Panel Manufacturers are present in most parts of the world with Korea,China,Taiwan,USA,Japan and Germany dominating.Solar Panels are of mainly 2 type – crystalline and thin film.Most of the solar panels produced today are of the crystalline type and are mostly used in residential rooftops.Thin film panels are mostly used in large ground solar power plants.Thin film solar panels are of lower efficiency and are lower priced as well.However falling costs of crystalline solar panels has led to their increasing dominance.
Solarworld AG
Germany till a couple of years was the home of the biggest solar panel manufacturers in the world.This was driven mainly by the German Renewable Energy Law (EEG) which is the most successful renewable energy subsidy in the world.The German Solar Market has become the biggest in the world for the last 2-3 years and an estimated 25 GW of solar panels would have been installed in Germany.Capitalizing on a large domestic market a number of solar companies like Q-Cells,Solarworld,Solon and others became the biggest in the world.
July 2, 2011
Note corruption is nothing new for the Big 4 firms with another one PriceWaterhouseCoopers caught red handed in the massive billion dollar Satyam corruption scam.Two of the partners of PWC were sent to jail in the fraud which involved cooking the books for almost 8 years.Having a Big 4 auditor is a must for any well known big public company.However the reputation of these Big 4 continues to get besmirched with newer scandals.It does not take a rocket scientist to guess that bribes were involved as rules were circumvented and Corporation Bank top brass was also involved.Government Tenders are a massive hotspot of corruption as they are opaque and powers rest with a few.Lack of transparency results in massive embezzlement of taxpayer money.Corporation Bank.Note Relaince India's biggest company is facing an investigation along with the oil and gas regulator DGH.Recently LIC Housing Finance one of India's largest housing finance companies was involved in a scam as well alongwith top official form other PSU Banks for taking bribes.This resulted in a massive stock price fall for a number of these companies.Expect Corporation Bank stock to take a similar dive hurting the shareholders.Investing in the Indian stock market has become more dangerous than ever where a corruption scam hides under every stone.Government companies which are considered safer by investors too are being proved problematic with PSU CEOs now being jailed for scams.India's largest aluminum company NALCO CEO has been jailed for accepting gold bricks in bribes
July 2, 2011
Vestas has been getting bigger orders and has been streamlining operations,however its stock price has continued to go down as investors see bleak future prospects wit hthe entry of Korean shipbuilders into the industry.Other heavyweights like Gamesa and Suzlon too have faced massive losses as margins have evaporated in the face of declining topline and prices.But now Vestas has got a lifeline from the renewable energy subsidiary of the French giant utility EDF.The order from is for 2000 MW of Wind Turbines over the next few years.While pricing was not disclosed,it would be certainly be at a discount to the normally premium prices charged by Vestas.This given order visibility to Vestas and provides price safety for EDF.The next frontier for Wind Energy Companies is going to be Offshore Wind and Siemens has stolen a march.Vestas is not going down without a fight recently introducing a 7 MW wind turbine for this segment
July 2, 2011
Indian Businessmen and Politicians have been looting the citizens and the treasury of billions of dollars through numerous corruption scams and scandals.While the focus has been on the big corruption scandals at the centre being perpetrated by ruling party politicians,opposition party has not been far behind.The Nira Radia Tapes revealed the extent to which the Indian politicians have sold the state to big business.Major ministers are appointed by the major industrial conglomerates leading to billions of dollars in embezzlement.There are numerous instances like the Commonwealth Games Scam,Adarsh Scam,the 2G Telecom Scam etc.Many of the politicians are now big businessmen themselves owning companies legally and illegally.According to Nira Radi,India's agricultural minister is the benami owner of one of the largest realty companies DB Realty whose CEO is cooling his heels in jail for the 2G Scam.The concerned minister is also involved in the Lavasa City Scam in which a whole city was built in partnership with HCC flouting all environmental norms and regulations.
July 1, 2011
Green Self Service Kiosks are set to become ubiquitous in branches run by India's largest bank State Bank of India.Finance has been greatly been benefited by the Information Technology solution reducing transactions costs and time greatly.Banks in India have been slow to roll out Technology Platforms .India due to the lack of penetration of technology has been far behind with large swathes of its population bereft of access to technology.SBI however has come up with an innovative idea Green Channel Counters (GCCs) which is a low cost solution to reduce costs and improve efficiency.These self service kiosks have a screen,keypad,passbook printers etc through which a customer of the bank can perform most of the functions.This would reduce the need for staffing and also lead to saving of paper.Normally it require a ton of forms to perform various functions like depositing,withdrawing money.However with these kiosks most of it can be done online which would greatly reduce paper usage saving trees as a result.