NASHIK, May 9: A major fire broke out at Mahindra and Mahindra (M&M) auto plant in Satpur MIDC near here early this morning but it has been brought under control, fire brigade officials said.

“A major fire broke out at the logistics department of the company early this morning. After receiving a call at 5.45 am, informing us about the incident, fire tenders were rushed to the spot and the fire was soon brought under control,” Chief Fire Officer of the Nashik Municipal Corporation Anil Mahajan told.

Nobody was injured in the incident, he said, adding that around 25 fire tenders, both belonging to the local civic body as well as the company’s own firefighting unit, were roped in to douse the flames.

“We do not know the reason behind the fire as yet. We are also yet to estimate the exact amount of losses,” Nachiket Kulkarni, Head of M&M’s automobile plant, told reporters.

Senior General Manager (Personnel) Udaykumar Vaidya said that spare parts of the company’s popular SUV—Scorpio and of other vehicles were kept at the logistics department, besides some cardboard and plastic material.

“The company is finding out the reason behind the incident,” Vaidya said. (PTI)

NEW DELHI, May 9: State-owned Punjab National Bank (PNB) today reported 18.58 per cent rise in net profit at Rs 1,424.06 crore for the quarter ended March 31.

The bank had posted a net profit of Rs 1,200.9 crore in the same period last year, PNB said in a statement.

Total income of the lender increased to Rs 10,955.73 crore in the January-March quarter from Rs 8,585.65 crore in the same period last fiscal.

The Board of Directors of the bank has recommended an annual dividend of Rs 22 per equity share for FY’12, subject to declaration in the ensuing annual general meeting, it said. (PTI)

NEW DELHI, May 9: India’s agrochemicals market is likely to be over Rs 25,000 crore by 2015 as increasing awareness about their positive impact and benefits on agri- produce is fuelling growth of the sector, Assocham said today.

Currently, the market size is over Rs 16,000 crore.

“Growing awareness about the positive impact and benefits of agrochemicals on the agri-produce and the need for crop protection and thriving domestic horticulture and floriculture industries are fuelling the growth and increased usage of agrochemicals in India,” the chamber said in a release.

It said that there is a huge growth potential for foreign investments in the sector.

“The (market size of) agrochemicals sector in India is likely to cross Rs 25,000 crore mark by 2015,” it said.

Considering the big growth prospects of agrochemicals, Assocham said there is an urgent need to inform farmers about its usage and application.

It also said that abundance of low-cost agrochemical products from China and counterfeit products are some of the key problems faced by India’s highly-fragmented agrochemicals market.

In terms of production, India ranks fourth in the world after the UA, Japan and China.

The global agrochemicals industry is growing at about 12 per cent and is likely to cross Rs 13 lakh crore mark from the current level of about Rs 8.5 lakh crore in the near future, it added.

“As per an estimate, crops worth about USD 20 billion is lost due to lower usage of pesticides each year,” it said. (PTI)

HYDERABAD, May 9: Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL) may consider signing crude import agreement with the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR), a top official of HPCL said.

K Murali, director, refineries, HPCL said the Azerbaijani company has come forward to supply crude and the proposal will be taken up with the HPCL Board.

“We are already in touch with them. We will take their offer to the board and take its approval. If everything goes well, we will start importing crude from this year itself in small quantities to start with,” Murali told without indicating when the Board will take up the issue.

HPCL’s move to import crude from the CIS nation indicates the oil PSU’s intention to diversify its sources of crude oil imports and to reduce its dependence on any particular region, particularly in the wake of sanctions imposed by the US and EU on Iran, an industry analyst said.

Murali said the initial quantities from Azerbaijan will be in the range of 0.5 million tons.

If everything goes well we can increase the quantity, he added.

“The Azeri crude is also economical for us. Rate is also competitive. That is the reason we may prefer,” he explained.

Another state-owned oil company, Indian Oil Corporation has also started importing from Azerbaijan from January this year.

Sources in IOCL said currently the imports from Azerbaijan are in the range of 20,000 barrels a day (equivalent to 2800 tons).

Though India has not said publicly that it was aiming to cut back on oil imports from Iran, the country’s top oil importers have been pushed to reduce the Iranian oil imports by 15-20 per cent.

Crude imports from Iran fell to 18.5 million tons in 2010-11 from 21.2 million tons in 2009-10. Iranian oil imports dropped to less than 16 million tons in the last fiscal. This year, they may further come down to 14 million tons, according to reports.

Replying to query, exports to Pakistan from HPCL-Mittal Energy’s Bhatinda plant, Murali said it is up to the neighboring country to decide whether to accept imports from India or not.

The 9 million ton a year (180,000 barrels per day) Guru Gobind Singh Refinery at Phullokari, Bathinda has become fully operational and started commercial production of fuel in March.

“Pakistani Government representatives have approached us . They discussed with us also. Now it has to be carried forward. We told them that we will give them good deal. They will have to make up their mind and then we go for nitty-gritty,” Murali said. (PTI)

CHENNAI, May 9: Public sector Indian Overseas Bank (IOB) has increased interest rates in foreign currency non-resident (Banking) accounts by 175 basis points for deposits of three to five years.

For deposits between one year and up to three years, it has been increased by 75 basis points with immediate effect, an IOB press release said here today.

The present interest rates for USD ranges from 2.56 to 4.11 per cent, for GBP (Great Britain Pound) 3.38 to 4.70 per cent and for the euro it ranges from 2.95 to 4.45 per cent maturities.

IOB said the initiative follows RBI’s guidelines issued recently.

To attract inflows in view of falling rupee, the Reserve Bank of India has raised the interest rate ceiling on NRI deposits in foreign currencies by up to 3 per cent.

Following the new norms, Indian banks are now able to offer higher interest rates on NRI deposits in foreign currency.

The bank had already hiked the non-resident (External) deposit interest rates at 9.25 per cent for deposits ranging from one year but less than five years, the release said. (PTI)

NEW DELHI, May 9: Soyameal exports rose by 10.7 per cent in April this year at 3.36 lakh tonnes as against 3.03 lakh tonnes in the same month last year, according to industry data released today.

However, exports have fallen 5.43 per cent during the October 2011 to April 2012 period at 31.21 lakh tonnes against 33.01 lakh tonnes in the corresponding period of the 2010-11 marketing year (October-September), Indore-based Soyabean Processors’ Association of India (SOPA) said in a statement.

Japan, Iran, Korea and Vietnam were the major importers of Indian soyameal, which is generally used as animal feed. (PTI)

MADRID, May 9: Spain will demand banks set aside another 35 billion euros ($45 billion) against loans to builders, financial sources said, as it battles to rebuild confidence in a sector where huge losses have raised fears the country may need an international bailout.

Lenders are already writing off 54 billion euros on soured property assets dating from a 2008 real estate crash and the requirement to find more money to cover loans that are currently sound, but could sour as the economy deteriorates, will pile further pressure on banks as they battle to find extra capital.

The move is set to be announced after Friday’s weekly cabinet meeting and will form part of a wider banking reform which will include an injection of public cash into troubled lender Bankia.

The government will demand banks raise provisions to a level equivalent to 30 percent of loans to housebuilders, one of the sources told Reuters late on Tuesday, up from a current 7 percent.

The Economy Ministry declined to comment.

Spain’s banks have 298 billion euros in loans to building developers on their books, equivalent to around 30 percent of the country’s gross domestic product.

Around half of them are already in arrears and as the economy deteriorates more will fall into default. Analyst estimates as to how much more banks need to set aside against loan defaults rise to as much as 100 billion euros.

Banks, even strong international lenders like Santander and BBVA, are already posting big falls in profit as they write off losses on bad property investments and increase capital to protect against sovereign default under European guidelines.

Banks are eating into profits, selling assets and buying back debt in order to find the capital without an injection of state funds.

Extra provisions could weigh still more on profits in the sector, analysts said on Wednesday.

The conservative government had said for months it would not put more public money into rescuing the banks, but is expected to pump up to 10 billion euros into the country’s fourth largest lender Bankia on Friday.

The government is also expected to announce on Friday plans for banks to siphon real estate assets into separate holding companies. ($1 = 0.7695 euros)(agencies)

TOKYO, May 9: Toyota Motor Corp, Japan’s top automaker, expects to treble its operating profit this year to more than $12.5 billion, its highest since the financial crisis sent the global car industry skidding.

Operating profit jumped more than five-fold in January-March to 238.5 billion yen (2.99 billion), beating a consensus estimate of 223 billion yen, as vehicle production recovers from disruptions caused by last year’s natural disasters.

Fourth-quarter net profit jumped to 121 billion yen from 25.4 billion yen a year ago.

For the year to next March, Toyota forecast operating profit would rise to 1 trillion yen ($12.54 billion), ahead of recent consensus forecasts for 990 billion yen. It sees net profit rising to 760 billion yen from 284 billion yen in the year just ended.

The expected profit rebound comes as Toyota’s sales recover strongly after supply chain disruptions from both the earthquake and tsunami in Japan and floods in Thailand last year. With robust top-line growth a given in the current year, Toyota is looking to squeeze further cost cuts in a battle to offset the yen’s renewed strength.

Despite the pain of building cars at home with the dollar far below the 85 yen breakeven level in Japan, Toyota has committed to build at least 3 million vehicles a year at its domestic factories – roughly triple the output at local rivals Nissan Motor Co and Honda Motor Co.

Toyota last month unveiled a new scheme aimed at slashing development costs by more than a fifth, in part by using more shared components. It is also renewing efforts to step up its manufacturing efficiencies – something executives concede fell by the wayside when the company raced to add factory lines to meet soaring demand before the global financial crisis brought growth to a shuddering halt.

Toyota shares have gained more than a third since the broad market trough in late-November, outperforming local rivals Nissan and Honda, U.S. Competitors General Motors and Ford and Volkswagen, but lagging BMW’s 41 percent jump. The main Topix share index is up by a tenth over the same period.

Toyota closed flat on Wednesday ahead of the earnings in a broader Topix market that fell 1.4 percent. ($1 = 79.7750 Japanese yen) (agencies)