Ore shipment doubles in December

In December 2012, 11 major Indian ports handled a total of 1.89 million tonne of iron ore export cargo compared to 907,000 tonne in November 2012.

This is a over 100 per cent rise in export of the steel-making raw material in December compared to the previous month.

However, the biggest iron ore exporting port in the country by volume, Murmugao Port, did not handle any shipment of the raw material during the month, as per Indian Port Association data.

After the Goan government banned mining and export of the raw material, iron ore cargo traffic at Murmugao port
declined to nil.

India mostly exports iron ore fines to China, the biggest producer of steel in the world. Since the beginnion of 2012, Indian export volume declined as the central government increased the export duty on iron ore from 20 per cent to 30 per cent.

With the Chinese importers preferring Australian cargo over Indian one, India’s outbound ore traffic declined 54 per cent to 21.7 million tonne between April and December.

During this period, India’s share in Chinese iron ore import has dropped to 4-5 per cent from 10-12 per cent during the previous years.

The vacuum created by slump in Indian supply pushed global iron ore rates by over 80 per cent to $150 per tonne in December from one-and-a-half-year low of $87 in September.