Anticipating decline in demand, National Mineral Development Corp (NMDC) decided not to raise price of iron ore and maintain it at Rs 5,060 ($95.01) per tonne for lumps, and Rs 2,610 per tonne for fines for February.
It may be recalled that the country’s biggest iron ore producer reduced prices by up to 6 per cent last month. It is learnt that demand for iron ore recovered in January, but NMDC maintained the existing price level anticipating that such a move may prompt steel mills to reduce purchases.
NMDC decided to maintain the price despite a 33 per cent surge in global iron ore prices since November 31. Data from Steel Index shows that the price of benchmark iron ore with 62 per cent iron content rose 0.7 per cent to $154.20 a tonne, the highest since January 14, and just about $4 away from its 2013 peak.
In January, NMDC, which produces about 15 per cent of the iron ore mined in India, mined a record 3.06 million tonne of ore, its highest since inception, with despatches at 2.7 million tonne, reports suggest.
NMDC benchmarks its prices to weighted average rates for the previous two months offered by a number of local sellers, including Rungta Mines and Essel Mining, based in India’s biggest iron ore producing Odisha state.
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