Commerce minister: no plan to ban iron ore exports

commerce minister: No Plan To Ban Iron Ore Exports

Commerce Minister Anand Sharma ruled out a ban on iron ore exports, saying the surplus mineral "must be exported".

"A considered view had been taken that the exports of iron ore must continue. India has enough surplus particularly of iron ore fines," Commerce Minister Anand Sharma told reporters on the sidelines of a CII conference.

He added that domestic industry largely uses iron ore lumps, while the country exports mainly iron ore fines.

"Therefore, mined iron ore which is in surplus must be exported," Sharma said.

The iron and steel industry has been, however, struggling with the iron ore shortages since the beginning of this month and most of the units in Southern India are running their plants at 60-65% capacity.

The issues had arisen following an apex court order of late last month, banning on all mining activities in Bellary in Karnataka, which accounts for about 80% of the state's total iron ore production at 16 million tonnes per annum (MTPA).

Of this, about half of the production gets consumed within the state, including the steel plants of JSW, Kalyani and Mukund Steel.

The apex court in its subsequent hearing later on August 5 partially lifted the ban and allowed only state-run NMDC to carry out mining activities in the region with a cap of 1 million tonnes per month (12 million tonnes per annum).

The apex court had also said that iron ore produced from the Bellary region will not be exported.

"This particular intervention (by Supreme Court) was on a limited context on what was happening, particularly in the state of Karnataka in Bellary, where there was illegal mining (of iron ore).

"Illegal mining is taking place in some other parts of the country as well, but that does not lead to a situation where that iron ore does not get exported. This issue will get suitably resolved," Sharma said.

According to government figures, India produced 208.11 million tonnes (MT) of iron ore in 2010-11.

Of this, about 97.6 MT was exported in the last fiscal, industry body FIMI has estimated.

Source: moneycontrol.com