Orissa to ban ore export, but its firm will ship a pile

The Orissa Government plans to ban export of all grades of iron ore from the state, but Orissa Mining Corporation (OMC), a company owned by it, is going the opposite way.

OMC, the largest state government-owned public sector mining unit, has floated a tender for export-sale of 30,000 metric tonnes of 62% Fe grade iron ore fines.

This is the second time the company is exporting its iron ore output.

OMC exported a similar volume in July also.

Calls made to the company’s office in Bhubaneshwar remained unanswered.

On January 12, Orissa’s steel and mines minister Raghunath Mohanty said the state has agreed to ban the export of iron ore to conserve the mineral for domestic use.

He had said the state would seek a formal approval from the Centre in a month before invoking the ban.

According to the OMC website, plans to export 30,000 metric tonnes of iron ore fines from the Paradip Port by mid-March.
Exports of iron ore has been alarming domestic steel producers for some time now.

HM Nerurkar, managing director of Tata Steel told DNA Money on Tuesday, on the sidelines of the company’s results conference that exports of iron ore will eventually hit domestic steelmakers.,“It is ridiculous that while India is a net importer of steel, especially in the value-added segment, we export iron ore to other countries for the manufacture of steel. Instead, we should conserve the mineral, use it for domestic consumption and then export value-added steel.”

However, traders have always had a difference in opinion with the corporates as they claim that the country is only exporting iron ore fines, which are usually wasted along the mouth of mines.

But Sheshagiri Rao, director - finance, JSW Steel, one of the biggest steel manufacturing companies in India, earlier told DNA Money that steelmakers in India even use iron ore fines to manufacture steel.

“Even we use fines for the manufacture of steel and hence, exports in every form should be banned,” he had said.

According to data available with the Department of Mines and Minerals, India produced close to 226 million tonnes of iron ore in 2009-10 out of which close to 117 million tonnes were exported.

That’s a rise of 3.5 times in exports in the least ten years. In 2000, India had produced 80 million tonnes of iron ore and exported 30 million tonnes.