With a move to help out the small sized steel units, the Odisha government has modified the policy on ‘Long Term Ore Linkage’. The state Cabinet, which met here today under the Chairmanship of the Chief Minister, Naveen Patnaik has cleared the revised policy will help out the Non MoU signing state based plants, said Raj Kumar Sharma, Principal Secretary Steel & Mines after the cabinet meeting.
Earlier, 50 % of Iron ore was offered under Long Term Linkage by the Odisha Mining Corporation (OMC). Now, upto 70% of Iron ore will be offered under the linkage and OMC will fix exact quantity taking into account its production and demand from the end users.
In the process, this will enable making of more Iron ore available to the local industries, said the official. In addition, quantities offered but not lifted by the allottees will be disposed off through the national e-auction. For entering into Long Term Linkage, all of them were to enter into Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with OMC. But due to the earlier policy, Non MoU signed plants, public sector undertakings and smaller sized plants were not allowed to enter into MoU with OMC. So, MoU singed plants were not allowing others to have the Long Term Ore Linkage and were demanding the entire lot for themselves. Now, it will also help out the state based small plants to enter into Long Term Ore Linkage with OMC. These plants will be eligible to participate in the national e-auction process, said the officer. Principal Secretary Industries headed Committee, which is looking into the policy framework; a provision of quantity, will decide the manner in which priority or preference will be given effect to amongst various categories of end users.
Miners demand rollback of 50:50 Clause
The Eastern Zone Mining Association (EZMA) has demanded to rollback Odisha government’s 50:50 rule that mandates reserving of 50% of Iron ore for state based units. The association has said that after allowing OMC to offer upto 70% of its Iron ore to state based steel units, 50% clause for private miners has become unnecessary and it will create oversupply of Iron ore in the state.
Prabodh Mohanty, General Secretary of EZMA has said that 70% Iron ore production of OMC and 50% production of private miners for state based steel plants will create oversupply of Iron ore in the state and huge amount of Iron ore will remain unsold. So, the government should rollback the 50:50 clause for the private miners.
Orissa Mining Corporation (OMC) has been receiving lukewarm response in e-auction conducted since October.
OMC Iron Ore Auction Data
| OMC Mines | Size (mm) | Fe% | E-auction 02 Apr’15 | E-auction 07 Mar’15 | E-auction 27 Feb’15 | E-auction 25 Feb’15 | E-auction 20 Feb’15 | E-auction 27 Jan’15 | E-auction 27 & 28 Oct’14 |
| Barpada Kasia (Barbil) | 10-40 | 62 | 3,237 | – | 3,237 | – | 3,237 | 4,379 | – |
| 10-40 | 64 | – | – | – | – | 5,000 | |||
| -10 | 62-60 | 1,500 | – | 1,500 | – | 2,057 | 2,571 | 3,150 | |
| Gandhamardan | 5-18 | 64 | – | – | – | – | – | ||
| 10-180 | 65 | 2,650 | – | – | 2,955 | 3,427 | – | ||
| 10-40 | 62 | 3,000 | 3,000 | – | 3,318 | 3,903 | 5,000 | ||
| -10 | 62-60 | 1,520 | – | 1,520 | – | 2,023 | 2,380 | 2,900 | |
| -10 | 60-54 | 1,333 | – | – | 1,333 | 1,333 | 1,700 | ||
| Kurmitar (Koira) | 10-40 | 62 | – | 3,641 | – | – | 5,500 | ||
| 5-18 | 65 | – | – | – | – | ||||
| -10 | 62-60 | 1,565 | 2,104 | – | – | 3,450 | |||
| Daitari | 10-40 | 62 | 3,000 | 3,000 | – | 3,237 | 3,808 | 4,500 | |
| -10 | 64-62 | 2,200 | – | – | 2,427 | 2,856 | 3,450 | ||
| -10 | 62-60 | 2,000 | – | – | 2,261 | 2,666 | 3,250 |
Ex-mines prices in INR/MT; including Royalty
Souce: SteelMint Research
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