The Supreme
Court-constituted monitoring committee has assured the steel industry that it
will conduct weekly e-auctions of iron ore, said Sajjan Jindal, MD of Jindal
Steel Works, in Bangalore on Wednesday.
“The last
e-auction was held on September 14, but the material started moving only on
September 21. The steel industry in the state requires 80,000 tonnes of ore
every day. But so far, only 30,000 tonnes have been moved”, he added.
NMDC on Wednesday said that it expects the e-auction of iron
ore produced from its mines in Karnataka to begin later this week and it is is
looking to sell about 2 lakh tonnes through the e-auction route.
However, Industry
representatives feel that the supply through e-auctions will hit the supply to both
bigger and smaller companies. Expressing his concern over the closure of almost
70 sponge iron units in the state due to irregular supplies of ore, Sajjan
Jindal said, “Sponge iron units have suffered because the reserve price at
the auction was too much. They didn't pick up a single tonne in the last
auction.”
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