Karnataka has registered a decrease of 5% in yearly sales e-auction volumes in FY’19. Total iron ore allotted quantity in FY’19 was recorded at 26.52 MnT in FY’19 compared to 28.05 MnT in FY’18.
Sales from NMDC fell 30% Y-o-Y -: NMDC sold 9.23 MnT iron ore via Karnataka e-auctions in FY19, less by 30% Y-o-Y. Out of this, 2.13 MnT was from Donimalai mines and rest 7.09 MnT from its Kumaraswamy mines. NMDC has temporarily suspended operations at Donimalai in Karnataka since Nov’18. Later NMDC has approached the Karnataka High Court for an urgent hearing on NMDC Donimalai lease renewal issue. High Court heard the final remarks from both the parties and the reserved case for judgement till next hearing for which date has not been announced yet.
Iron ore sales from SMIORE was recorded at 1.19 MnT in FY19. The remaining quantity of 16.1 MnT was sold by private miners in FY19. Vedanta’s iron ore sales from e-auctions were around 2.5 MnT in FY19
JSW Steel sourcing from Karnataka e-auctions fell by 26% in FY19-:
India’s major private steel mill and also largest buyer of Karnataka iron ore lowered iron ore purchases sharply in FY19 from e-auctions. In the fiscal year, FY’19 JSW purchased around 14.07 MnT iron ore from Karnataka e-auctions against 19.11 MnT in FY18. The steelmaker raised imports in FY19.
JSW Steel’s iron ore purchases from Karnataka e-auctions decreased by 48% to 1.02 MnT in Mar’19 compared to 1.98 MnT in Feb’19. Out of 1.02 MnT iron ore sourced by JSW, NMDC supplied 0.36 MnT down by 66% against 1.04 MnT last month and thus contributed around 35% of total JSW sourcing. JSW Steel’s iron ore sourcing from private mines also decreased by 29% to 0.66 MnT in Mar’19 as against 0.93 MnT in Feb’19.
Narayana mines remained second-largest iron ore supplier to JSW Steel at 0.13 MnT in Mar’19, followed by Vyasankere Iron Ore Mines at 0.12 MnT.
Buyer-wise allotted quantity of FY’19 iron ore E-auctions
| Company | Qty |
| JSW Steel Ltd | 14,068,832 |
| BMM Ispat Limited | 1,899,000 |
| Mspl Limited | 1,278,334 |
| Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited | 940,000 |
| Rai Bahadur Seth Shree M Narasingdas Private Limited | 860,801 |
| Others | 7,477,500 |
| Grand Total | 26,524,467 |
Qty in MT
Source: GOK, DMG, SteelMint Research
Major highlights of Mar’19 Karnataka iron ore e-auctions-:
1. Electrotherm India Ltd – a Gujarat based company procured 12,000 MT iron ore lumps (Fe 63.5-65%) at INR 3,500-3,960/MT.
2. Vedanta procured 32,000 MT iron ore, All were lumps (Fe 63%-65.25%) and out of which 20,000 MT purchased at INR 2,872-3,960/MT from P. Balasubba Setty & Son, NMDC Kumarswamy Mines and Veerabhadrappa Sangappa & Company for its pig iron plant in Goa and rest 12,000 MT lumps from its own mines in Karnataka.
3. Western India based pellet maker – Jindal SAW buying from the last few months consistently, in Mar’19 they had buys 4,000MT iron ore lumps (Fe 63.5% grade) at INR 3,960/MT.
4. Southern India based pellet maker – XIndia Steel booked 12,000 MT iron ore fines (Fe 64.3-65.6%) at INR 2900/MT.
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