Close on the heels of the strike called by the Mineral Truck Association and the Kuhika Truck Owners Association in July due to a dispute with the administration over the first-come-first-loading system in the Sukinda chromite mining area in Jajpur district in Odisha, transporters have again gone on strike against a policy directive of the Odisha High Court. As per the directive, from 13 August, trucks with only working GPS are being allowed to load material. Thus, dispatches have been hugely affected in the Jajpur area.
An official from TATA Steel said dispatches were affected after the directive came into effect, but now dispatches have completely stopped as transporters have gone on strike since 21 August. He said that dispatch material is normally loaded in 425-450 trucks every day to fulfill the requirements of ferrochrome production. However, after the directive was issued, on average only 100 trucks could be placed in the period between 13 and 20 August, whereas the capacity is 450 trucks.
The strike, which may continue for some time, has impacted the total dispatches of TATA Steel. The company has achieved only 30% of the total target quantity of 150,000MT dispatches as on 23 August. Conditions are no different in the OMC Sukinda mines.
TATA Steel and OMC are the two major miners of chrome ore and falling dispatch volumes has compounded the situation for the ferrochrome producers. Manufacturers have reported low inventories and a sharp supply crunch looks inevitable in the short term.
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