The Supreme Court’s verdict finally came out to shut down the Iron ore mines, which were under deemed renewal, for a long time (around 6 months). Market players believes that decision of the Supreme Court likely to increase prices of Iron & Steel products by INR 500-1,500/MT in coming days. They also added that Sponge iron manufacturers based in central & eastern part of India will face difficulties and could be move for closure of plants due to non availability of Iron ore.
Major impact could be seen in Eastern India Steel plants, which are totally dependent for Iron ore in Odisha unlikely to C.G that has NMDC one of the major alternate.
Whereas, Raigarh, Rourkela (Central), Durgapur, Jharkhand and UP (Eastern) are the major suppliers of semi finish & finished steel material in North and West India. The shortage of raw material in respective markets will also strengthen the prices and can create a shortage of Sponge & Billet, major manufacturers believe.
Sponge manufacturers hold their Sponge selling immediately as the Supreme Court’s decisions were out. In line, MS Ingot/Billet sellers are also not interested to sale the material at low price and keep a close eye on Sponge prices and its supply.
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