Finance Minister, Arun Jaitley in Indian Union Budget 2014-15 has unchanged import duty on Iron ore & Pellets. Current duty on imports of Iron ore & Pellets is 2.5%.
Shortfall of Iron ore in domestic market because of mining concerns in Odisha & Goa along with slowdown in opening up of mines in Karnataka has pushed Steel producers to look for imported raw material.
Leading steel manufacturers of Indian steel industry are forced to import in order to meet the targeted Steel production and expansion plans. Indian Iron ore imports may be highest at nearly 4-5 MnT in current fiscal at the back of suspension of mining operations (10 merchant mines that contributed 19.1 MnT in FY14) in Odisha.
Export Duty also remains Constant
30% duty on export of Iron ore and 5% on Pellets also remains stable. In order to ensure sufficient availability of raw material to domestic Steel plants, Finance minister holds on to the current duty rate.
Since FY10, Indian Iron ore production came down drastically by 34% against 144 MnT in FY14 because of mining ban in Karnataka (now lifted) & Goa.
Transportation of Iron Ore through Slurry Pipeline promoted
To encourage environmental friendly transportation of Iron ore, Union Budget 2014-2015 has promoted movement of Iron ore through slurry pipeline. Odisha based Pellet manufacturers namely Essar Steel and Brahmani River Pellets use slurry pipeline to procure Iron ore for Pellet making.
NMDC is to install a slurry pipeline of 150 km long and 24 inch diameter from Bacheli to Nagarnar to transport ore concentrate in slurry form. A proposal is for installation of Iron ore beneficiation plant at Nagarnar to produce 4 MnT pa Iron ore concentrate.
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