Faced with a severe crisis in availability of iron ore due to the Supreme Court ban on mining in the Karnataka, JSW Steel is bringing in the raw material from all possible sources. SteelMint assessed that JSW steel had secured around 7 shipments of iron pellets from KIOCL in 2nd quarter (i.e. July- Sep 2013). Each shipment containing about 40,000 MT of iron pellets. These shipments were being made from Mangalore port to JSW Ispat plant based in Dolvi.
However company officials were not available for confirmation.
JSW Steels Ltd, India's largest privately owned steel manufacturer, with an annual capacity of 14.3 million tonnes.Facing iron ore shortages for more than 18 months, it has been aggressively participating in E-auction conducted in Karnatka and also securing iron ore from private miners based in Odisha and Jharkhand.
KIOCL is a state owned pellet manufacturer with an annual capacity of 3.5 MnTPA, based in India's western coast. Company enjoys a status of 100% EoU (Export Oriented Unit), however it has failed to export even a single tonne in 2012-2013 owing to differential freight charged by Indian railways on carriage of iron ore bought from NMDC (Chattisgarh). During 2012-2013, it produced 1.23 MnT pellets against 1.71 MnT in 2011-2012 and 2.09 MnT in 2010-2011. Out of 1.23 MnT production, 24 shipments of Pellets with around 1.058 Million tons were sold through New Mangalore Port as compared to 38 during 2011-12. The balance 0.178 million tons of Pellets were sold through Road.
Steelmint assessed that imports of pellets/iron ore are still not viable due to weak Rupee and high prices in global market.
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