Government of India is in the process to float a policy for the availability of cheaper iron ore. The policy elements are expected to be out within a month.
The news arrives at a period when iron ore prices are continuously on the rise.
“What policy steps we need to take to ensure that iron ore is plentifully and cheaply available is something which we are working on and there could be various formulations to that,” an official privy to the development said.
“We are examining those and hopefully in a month or so we would be able to say that these are recommendations,” the official said, adding that “Niti Aayog has been mandated to examine that. They will examine that and come and give us the suggestions”.
As a basic principle “…prices of raw material resources should be cheap because that gives us (Steel Ministry) a competitive advantage because we are involved in many schemes,” the official said.
Steel Minister Chaudhary Birendra Singh had earlier said an expert group that would be formed by the government to study sale of iron ore by NMDC will also analyze the mining giant’s ore pricing and auction.
Since beginning of 2017, NMDC-India’s single largest iron ore miner has made two successive price hikes. In Feb’17, it raised iron ore prices up to INR 185/MT (7% M-o-M). Almost similar reflection was seen in base prices of Karnataka e-auctions.
On the other hand, Odisha based merchant iron ore miners raised iron ore offers up to INR 300/MT in Jan’17. Towards the end of Feb’17, they have further hiked iron ore lump prices up to INR 300/MT
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