Essar Steel: Iron Ore & Pellet Sourcing Down 20% in Jan’17

Essar Steel – an integrated steelmaker with steel making capacity of 10 MnT pa reduced its iron ore & pellet sourcing by 20% M-o-M in Jan’17. The company sourced 0.99 MnT iron ore in Jan’17 against 1.24 MnT iron ore & pellets in Dec’16.

In the month of Jan’17, the steel maker focused completely on domestic sources and no import vessel was seen.

Iron ore procurement from NMDC (C.G.) remains stable – Essar Steel procured 0.63 MnT iron ore from NMDC’s Bailadila mines in Chhattisgarh against 0.64 MnT in Dec’16.

Sourcing from Odisha’s merchant mines down in Jan’17 – Essar Steel sourced 0.37 MnT iron ore from Odisha’s merchant mines in Jan’17 compared to 0.49 MnT in Dec’16. Out of 0.37 MnT iron ore sourced from Odisha in Jan’17, largest share was of KJS Ahluwalia Mines (0.18 MnT) followed by Serajuddin mines at 0.12 MnT. Steel maker’s sourcing from Indrani Patnaik mines fell considerably as the miner has almost utilized the EC limit for this fiscal and was not seen offering material in merchant market.

Essar Steel’s iron ore & pellet sourcing: Jan’17 vs Dec’16

Qty in MT
Provisional data
Source: SteelMint Research, Customs, Odisha govt.

So far in this fiscal (till Jan’17), Essar Steel has procured 9.82 MnT iron ore & pellets from domestic market as well as through imports.

Pellet exports up, coastal movement down in Jan’17 – Essar Steel exported 0.21 MnT pellets from Paradip port in Jan’17 against 0.10 MnT in Dec’16. All the pellet export shipments observed in Jan’17 were directed to China.

As per customs data maintained with SteelMint in Jan’17, Essar Steel moved 0.72 MnT pellets from its Vizag & Paradip plants to its Hazira steel plant via coastal vessel movement. In Dec’16, the steel maker moved 0.94 MnT pellets to its Hazira facility.