On 30th Aug 2018 (Thursday) a Supreme Court bench led by Justice Ranjan Gogoi held hearing related to the case on allowing export of iron pellets produced from Karnataka’s Bellary, Chitradurga and Tumkur districts. The Supreme Court has sought a response from Ministry of Steel on the issue.
Earlier, Federation of Indian Mineral Industries, Southern Region (FIMI South), filed a petition in the Supreme Court, seeking to export iron pellets from Karnataka (Bellary, Chitradurga and Tumakuru districts).
Karnataka was not producing iron ore enough earlier, therefore the ban was imposed now the current scenario is different. Production has been enhanced especially after Apex Court gave its approval to increased cap for category A and B mines to 35MnT which was earlier 30MnT. Also, reports suggest that the Court has imposed no cap on ‘C’ category iron ore mine blocks.
In the month of June 2018, SC appointed CEC (central empowered committee) also recommended to Apex Court to allow exports of pellets from Karnataka.
FIMI in its justification said “Value-added products produced from iron ore mined in Karnataka do not face any export restriction. Accordingly, there is absolutely no reason why pellets alone should be subject to discriminatory export restriction as compared to intermediate products such as sponge iron, direct reduced iron, etc”.
India has an installed pellet capacity of 83.32 MnT p.a. Southern India accounts for 34% share in the capacity at 27.5 MnT p.a.
Bellary pellet prices in the domestic market are hovering around INR 7,800-8,000/MT (basic) for Fe 63%.
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