August 07,
The ban on Iron ore exports by the Karnataka Government is affecting the Chennai port. There has been no inflow of Iron ore from that State in the last few days.
According to a personnel working in the terminal, the storage yard that usually has huge amount of Iron ore is half empty. The port is handling only the backlogs.
The Chennai port annually exports nearly 10 million tonnes of Iron ore mostly to China. The stock yard at BD2 berth has a capacity to store nearly 6 lakh tonnes. And if the ban continues, the port will lose a good chunk of Iron ore throughput.
Predominantly, the Iron ore handled in these ports originate from Bellary-Hospet sector and, hence, any ban on movement of Iron ore from the sector for exports will translate into a total shutdown of Iron ore handling in these ports till the order is revoked, said an industry source.
But the ban is more of a political decision and not a business decision. Putting a blanket ban on exports only affect the genuine miners because illegal miners do not require any permit or sanction from the government to mine illegally.
Therefore there should be a proper mechanism to check illegal mining.
Source: The Business Line
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