Odisha, India’s largest iron ore producing state, recorded merchant iron ore dispatches at 4.07 million tonnes (mn t) in Aug’21, down by 12% m-o-m against 4.64 mn t in Jul’21. The figures exclude movements for exports and dispatches from captive mines of SAIL, JSW (Gonua and Narayanposhi), AM/NS India and Tata Steel but include dispatches from Sarda Mines, and JSW Steel’s Jajang and Nuagaon.
The decline in dispatches was primarily due to limited buying interest at quoted offers and pending deliveries of previous bookings. Also, with pellet prices falling sharply on declining export realisations, many players opted to go for pellets instead of iron ore due to the shorter delivery time.
Highlights
- Rungta Mines recorded the highest dispatches at 1.13 mn t for the month, slightly up by 3% against 1.1 mn t in Jul’21.
- OMC, the state-owned miner, recorded a 16% fall in dispatches to 0.77 mn t for Aug’21 as against 0.91 mn t in Jul’21. Subdued participation in OMC’s iron ore auction led to a slowdown in dispatches.
- Dispatches of iron ore from Essel Mining dropped sharply by 58% to 0.14 mn t in Aug’21 compared to 0.33 mn t in Jul’21. The company has been granted six months’ time to clear out the iron ore stocks after its lease expired on 26 Aug’21. Also, the miner has an inventory of around 2-3 mn t, out of which 40% are iron ore lumps and the rest are fines.
- AM/NS India recorded iron ore dispatches at around 0.51 mn t in Aug’21. The company, last week, commenced operations at its 7.1 mn t pa Ghoraburhani-Sagasahi (Sagasahi) iron ore block in Odisha which is likely to raise the dispatches further in the coming months.
Odisha’s iron ore movement in Aug’21 vs Jul’21
Figure included, Sarda Mines, JSW Steel (Jajang & Nuagaon) & AMNS movements
Figures exclude SAIL, Tata & JSW Steel (Narayanposhi) captive movement and OMC (Jilling & Guali)
Qty in mn t
Source: SteelMint
Provisional data
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