Total iron ore despatches in Odisha have seen a spike of seven percent and reached 120.63 million tonnes (as of March first week). In the comparable period of last year, despatches of the key steelmaking ingredient stood at 112 million tonnes.
State officials attributed the growth in despatches to better policy framework backed by an efficient on the ground implementation made possible through constant follow-up.
Odisha, known to be the largest iron ore producer in the country, has churned out 99 million tonnes of iron ore till the first week of March, keeping its high growth tempo despite a transient shutdown of seven operative mines. The mining operations at these leases were stopped by the Odisha government as they failed to rustle up by December 31, 2017, the Supreme Court mandated compensation for illegal excavation of iron ore. But, with the Supreme Court condoning the delay in payments by large standalone miners like Serajuddin and Essel Mining and the state government passing necessary orders for them to restart operations, any deficit in iron ore supplies is ruled out. In the last financial year, Odisha produced a record 102 million tonnes of iron ore, contributing to more than half of the pan-India output of 192 million tonnes. Iron ore output of Odisha is valued by steel and other end-user industries as apart from good quality ore, the priority is to supply to domestic markets than to export.
The momentum in iron ore production and despatches also helped Odisha to post a robust 39 percent jump in its mining revenue collection by the end of February. Through a collection of Rs 5246 crore of mining royalty, the state government has bucked the slowdown in revenue collection trend.
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