- Indian iron ore production drops by around 15% y-o-y
- Odisha reports a fall of 23%
India’s production of iron ore in FY21 has been recorded at around 207 mn t, with the sharp year-on-year decline in Odisha production offsetting marginal hike in numbers from Karnataka and Chhattisgarh, SteelMint data reveals.
With the exception of FY20, the country’s iron ore production remains stable in the range of 206-207 mn t. FY20 production had touched 245.6 mn t, as per SteelMint data, which was considerably higher compared to 206.8 mn t in FY19.
Odisha scenario
The marked rise in FY20 production can be attributed to significantly higher production from India’s largest iron ore producing state, Odisha, which alone accounted for 145 mn t of iron ore production.
This was due to higher production from those mines in the state that had been earmarked for auctions in early-2020, as their leases were about to expire. Sustained high production from Nov’19 to Mar’20 from these expiring leases contributed to Odisha’s production touching the 145 mn t peak in FY20.
In contrast, the state produced 111 mn t of iron ore in FY21 – a straight 34 mn t decline vis-à-vis FY20. However, production has remained flat compared to FY19 when Odisha churned out a little over 111 mn t of iron ore.
SteelMint notes that production by the leading merchant miners in the state nosedived in FY21: Serajuddin, Essel Mining and Rungta Mines witnessed y-o-y decline in production to the tune of 76%, 56% and 66% respectively. Collectively, these three miners produced around 35 mn t less iron ore in FY21 than in the previous fiscal. This was too high a volume to be counterbalanced by new production coming online – over 16 mn t by JSW Steel and more than 4 mn t by AM/NS India.
Therefore, the countrywide drop in production of around 38 mn t in FY21 was entirely due to decline in Odisha production.
Production flat in other states
Karnataka clocked total iron ore production at over 34 mn t in FY21 – an increase of about 4 mn t compared to FY20. On the other hand, Chhattisgarh recorded more or less flat production at 36.3 mn t vis-à-vis 35.3 mn t in FY20.
However, production in Jharkhand plummeted by close to 8 mn t in FY21 to drop to 20.8 mn t against more than 28 mn t in the preceding fiscal.
Major producers
PSU miner NMDC retained the crown of the country’s leading iron ore miner with total production in FY21 exceeding 34 mn t against 31.5 mn t in the previous fiscal, SteelMint data shows.
Steel major Tata Steel and state-owned SAIL both recorded production at over 30 mn t in FY21. Notably, JSW Steel clocked a 1,407% rise in ore production to over 23 mn t in FY21, thanks to over 16 mn t of production from its newly-acquired mines at the Odisha auctions in 2020 as well as gradual ramp up of production from nine ‘C’ category mines in Karnataka.
State PSU miner OMC achieved total production of over 13 mn t in FY21 – higher than 12.4 mn t in FY20. The state-owned iron ore miner’s capacity, however, received a boost following the transfer of a couple of auctioned leases in Odisha after months of delay in kick-starting production from these mines.
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