Tata Steel, India’s leading steelmaker has raised its iron ore & pellet purchases from merchant market after iron ore dispatches from its Noamundi Mines in Jharkhand were stopped.
In Aug’15 (till 23 Aug’15) Tata Steel loaded 20 rakes of iron ore & pellets. It loaded just 1 iron ore rake from NMDC (C.G) last month. Thus, purchases from domestic market have gone up sharply this month. The steel giant has sourced 12 pellet rakes from Jindal Steel & Power (JSPL), 4 iron ore rakes from NMDC (C.G.), 3 iron ore rakes from Rungta Mines and 1 pellet rake from Brahmani River Pellet (BRPL) in Aug’15. As per sources, there are a few rake programmes (approximately 2 rakes) pending from BRPL, which if taken into consideration will sum up to a total of 22 rakes this month.
Tata Steel’s Iron Ore/Pellet Procurement in Aug’15*
|
Supplier |
No. of Rakes |
|
| Jindal Steel & Power Ltd | 12 | Pellet |
| Brahmani River Pellets Ltd | 1 | Pellet |
| NMDC (C.G.) | 4 | Iron ore |
| Rungta Mines Ltd | 3 | Iron ore |
| Total | 20 |
* Till 23 Aug’15
Source: Railways
Market sources shared that in this month, Tata Steel has booked 50,000 MT each from JSPL and BRPL. It is expected that the company will book similar quantities next month also.
Earlier this month, DoM (Department of Mines) Jharkhand, stopped iron ore dispatches from Tata Steel Noamundi Mines looking at its non-conformity in MMDR Act.
Noamundi mines is crucial to Tata Steel as it supplies raw material to its Jamshedpur steel plant of capacity 9.8 MnT. As per the information received through company officials, there is enough raw material to run the plant till Sept’15. If the issue of iron ore dispatches is not resolved by Sept’15, the company might again turn to imports.
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