Hyderabad: India’s largest state controlled miner producer, National Mineral Development Corporation (NMDC) has reduced the prices of iron ore for the second time in a month. Iron ore both Lumps and Fines saw a deduction of Rs.400 per tonne and the price of DRCLO(DR Calibrated Lump Ore) slashed by Rs.470 per tonne.
Earlier on 4th april, NMDC has reduced the price of iron ore by Rs.500 per tonne and DRCLO by Rs.580 per tonne. In this way, within a span of one month, NMDC has reduced the iron ore by Rs.900 per tonne and DRCLO by Rs.1,050 per tonne. After the reduction, Lumps and Fines are now priced at Rs 2,250 and Rs 1,960 per tonne respectively while DRCLO at Rs 2,610.
This reduction in the prices of iron ore is set to bring a lot of relief to the steel companies, especially sponge iron based steel companies of Chhattisgarh.
According to the official statement released, “NMDC has considered the current market scenario of steel and iron ore and taken informed decision to rationalize the prices. It may be noted that all the major steel mills are running at reduced capacity because of depleted demand of end products.” it said.
Some of the merchant miners at Orissa including OMC have reduced the iron ore prices by Rs.500 per tonne in their recently concluded auction, still could not dispose of entire quantity, NMDC claims.
Shri N. Baijendra Kumar, CMD, NMDC said “The reduction in prices by NMDC has given a lot of relief to the steel companies and they appreciated this move of NMDC at this difficult juncture.”