India’s largest government-owned trading house MMTC Limited has been instructed to enter international trading of low grade iron ore fines to check rising stockpiles across the country in current market conditions, an official at India’s steel and mines ministry said on Thursday, August 27.
The official said that MMTC, which has only been trading high grade iron ore lumps and fines, will collect low grade iron ore fines from all miners in the country and ship them to international buyers, mostly to Chinese steel mills. The company has already floated an export tender for 60,000 mt of low grade fines as its maiden foray into export of low grade raw material.
Exports of low grade iron ore fines with Fe content less than 57 percent are subject to an export duty of 10 percent, compared to 30 percent for high grade fines and lumps.
Several iron ore miners are trying to manage unsold stocks amid current depressed global demand and prices, with as much as 16 million mt of low grade fines stockpiled in the western Indian coastal state of Goa alone.