Indian state-run KIOCL Limited has once again shut down its pellet plant at Mangalore in southern state of Karnataka, a company regulatory filing said on Thursday, August 25.
The company said that it was forced to shut down operations of the pellet plant as its ‘sheds were full’ from lack of demand and international sales becoming unviable owing to imposition of export duty recently imposed by the government.
KIOCL which operated a 3.5 million mt per year capacity pellet plant had shut down its operations in June 2022 citing the same adverse market conditions. It restarted operations of the pellet plant earlier this month, only to shut it down again within just few days.
Sources in the company said that the company had petitioned the government seeking exemption from levy of 50 percent export tax and though it has been expecting a favorable response, indications surfaced subsequently that the government was unlikely to accede to the request prompting KIOCL to shut down the plant again.