According to local Indian reports, India's state-owned iron ore miner National Mineral Development Corporation (NMDC) has agreed long-term contract prices for iron ore with Japanese and South Korean steel producers for the current fiscal year. However, as yet there has not been any official confirmation.
Accordingly, following the benchmark set by global mining firm Rio Tinto for its contract sales to Japan and South Korea, NMDC's agreed iron ore prices for fines have decreased by 32.95 percent while its prices for lumps have declined by 44.47 percent, compared to the contract rates for the last fiscal year.
"The contracted rate for iron ore fines stands at $61.7 per mt, while for lumps it is at $71.5 per mt," states Press Trust of India new agency citing NMDC chairman Rana Som.
Of its annual iron ore production of about 30 million mt, NMDC's sales to Japan and South Korea amounted to over three million mt in the last fiscal year. The quantity of iron ore NMDC will supply to these two countries in the current fiscal year is yet to be fixed.