India’s state-run miner NMDC Limited has indicated that local iron ore prices seem to have stabilized, with little scope for a further rise in the near term.
“We do believe that the price has stabilized more or less, and that there is not much scope for a further rise,” NMDC Limited chairman Sumit Deb said in a statement on Wednesday, January 20.
Indian state-run miner NMDC hiked its iron ore fines and lumps prices in January by INR 200-500/mt or 4-9 percent, which was the fifth hike in its iron ore price effected by NMDC since November 1 last year.
“Steel prices have been moving up. We have also been looking at the market, the way international markets have been behaving and domestic markets too. We are seeing prices going up in Odisha. So we have been following the trend in the market and that is how our prices have increased in line with the market,” he said.
“Our prices are always at a discount - almost to the extent of a 30-40 percent discount on the landed cost of imported ore. We, being in Chhattisgarh state, our prices are much more competitive in terms of ore prices in Odisha,” he said.
The company chairman said that NMDC will produce around 40 million mt in the fiscal year 2021-22. The miner has said in the fiscal year 2020-21 it will achieve 97 percent of its 36 million mt mining capacity.