India's largest state-owned iron ore producer and exporter NMDC produced 16.9 million metric tons of iron ore in the first nine months of the current Indian fiscal year which started on April 1, 2009, according to information provided by Indian Minister of State for Steel Shri A.Sai Prathap. In the last fiscal year, the miner's iron ore output had reached 28.52 million metric tons, declining by 4.36 percent compared to the previous year. Meanwhile, in the first three quarters of the current fiscal year the company sold 17.21 million metric tons of iron ore.
In the first nine months of the current fiscal year, NMDC's revenues from sales of iron ore, diamonds and silica sand amounted to INR 42.48 billion ($927.81 million), while its profit after tax for the same period totaled INR 23.82 billion ($520.26 million).
According to the minister's statement, there was a substantial decline in the price of iron ore in the global iron ore market, due to effect of the global recession in the second half of 2008 and the first half of 2009. As a result, the prices of iron ore exported to Japanese steel mills and POSCO of South Korea saw a decline of 44.47 percent for iron ore lumps and 32.95 percent for iron ore fines, as compared to prices during FY 2008-09. From the present scenario for the global iron ore market, prices in the coming financial year (FY 2010-11) are expected to go up from the present level, which may lead to an improvement in the performance of NMDC.