Iron ore exports dip 36 percent to 56 MT.

New Delhi: Continuing a declining trend, iron ore exports dipped by over 36 percent to 56 million tonnes (MT) in April-February period last fiscal mainly due to ban on shipments of the key steel-making raw material from Karnataka.

Iron ore exports from the country were over 87 MT in the year-ago period, according to the data released by miners body, Federation of Indian Mineral Industries (FIMI), today.

“The decline in exports is mainly on account of ban on shipments from Karnataka and then hike in exports duty as well as increase in railway freight,” said FIMI secretary general RK Sharma.

Iron ore shipments from Karnataka, a major exporter of the raw material from the country, have been stopped since July 2010, following allegations of widespread corruption.

“Unless the export duty and railway freight are brought down, the iron ore exports will continue to slide and the shipment during the fiscal may not cross 60 MT,” Sharma added.

The government had hiked the export duty on iron ore to 30 percent in December last year from 20 percent, while freight on iron ore for domestic consumption was increased by 20 percent early in March and the rates were reduced by 16 percent on its exports.

Sharma said this fiscal the exports may even slide to 50 MT.

The most glaring fall was in recorded in February 2012, when it came down by over 60 percent to 4.2 MT from 10.5 MT. In January this year, the shipment declined by 48 percent to 5.5 MT as compared to a year-ago period.

November and December were equally bad when the exports declined by 44 percent and 43 percent to 4.6 MT and 5.9 MT, respectively.

India, the third-largest global exporter of iron ore, had exported 97.64 MT iron ore in the 2010-11, down from 117.3 MT in 2009-10.

Source : firstpost.com