Indian iron ore miners, including public sector companies, are not mining enough, to keep iron ore prices high artificially, alleged Ravi Uppal, CEO and MD, JSPL.
“The sad point is that private and even government mining companies are not producing enough by design because they are trying to keep prices artificially high,” Uppal told ISMW.
He said these miners are accumulating huge dumps of iron ore and, as a result, the prices have gone up at an unsustainable level and are not globally competitive.
Noting that such high prices of ore are making the final product (steel) uncompetitive as well, he said, “We have been requesting the government to force all the private miners and government mining companies to produce to their full capacity and also charge them royalty as soon as they produce the same.”
This will stop the practice of hoarding the material, he said.
Currently, total iron ore capacity in India stands at about 240 million tons (mt), but the total production is only 130-140 mt, or nearly 50% of the licenced capacity, he added.
Source: India Steel Market Watch