NMDC hikes iron ore prices

State-owned NMDC Ltd has hiked prices of both iron ore lumps and fines by Rs 100 a tonne for this month. The hike comes after several months of iron ore prices being either unchanged or slashed. After the revision, iron ore lumps will now cost Rs 4,300 and fines Rs 2,610 a tonne. Iron ore lumps are of a higher grade compared to fines. While the miner had not tweaked its prices for September, it had cut prices by Rs 200 a tonne for August. A muted steel demand for the last few months has prompted NMDC to either slash prices or keep them unchanged. India’s steel production grew five per cent in the first five months of the current fiscal. Earlier, it use to determine prices on a quarterly basis, but later, after adopting a new pricing policy, it decides on a monthly basis. It has a total production capacity of 32 million tonnes a year from its mines in Chhattisgarh and Karnataka, with a target of ramping it up to 40 mt by 2014-15. Analysts do not foresee any major changes in iron ore prices globally and in the domestic market in the next few months.