India may have to depend on imports to meet its domestic requirements of iron ore for next 2-3 years as mining activity is yet to start in some parts of the country, according to Ore Team, a steel and steel making commodities research house.

Sachin Sehgal, Director, Ore Team said the iron ore production in 2012-13 is pegged at around 140 million tonne, which would just be enough for the overall domestic requirement discounting any exports.

“The production of iron ore in India used be 240-250 million tonnes two years ago. But this year (2011-12) it has come down to 170-180 million tons. Nearly 100 million tons down because some mines have been closed,” Sehgal said.

“So temporarily there is shortage of iron ore in the country. I think this trend will continue for some time.

In the long term the trend will not continue. After two to three years we don’t see much of iron ore imports,” he added.

He said that India’s iron ore mining industry has been reeling under pressure due to mining and export ban in Karnataka since mid 2010, and most recently the Odisha Government asking Rs 67,000 crore from major mining companies in that region for violating statutory clearances and producing excessive iron ore over the past 10 years.

He informed that Ore Team is organising a two-day international conference on iron ore mining industry at HICC in Hyderabad on December 13-4.

The event is expected to see the participation of over 200 companies from steel, iron ore, coal and allied-industries such as NMDC, Essar, Jindals, Severstal, NSL, Rio Tinto. About 300 delegates would take part in the deliberations and event proceedings, according to Sehgal.

The conference will deliberate on the temporary shortage of iron ore in the backdrop of more than 50 per cent of mines have been closed for one reason or the other.

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