Is India set to become an importer of iron ore? So it seems. The country is a major producer of coal and yet we import coal. So far we have been a major producer as well as an exporter of iron ore.
It appears we may go the coal way.
For the first time, Paradip, which used to be a major iron ore exporting port, will handle the consignment of about 50,000 tonnes of iron ore pellets being imported from Brazil.
An Odisha-based steel plant is importing it.
The cargo is to arrive shortly.
Beleaguered by difficulties in sourcing the mineral locally largely due to the plethora of restrictions imposed by the Odisha Government on mining and transportation of iron ore in the State, the steel plant has opted for the import route to meet its requirement. The indication is that it will also import lumpy ore and the size of the import could be between 2.5 lakh tonnes and three lakh tonnes in the current fiscal.
Paradip handled 13 million tonnes (mt) of iron ore export in 2010-11 but experienced a sharp drop in throughput in 2011-12 to 7.5 mt.
“If the trend so far in the current fiscal is any indication, we may end up with a couple of million tonnes of iron ore export in the current fiscal,” according to PPT sources.
“In April, the iron ore export was one lakh tonnes against 1.2 mt in the same month of last fiscal”.
Interestingly, the bulk of the export this year may be transported to the port by road.
For two reasons.
The rail freight is high. Second, the State's road transport operators have succeeded in wangling for themselves a deal under which the State Government has agreed to 50 per cent transportation by road.
“The number of iron ore carrying trucks into the port is to jump shortly,” the sources add.