The country’s largest iron ore miner, NMDC, today said it will decide on the prices at which the mineral would be supplied to its customers by the month-end.
“We have a board meeting on June 30 in Hyderabad to decide on the iron ore prices,” NMDC CMD Rana Som said. The PSU has recently concluded a pact with the South Korean and Japanese steel mills to supply them iron ore for the current quarter at prices which were higher by as much as 99 per cent over the previous rates. NMDC is supplying iron ore fines and lumps to the foreign mills at around $121-138 a tonne.
Asked if the company would seek doubling prices for its iron ore from domestic steel consumers, Som said, “We are having an open mind. Though generally, global prices are the benchmark.” The proposed price change will come into place with a retrospective effect from April 1, 2010. The company is likely to sell iron ore to domestic firms for the current quarter. In 2009-10, NMDC slashed rates for supplying iron ore lumps to domestic customers by eight per cent to Rs 2,450 a tonne, but hiked the rates of iron ore fines by 11 per cent to Rs 1,666 a tonne following a contract with global buyers.