Reported spurt in the demand of iron ore had sped up the transportation of raw material from the mining major—the National Mineral Development Corporation (NMDC).
The development had come as a big respite for the railways' transportation of iron ore from NMDC's Dantewada facility. The number of rakes loading iron ore had doubled as compared to last month, sources said.
According to railway officials, on an average 7-8 rakes were loaded for the last many months. It had now increased to 14-16 rakes from this month, they added. The railway was, however, incurring heavy losses due to low level of loading from the Dantewada facility of the company. The NMDC has two fully mechanised mines in the Bailadila pockets of Dantewada district. The mines in the Bailadila sector produce 20.5 million tonnes of iron ore. "Following price hike of raw material, the small units had stopped purchasing iron ore from NMDC for the last eight months," a senior official of the company said. Only some big companies were purchasing ore from the company. This severely disrupted the transportation of iron ore from the facility.
The small steel makers were purchasing iron ore from private companies in Orissa. "Since the quality of iron ore produced in the NMDC is world class, they have started switching back to us which has increased the demand," the official added.
Sources said that most of the small units were running short of raw material and their existing stock was on the verge of exhaustion. This forced the industrialists to start purchasing raw material from the NMDC, sources added.
