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Country’s largest iron ore miner NMDC Limited has fixed the price of iron ore lump at Rs 3,750 a tonne and that of fines at Rs 2,760 a tonne for the month of February. This represents a Rs 450 decline per tonne in the case of lumps and a decrease of Rs 300 a tonne on fines.
The state-owned enterprise reported a 1.6 per cent rise in net profit at Rs 1,593.01 crore for the quarter ended December 2014 compared with Rs 1,567.30 crore in the same quarter previous year.
Income increased 4.3 per cent to Rs 2,946.05 crore from Rs 2,823.17 crore during the period under consideration. The company's board approved a second interim dividend of Rs 4.25 per equity share of Re 1.
During the nine-month period of the current financial year, NMDC’s income and net profit stood at Rs 9,527.83 crore and Rs 5,074.77 crore. In the last 10 months, the company's production and sale of iron ore stood at 25.68 and 23.23 million tonnes respectively.
For 2014-15, NMDC has planned a capex of Rs 3,555 crore. It is setting up a 3-million tonnes per annum (mtpa) steel plant at Nagarnar and developing two new mines, one in the Bailadila sector in Chhattisgarh, that is expected to be commissioned during this fiscal, and the other in the Bellary-Hospet region in Karnataka, likely to be commissioned by the second quarter of 2015-16.
The company is also establishing a 1.2-mtpa capacity pelletisation plant at Donimalai in Karnataka that is likely to be commissioned by June 2015.
“NMDC is putting its concerted efforts to attain its target of reaching iron ore production of 75 mtpa by 2018-19 so as to meet the demand of the domestic steel industry. With these kind of results, NMDC would certainly be in the forefront and move towards ensuring sustainable growth,” chairman and managing director, Narendra Kothari, stated in a press release.
