The country's iron ore exports doubled to about nine million tonnes in November as against 4.13 million tonnes in October, mainly due to better demand from Chinese steel mills.
As per a data compiled by Federation of Indian Mineral Industries (FIMI), the total quantity of iron ore shipped in November was 8.74 million tonnes, against 4.13 million tonnes in October.
"Iron ore shipments witnessed an increase last month mainly due to a surge in demand of the raw material from China," FIMI Secretary General R K Sharma said.
Chinese steel makers were blending high cost iron ore bought from miners such as BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto with that obtained from Indian producers to cut cost, he said.
Even as the country's iron ore export registered 100% jump in November, on a year-to-year basis it declined 13.68%.
For the April-October period, iron ore exports fell 12.82% to 50.80 million tonnes. Sharma, however, said the downward trend may soon be overcome as the cut in export duty on iron ore on December 7 may soon see more quantities being shipped from the country.
"It may become possible to maintain the gradual increase iron ore exports. The downward trend would be a passe," he said.
Earlier this month, the government scrapped 8% export duty on iron ore fines, while reducing it to 5% from the previous 15% on lumps as part of the multi-billion dollar stimulus package to boost demand.
By the end of last fiscal, India exported about 104 million tonnes of the iron ore, of which 88% went to China.
