A two-day first annual international conference on “Iron Ore and Freight” began here today with the miners, traders and exporters lamenting the turbulent phase the mining industry, a high reve-nue generating industry, is passing through these days.
Today the Indian iron ore industry is worth $10 billion and has contributed $500 million in Q1 2011 to exchequer, apart from enriching railways, transporters and ports and still “we are being treated like suspects” by the government on the issue of illegal mining, said Mr Pinkesh Nahar, Chairman and Managing Director, Radiant Group while delivering his key-note address.
Mr Nahar said that the whole mining community cannot be blamed for the illegal mining being done by some unscrupulous elements. He regretted that “trust deficit” exists between the govern-ment machinery and the mining community.
Restrictions on iron ore by Karnataka and Orissa governments, particularly ban on export of iron ore from Karnataka shores, have adversely impacted the iron ore export from 120 million tons in 2009-10 to 90 million tons in 2010-11.
“Indian iron ore is becoming uncompetitive and it is facing trade deficit of 1% every year. “The share of India in iron ore exports was 17% in 2009 and it has come to 15% in Q1 2011. It will fur-ther go down to 14% in Q2 2011,” Mr Nahar said.
Others who spoke on the occasion were: Mr Lamon Rutten, CEO and Managing Director, MCX, Capt Sunil Thapar, Director, SCI, Dr Sushmita Dasgupta, Dy Chief Economist, Ministry of Steel, Mr Vijay Kumar, Vice-President, Monnet Ispat and Mr Sachin Sehgal, Director, OreTeam Re-search Group (ORG).
More than 300 delegates, including 60 from China, are attending the Conference organized by ORG. “Restrictions in India on iron ore have been a worrying factor not just for China not only the buying side but also for India who is losing its share of exports as China is diversifying its import to countries like Iraq, South Africa, Turkey, Thailand and Vietnam,” said Mr Zhao Jing Jun, Gen-eral Manager, Shenglong Resources Company Limited, China.
Concluding the opening session, Mr Nahar said that there are “no windfall gains” to the mining industry which has to pay a number of taxes and levies at every stage, reducing profit margins drastically and even making survival difficult.
It is only the illegal miners who are making “windfall gains”, he said, adding that “illegal mining is nobody’s case. Nobody stands by them and let the law take its own course in dealing with them. Why is the Government punishing all other miners?”.
Mr Nahar said that India has proven deposits of 25 billion tons and estimated deposits of 100 bil-lion tons and they are going to last for next 300 years. Why panic is being created by the Steel industry in seeking ban on iron ore export? Why export duty was raised on iron ore from 5% to 20% making the iron industry competitive? This sort of “mineral nationalism” is contrary to the globalization of which India is a beneficiary and now a big player in the world economies, Mr Na-har said.
