For three months in a row, iron ore producer NMDC has kept the prices of the steel-making raw material unchanged for September mainly due to the plummeting global prices of the raw material.
In a stock exchange communique today, the country's largest iron ore miner said it has "rolled over the August, 2014 prices of lump ore and fines" for September.
Accordingly, the price of lump ores, which contain more iron and are used mostly by domestic steel makers, now stands at Rs 4,600 per tonne and the prices of fines, having lower iron content, at Rs 3,160 a tonne.
NMDC, which reviews prices every month by judging demand and global prices, had not tweaked rates in July and August. This is mainly due to steep fall in global prices which have gone down to a two-year low to USD 87 per tonne now.
Maintaining the price may impact net sales realisation of the company for the July-September quarter and lower its profitability though higher sales might offset the impact a little.
NMDC had reported 21.8 per cent rise in net profit for the April-June quarter at Rs 1,915 crore.
During the first four months of the current fiscal, NMDC had produced 98.8 lakh tonnes of iron ore compared to 88.7 lakh tonnes a year ago.
Sales during the April-July period also rose to 111.1 lakh tonnes from 94 lakh tonnes a year ago.
