NMDC cuts iron ore prices by Rs 100 per tonne on lumps and fines

Move comes a few weeks after company CMD said iron ore prices were going to be under pressure in coming months

Public sector mining company NMDC Limited has cut the iron ore prices by Rs 100 per tonne on both lumps and fines in its monthly price revision that comes into effect from Thursday.

It has fixed Rs 2,300 per tonne for lumps and Rs 2,060 for fines as compared to the existing rates of Rs 2,400 and Rs 2,160 respectively.

The price reduction comes a couple of weeks after company chairman and managing director, N Baijendra Kumar, said iron ore prices were going to be under pressure in coming months owing to higher domestic supply and decline in global iron ore prices among other reasons.

The company hiked the prices for September month after it had reduced the same in July to Rs 2,225 (lumps) and Rs 1,985 (fines) from a peak of Rs 2,425 and Rs 2,185 prevailed in the first three months of the current financial year.

"Defying the market expectations, average price of iron ore at $ 75 per tonne in first half of 2017 has been higher than the average price at $ 58 per tonne in 2016 and $ 55 per tonne in 2015. Going ahead, however, iron ore demand and prices are likely to come under pressure with expectation of Chinese steel production stagnating, sea-borne iron-ore supplies increasing with large-scale mines ramping up production and competition from scrap as a feed stock," Kumar said at the company's annual general meeting on September 22.

He stated that the company would continue to follow the price review parameters every month till a comprehensive pricing policy as proposed by Government of India comes into place.

The Government had set up a committee under the chairmanship of additional secretary of the Union Finance Ministry to prepare a broader pricing strategy for the whole sector.