Heavy rains hit iron ore transport

Even as the iron ore transporters in the Keonjhar and Joda region have called off their indefinite strike, heavy rainfall in the area has severely affected the movement of minerals from the region to ports, said traders and exporters.

“It has been five days since we called off strike, but the transportation has not started in full swing. Few trucks have gone to the mining site, but they are unable to load the minerals and are still waiting there,” said Ramakant Nayak, president of Keonjhar Truck Owners' Association.

Between June and August, Orissa received 33 percent below normal rainfall, while rainfall was normal at Keonjhar district, data from meteorological office showed. Last week, the iron ore rich region received 23 per cent above normal rainfall.

As a low pressure system has been hovering around neighboring state Chhattishgarh, the Bhubaneswar weather office has predicted heavy rainfall in next four days in the state.

“Iron ore transportation normally falls by 20 per cent during rainy season. But this time I believe it may drop by 25 per cent,” said an official of a leading export firm.

He said, due to heavy rains in the region, most of the mines have been water-logged, and mining activity has been stopped for several days. Those, who have already mined the minerals, do not want to transport the highly moisturised minerals because of stricter shipping laws. In July, iron ore shipments through Paradip port was about nine lakh tonne. Trades expect significant drop in export in August.

The truckers in the north Orissa region had gone for an indefinite strike in August demanding increase in transportation fee and priority to Orissa-based vehicles in loading the iron ore vis-à-vis the vehicles from other states. However, the transporters called off the strike following assurance from the exporters and Keonjhar district administration to look into their demands sympathetically.

It may be noted, due to supply problem, better quality iron ore prices in Orissa have gone up by 9 per cent within a month.

Ore with 63 per cent iron content is currently trading at Rs 2,450 per tonne at Barbil, which has the fifth largest iron ore deposit in the country. The key steel making ingredient was trading at around Rs 2,250 per tonne a month ago.

Global iron ore rates have also surged nearly 3 per cent due to stronger Chinese demand as stockists are replenishing their stocks after record steel production in past couple of months.