Steel Minister to write to PM for ban on iron ore exports

Steel Minister Virbhadra Singh today said his ministry will seek Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's intervention for banning export of iron-ore to protect the domestic steel industry.

"The Ministry feels that iron ore should be conserved. We are exporting it at very cheap rates. The Ministry will write to the Prime Minister requesting him to ban its export," Singh said in Rajya Sabha during Question Hour.

The government yesterday hiked export duty on iron ore lumps by 5 per cent to 15 per cent to discourage its shipments and cool down the prevailing prices of the vital input for making steel. The export duty on iron ore fines would remain unchanged at five per cent.

Singh said his ministry is planning massive expansion of steel making utilities in the country and exuded confidence that the country will achieve a production target of 120 million tonnes per annum by 2012, almost double the current production.
   
"In 2009-10, against the domestic crude steel capacity of 72.76 million tonnes, the production of finished steel is 59.69 million tonnes and domestic consumption of finished steel is 56.48 million tonnes. We expect the production of steel to go up to 120 million tonnes by 2011-12," he said.
   
The minister also said these trends indicate that domestic steel production capacity is higher than the current demand for steel in the country.
   
When Congress member Rajeev Shukla sought to know whether any steel export mafia was operating in the country, Singh said, "I don't know of any such mafia....This question should be addressed to the mining ministry."