NMDC keeps iron ore prices unchanged

No change in the prices for April due to continuing weak demand

For the second consecutive month, state-owned NMDC has kept iron ore prices unchanged in April due to continuing weak demand.

NMDC, which fixes the price of the important steel-making input on monthly basis, "rolled over" the March prices -- Rs 4,500 per tonne for lumps and Rs 2,910 a tonne for fines -- to April, the company said in a filing to the BSE today.

The company had kept its prices unchanged in March as well. It had raised the prices of fines by Rs 100 per tonne in February.

Due to sluggish market conditions, NMDC has raised its rates only thrice in last one and half years (since November, 2012) and that too were only marginal hikes, an analysis of company's prices showed.

Prices of lump ore (with rich iron content, considered high grade) have risen by Rs 300 per tonne since November, 2012, while the rates of fines (or the low grade ore) have gone up by Rs 400 per tonne. For rest of the months, NMDC had either reduced prices or kept them unchanged.

The weak market conditions were reflecting in the prices of steel (the final product of iron ore) also as most of the manufacturers have either cut their prices by about Rs 500-750 per tonne or have kept them unchanged for the current month.

Meanwhile, NMDC in its filing also said that it achieved highest production and sales of iron ore in the just concluded fiscal 2013-14. While the production was 30.18 million tonnes (MT), sales stood at 30.87 MT in FY'14.

Production at company's mines in Chhattisgarh, which accounts for most of the output, was 20.87 MT, while its mine in Karnataka produced 9.31 MT.

Company's officiating chairman C S Verma recently said that NMDC is now aiming to have an iron ore production capacity of 48 MT per year in next two years. He had also said that iron ore prices would remain stable in the immediate future.

NMDC currently has a total production capacity of 32 MT per annum at its mines in Chhattisgarh and Karnataka.

The company's scrip was trading at Rs 152, up 1.57%, on the BSE.