NMDC cuts iron ore prices by up to 11 percent in February

MUMBAI (Reuters) - NMDC Ltd , India's biggest iron ore producer, said on Friday it had cut prices of the mineral by up to 11 percent for February, a welcome move for domestic steelmakers already pressured by a surge in steel imports.

The public sector miner, which fixes prices at the beginning of every month, cut prices of lump ore to 3,750 rupees ($61) per wet metric tonne (wmt) from 4,200 rupees/wmt and of iron ore fines to 2,760 rupees/wmt from 3,060 rupees/wmt, it said in a statement.

The decision will bring cheer to domestic steel companies like JSW Steel Ltd , which said last week that pricing and availability of iron ore was a "major concern", pointing to a 14 percent rise in domestic prices compared with a halving of international prices over the past year.

NMDC, which mined close to a fifth of the country's iron ore in the year ended March 2014, had rolled over prices in January after reducing them in December.

Curbs on private mining in India's top producing states over the last two years has helped NMDC boost its market share and insulated it from a global slide in prices of the world's second-largest commodity after oil.

The company, in which the government is looking to sell a 10 percent stake, separately reported a 1.6 percent rise in third-quarter profit to 15.93 billion rupees.

NMDC shares closed up 2 percent on Friday.

($1 = 61.7197 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Aman Shah in Mumbai; Editing by Prateek Chatterjee)