NMDC hikes contract prices of iron ore by up to 40 per cent

Public sector mining giant National Mineral Development Corporation Ltd (NMDC) has raised the prices of iron ore it supplies by as much as 40 per cent, with retrospective effect from 1 April this year.

NMDC hiked the prices of fines by 10.5 per cent and that of lumps by as much as 40 per cent.

It will raise the cost of making steel by Rs 1,100-1,500 a tonne. However, the new contract rates include the interim term hike of last October, when NMDC increased prices by Rs574 per tonne for both lumps and fines.

The fresh round of hikes, lump and fine prices will go up Rs900-1,000 per tonne and Rs187 per tonne, respectively.

Steel producers in the country, already hit by high input costs and rising demand for reduction in product prices, have decried NMDC's move to raise prices of iron ore, the basic material for making steel.

The price hike will affect non-integrated steel producers like JSW Steel, Essar, Steel, Ispat Industries Ltd and Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Ltd. Representatives of these companies last week met government officials and expressed their concern about the move.