Having secured a 40-per cent price hike in the domestic market and a 100-per cent hike in its export price under the long-term agreement with Japan steel mills (JSMs), state-run mining giant National Mining Development Corporation (NMDC) has bagged a similar price hike for its iron ore supplies to the South Korean steel giant Posco, a senior government official told The Indian Express. In a meeting last week with delegates from the steel and commerce ministries, NMDC itself and government-run Minerals and Metals Trading Corporation (MMTC), Posco agreed to a price hike of 96.5 per cent and 78.55 per cent, respectively, for iron-ore lumps and fines supplied by NMDC.

The navratna PSU will now get $127.65 per tonne of lumps and around $93 per tonne of fines supplied to Posco. As of now, it has a commitment of supplying 5 million tonnes of iron ore to the Posco, of which the latter has already picked up 3.3 million, a senior NMDC official said.

NMDC’s chairman and managing director Rana Som had recently said that there would be no incentive to export unless they were compensated by the JSMs and Posco for the Rs-1,000-per-tonne hike in domestic railway freight and the additional 15 per cent ad valorem duty on export of iron ore imposed by the finance ministry earlier this year. Commerce ministry was, on the other hand, opposed to this on the ground that increase in export realisations due to depreciation in the rupee had made up for the excess costs borne by NMDC.

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