Government plans mechanism to address iron ore price volatility

15 January 2018

The steel ministry is contemplating a mechanism to moderate the volatile prices of iron ore, the main raw material of steel.

“We have formed a task-force to come out with a report in this regard,” Union Steel Minister Chaudhary Birender Singh said here today.

The minister said though it is a free market for iron ore, the government wanted some price predictability, at least for three to four months.

Singh said small steel makers mainly suffer from high volatility of iron ore prices. NMDC is the major supplier of iron ore for domestic steel companies.

On the attempt to increase the supply of scrap for the steel sector, he said, “We are waiting a legislation to come through. It is pending in the Rajya Sabha.

The legislation pertains to scrapping of vehicles which are more than 15 years old.

“We hope this would be through in the Budget Session. Then, the country would be having sufficient scrap to use for making steel and the scrap-based steel would be of high quality,” the minister said.

Meanwhile, Singh said the Centre had unveiled the New Steel Policy, 2017 which envisions 300 million ton of steel-making capacity by 2030. This would translate into an additional investment of Rs 10 lakh crore by 2030-31.

The new policy also seeks to increase the per capita steel consumption to the level of 160 kg by 2030 from the existing level of around 60 kg, he added.

Source: PTI