Indian iron ore export cost to go up by USD 11 further on rail freight hike

Tuesday, 25 Jan 2011
Business Line reported that from Thursday, Indian iron ore exporters will have to shell out INR 500 extra for every tonne of traffic moved by rail.
This follows a move by the Indian Railways to increase the distance based charge, which is a charge on top of the freight rates, for iron ore exports by INR 500 a tonne.
Now, an iron ore exporter will have to pay a distance based charge of INR 1,500 per tonne.
This hike is over and above the higher amounts that the exporters were already paying. For instance, in December 2010, to move one tonne of iron ore for a distance of one kilometer, exporters were already paying 66% higher to the Railways compared with what they paid in December 2009.
The move will help the Railways beef up freight revenues in the backdrop of low level of loading of iron ore exports. In fact, despite a 41%t dip in loadings of iron ore exports in December 2010 against December 2009, the Railways had recorded a 7.87% increase in revenue earnings from iron ore export movement.
The Railways moved 2.09 million tonne of iron ore export traffic in December 2010 and earned INR 413.87 crore. (Sourced from thehindu.co.in)