Indian iron ore exports in December down by 25pct

Tuesday, 25 Jan 2011
Iron ore exports in December have gone down by 24.64% to 9.69 million tonnes, continuing its declining trend for the sixth consecutive month.
According to the data compiled by the Federation of Indian Mineral Industries, the country had shipped 12.86 million tonne of iron ore, a vital steel making raw material, during the same period last year.
Mr RK Sharma FIMI secretary general told PTI that “The industry has been suffering from quite some time now due to the ban imposed by Karnataka in July. We hope that the issue will get resolved by next month, when the Supreme Court hears the matter.”
He added that “industry is expecting that the Karnataka Government will put in place a mechanism to check illegal mining by mid-February, as per the apex court directions.”
Last week, the Supreme Court asked the State Government to either notify the new law against illegal mining within two weeks or lift its order banning transportation of iron ore meant for export, saying that the ban cannot be sustained indefinitely.
Earlier, the Karnataka government had banned issue of permits to transport iron ore and other minerals for export purposes for six months pending a legislation to curb illegal mining. The period will end this month.
He added that “In this situation, the country would have immensely benefited had the ban not been imposed by Karnataka government.”
(Sourced from PTI)