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Saturday, August 27, 2011

NMDC to ramp up production in Bellary

Saturday, 27 Aug 2011

Country's top miner NMDC is in the process of ramping up its production from its Karnataka's facility in Bellary to one million tonnes a month, Mr PK Misra steel secretary said that “I think we should be able to stabilise things soon. In a month's time things will stabilise for the steel sector. NMDC will ramp up its production capacity to one million tones.”

Mr Misra on the sidelines of a CII conference on steel told reporters that the steel and allied industries in the South are now reeling under severe shortages of iron ore, a vital raw material for production.

The issue has come up, following a July 29 ban by the Supreme Court on mining activities in the Bellary district in Karnataka due to environmental degradation of the area.

This led to a severe shortage of iron ore in the South as Bellary accounts for about 80 per cent of Karnataka's total production at about 40 million tonnes annually.

The steel and allied industries had maintained that the partial relief provided by the apex court on August 5, allowing NMDC to mine one million tonnes of ore a month, would not help as the demand was much more.

In a statement here, the Bangalore Chamber of Industry and Commerce said iron ore demand of steel and allied industries in Karnataka alone was 2.9 million tonnes a month, while NMDC had been allowed to mine only one million tonnes.

The chamber also said NMDC had been supplying only in the range of 21,000 to 22,000 tonnes a day against the estimated daily production of 33,500 tonnes, to fulfill the criteria of producing one million tonnes a month, as has been ordered by the apex court. Mr Misra said NMDC had also started supplying from Chhattisgarh to meet the shortfall, while some industries were buying from Goa to run their plants.

(sourced from Hindu)

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