At 40.4 mt, 92% of Indian iron ore exports went to China in AprilFeb. FY24
A year since withdrawal of COVID19 restrictions in China, the country has increased iron ore buying from India. Nearly 92% of Indian iron ore exports, or 40.40 million tonne (mt), for the 11month period (AprilFebruary) of FY24, had gone to China.
In percentage terms, this is the highest ever shipment over a seven yearperiod (between FY18 and FY24) and second highest in volume, after 11M FY21 when exports to China stood at 47.73 mt.
In the 11M period of FY24, India’s exports of iron ore stood at 44.23 mt, up 162% yoy. Shipments to China increased nearly 200%.
Key feedstock
Iron ore is a key feedstock raw material for steelmaking.
Over the last seven years, about 83% of Indian exports went to China, data collected from research firm BigMint show.
For instance, in 11M FY18, 82% shipments were to China (17.6 mt out of 21.31 mt), which fell to 78% next fiscal (10.51 mt out of 13.79 mt). It rose to 80% (27 mt out of 34 mt) and 90% respectively, in FY20 and FY21. It dropped to 88% in 11M FY22 (20.84 mt out of 23.65 mt) and fell further to 81% (14 mt out of 17 mt) last fiscal.
Other countries
Apart from China, some of the other countries to which iron ore was exported, albeit in much smaller quantity, were Malaysia and Indonesia — between 0.58 mt and 1 mt. Exports to West Asian nations like Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the UAE were less than 0.2 mt.
Trade sources told businessline, that Chinese ironore imports in the first two months of 2024 rose by more than 8% yoy, as steelmakers there restocked to meet production needs. The world’s largest iron ore consumer brought 210 mt in these two months.
Call for export check
Incidentally, industry bodies, particularly secondary steel makers, have been seeking restrictions on exports.
In a letter to the Union Steel Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia, the industry body Federation of Iron Mineral Industries (FIMI) pointed out that export of iron ore and pellets had “not actually gone up” since shipments were badly affected by the export duty that was in force between May and November of 2023.
According to R.K. Sharma, Secretary General, FIMI, export of iron ores is mainly for fines which are of lower grade, about 58% iron content. And, these have no use in the domestic market.
“In mining of ore, lumps are generated to the tune of 2530% and the rest are fines. Fines are kept in the mining lease area. Nonremoval of these fines generally lead to environmental hazards; while accumulation of fines also impact lump production that actually impact availability for the steel sector,” he explained.
The Centre, though, has not announced any such curbs, but a senior Ministry official said, they continued to track the situation.
(The writer is with The Hindu businessline)
Exports of iron ore and pellets had not actually gone up since shipments were badly hit by the duty