Mumbai: The country’s iron ore exports this month may decline 5-10% as China cuts purchases, a minerals industry group said.
Enquiries from buyers of the main raw material used to make steel have dried up in the last 15 days, Federation of Indian Mineral Industries secretary general R.K. Sharma said on Monday in a telephone interview from New Delhi. Exports rose last month, compared with the same period a year earlier, he said.
China’s stockpiles of iron ore to make steel are at 75 million tonnes (mt), just 0.6% below levels in September, when they rose to the highest since at least 2006.
India’s iron ore exports were at 105 mt in the year ended 31 March, compared with 104 mt a year earlier, according to data from the mining ministry.