India: Essar Steel Iron Ore & Pellet Sourcing Up 11% in Nov’18

Essar Steel - an integrated steelmaker with steel making capacity of 10 MnT p.a. recorded increase in total iron ore & pellet sourcing for the month of Nov'18. The sourcing stood at 1.24 MnT in Nov'18, up 11% M-o-M as against 1.12 MnT in Oct'18.

On yearly basis, iron ore & pellet sourcing stood almost in line with Nov’17 sourcing.

Iron ore procurement from NMDC (C.G.) up 32% on monthly basis

Essar Steel procured 0.75 MnT of iron ore in Nov'18 from NMDC's Bailadila mines in Chhattisgarh via slurry pipeline, up 32% against procurement in Oct'18 at 0.57 MnT.
NMDC (C.G) had slashed iron ore price twice in the month of Dec’18 amid falling iron ore prices from Odisha merchant miners and weak market sentiments.

On yearly basis, the steelmaker depicted 21% rise in Nov'18 sourcing as compared to 0.62 MnT in Nov'17.

Sourcing from Odisha merchant mines stable M-o-M

Essar Steel sourced 0.41 MnT iron ore in Nov'18 from Odisha's merchant mines, almost in line with Oct’18 sourcing.

Odisha based merchant miners were facing low buying interest following the decline in semi-finished and pellet prices led to slashed iron ore prices in the month of Nov’18 and heard giving quantity discounts to stimulate the buying interest.

Out of the total iron ore sourced from Odisha in Oct'18, largest share was contributed by Serajuddin at 0.17 MnT (up 18% M-o-M) followed by KJS Ahluwalia at 0.13 MnT (up 79% M-o-M) Indrani Patnaik at 0.08 MnT (down 23% on monthly basis).

Essar Steel imports dropped 41% on monthly base

Essar Steel's iron ore and pellet imports witnessed at 0.08 MnT in Nov’18, down 41% on monthly basis as against 0.14 MnT in Oct’18.

Out of the total imports of Essar Steel, 0.08 MnT stood pellets from Bahrain.

Essar Steel's long-standing bankruptcy case

In Oct’18 Arcelor Mittal (AM) was selected as the preferred bidder for the insolvent asset ahead of its key competitor Numetal and other contender Vedanta Group. According to the latest update, Essar Steel creditors moved to NCLT against Arcelor takeover of Essar Steel. The shareholders of Essar Steel submitted a proposal for settlement of entire claims of Essar Steel India Ltd, however, the lenders banks and Arcelor Mittal opposed to the settlement proposal by shareholders stating it’s against the Supreme Court order as well as the provisions of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC). The final decision for the bids and take over still remains pending.