India: JSW Steel Increases Iron Ore Sourcing from Karnataka E-Auction in Apr'19

JSW Steel’s iron ore purchases from Karnataka e-auctions increased by more than twice to 2.18 MnT in Apr'19 compared to 1.02 MnT in Mar'19.

Vedanta Ltd turned out to be the largest iron ore supplier to JSW Steel Ltd. and thus contributed around 47% to total iron ore procurement share by JSW Steel. Out of 2.18 MnT iron ore sourced by JSW in Apr, Vedanta supplied 1.02 MnT and NMDC remained second –largest supplier for April’19 with 0.54 MnT up 50% as against last month at 0.36 MnT in Mar’19. Other private miners supplied 0.63 MnT for the month.

Karnataka has registered an increase of 50% in iron ore sales volume in Apr’19 e-auctions against Mar’19. Total iron ore allotted quantity stood at 2.9 MnT in Apr’19 compared to 1.93 MnT in Mar’19.

On yearly basis, Karnataka e-auction sales increased more than two-times in Apr’19 as compared to 1.3 MnT in Apr’18.

Vedanta turned out to be the largest iron ore supplier from Karnataka e-auctions in Apr’19

Vedanta Ltd for the month of April’19 remained the largest iron ore supplier with 37% share of total iron ore sales from Karnataka E-auctions. Company has increased iron ore sales at multi-fold to 1.08 MnT against 0.07 MnT in Mar’19.

NMDC's iron ore sales increased by 44% M-o-M to 0.62 MnT in April'19 compared to 0.43 MnT in Mar'19. Iron ore operations are still on hold at NMDC's Donimalai mine, which had renewed lease on 3rd Nov'18 for the next 20 years. But the state govt. put the additional condition to pay 80% premium on iron ore sale value from Donimalai to the Karnataka state Govt. The case was filed in the high court and both the side had kept their conclusive remark in the High Court. Judgment is still awaited.

Major Highlights of Apr'19 Karnataka iron ore e-auctions-:

1. Electrotherm India Ltd - a Gujarat based company procured 4,000 MT iron ore lumps (Fe 63.5-65%) at INR 4,010/MT.

2. Vedanta procured 24,000 MT iron ore, 20,000 MT lumps (Fe 63%-65.25%) and 4,000 fines. They were procured 20,000 MT ore from NMDC Kumarswamy Mines and Veerabhadrappa Sangappa & Company for its pig iron plant in Goa and rest 4,000 MT lumps from its own mines in Karnataka.

3. Southern India based pellet maker - XIndia Steel consistently purchasing iron ore from Karnataka E-auction for its pellet plant. Last month they have purchased around 40,000 MT iron ore fines (Fe 62.1-65.6%) at INR 2,300- 2900/MT.