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Government update on availability of iron ore in India

The minister of steel, Mr Beni Prasad Verma has said that the production of iron ore during 2010-11 (provisional) was 208 million tonnes whereas the total estimated domestic consumption by iron and steel industry was 111.40 million tonnes. Therefore, overall there has been no scarcity of iron ore for the domestic iron and steel industry.

In a written reply in the Lok Sabha he said, to improve availability of iron ore for the domestic iron and steel industry at affordable price, the Government has increased the export duty on iron ore from 20% ad valorem to 30% ad valorem on all grades of iron ore (except pellets) with effect from December 30th2011.

The export of iron ore during 2011-12 has been substantially reduced and was approximately 55.76 million tonnes during April,11-February,12 (provisional) as compared to about 87.25 million tonnes in the corresponding period of previous year 2010-11, thus showing a reduction of about 36% in the export of iron ore from the country.