JAJPUR: Only 0.150 million tonnes of iron ore was sold out of the total 1.364 million tonnes placed for auction by the Odisha Mining Corporation (OMC), the largest state-owned merchant miner of iron ore, on Thursday.Of the 0.746 million tonnes of iron ore fines, only 0.016 million tonnes were sold at minimum base price and 0.135 million tonnes of iron ore fines and Calibrated Lumpy Ore (CLO) got sold out of 0.618 million tonnes all at base price without any premium.
The failure of the auction is being attributed to very high floor price and profiteering fixed by the OMC at the cost of pellet and sponge iron manufacturers in the state. The pellet plants and the sponge iron plants in the state of Odisha have started shutting down due to unviable prices of iron ore.
Sources said, iron and steel industries in the state are dependent on supply of iron ore from the OMC. But it seems to be strangling the iron and steel industries across the state by fixing irrationally high floor price for iron ore and iron ore fines during e-auction which is not viable for industries.Industry bodies in Odisha have been requesting the OMC to reduce the floor price of iron ore time and again, but to no avail.
“Most of the iron and steel industries procure iron ore fines as their raw materials. As the floor price of the iron ore fines fixed by the OMC is very high, a very negligible quantity of iron ore fines is being sold every time,” said a plant head of a Kalinga Nagar-based steel industry, on condition of anonymity.
He said several plants in Kalinga Nagar industrial complex and in other parts of the state have closed down since long due to unreasonable price of iron ore being fixed by OMC. “We demand the OMC should immediately reduce the floor price of iron ore CLO and fines and allow Odisha based industries to survive”, he said. The OMC authorities, however, could not be contacted for comment.