JAJPUR: The Kalinga Nagar Industries Association (KNIA) has alleged that State-owned Odisha Mining Corporation is failing to attract bidders due to the high floor price it has set for chrome ore through e-auctions.
The PSU’s latest e-auction for 7,000 metric tonne (MT) chrome ore on May 17 failed to get bidders as the floor price was hiked "arbitrarily", said the association. KNIA, along with other industrial associations, have been requesting OMC to reduce the chrome ore floor price formula from the present 13.5 per cent to 12.65 per cent or formulate one with a reasonable margin.
With the ferro chrome price down, OMC needs to revise its floor price, the user industries said. OMC has been fixing floor price of chrome ore based on the formula at 13.5 per cent of ferro chrome price with correction factor.
Basing on it, the floor price should have been Rs 12, 214/- per MT for 48-50 grade chrome ore during e-auction held recently. However, OMC arbitrarily added an additional amount of Rs 3,070/- per MT to the formula, which makes the floor price of chrome ore Rs 15,284 per MT, said KNIA.
The association claimed that poor response from the latest auction reflects that floor price fixed by OMC is unviable. This is affecting the ferro chrome industries and other less than load (LTL) buyers in Odisha.
During e-auction held in April, only 14,800 MT out of 35,100 MT chrome ore was sold. E-auctions in the preceding months had a similar poor response.