India’s iron ore exports fell 47 percent in September, the biggest monthly decline this financial year, after the southern state of Karnataka banned overseas sales of the steelmaking raw material.
Shipments fell to 3 million metric tons last month from about 5.8 million tons a year earlier, the Federation of Indian Mineral Industries said today in an e-mailed statement. Exports from Mormugao, Vishakhapatnam, Krishnapatnam and Paradip, the four biggest iron ore ports, fell 34 percent to 2.3 million tons last month, it said.
Iron ore shipments from India, the world’s third-largest exporter, may fall as much as 38 percent this fiscal year because of higher taxes and freight charges, and the Karnataka ban, Federation of Indian Mineral Industries President Siddharth Rungta said in August. India raised the export tax on iron ore lumps to 15 percent in April from 10 percent after introducing a 5 percent tax on iron ore fines in December.
The Karnataka High Court is likely to uphold by the end of the month a petition by mining companies to end the ban imposed on July 26, Sesa Goa Ltd. Managing Director P.K. Mukherjee said yesterday in a conference call. A lifting of the ban will benefit Sesa Goa and NMDC Ltd., India’s biggest producers of iron ore.