The Hindu : Business : Centre plans curbs on quality iron ore export

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Apr 05, 2006

Business

Business

Centre plans curbs on quality iron ore export

Special Correspondent

Domestic steel companies will be promoted, says Paswan

— Photo: Kamal Narang

LEVERAGING IT: (left to right) Minister of State for Planning, M. V. Rajashekharan, Minister for Steel, Ram Vilas Paswan, Naveen Jindal, Executive Vice-Chairman and Managing Director, Jindal Steel & Power, and V. S. Jain, Chairman, Steel Authority of India, at a conference in New Delhi on Tuesday.

NEW DELHI: The Central Government is thinking of imposing curbs on the export of quality iron ore to conserve reserves and promote the major domestic steel companies.

Interacting with newspersons at a Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) function here on Tuesday, Union Steel Minister Ram Vilas Paswan said: "We are not against export of iron ore as has been happening till now. We had exported 78 million tonnes of ore last year.

"But if export of quality of ore continues unabated it would, in the long-run, jeopardise the future of our own domestic steel utilities, which we cannot allow to happen.''

Mr. Paswan pointed out that many reputed domestic steel majors did not have captive iron ore mines. If exports continued unbridled, steel companies such as Essar, Ispat and Jindal Steel would not be able to procure ore to meet their own needs.

"To us, our national interest is supreme and we have to ensure the well-being of all steel companies and, as such, we have to begin thinking on putting a ceiling on export of ore,'' he said.

He, however, made it clear that ore exports at the current level would be allowed to continue to service the "usual quota" of 78 million tonnes.

Earlier, in his address at the conference on `Leveraging IT for technological advantage of the Indian steel industry', Mr Paswan regretted that despite the phenomenal growth of the domestic steel industry, the steel utilities were not using information technology either to enhance their production or to improve their productivity.

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