India would be able to ship out an additional 10-million tonnes of iron-ore during the remainder of the current fiscal year, with government moving fast to slash the export tax, according to the Mines Ministry.
Even without the ban on iron-ore mining in the Karnataka and Goa provinces being lifted, lowering the export tax from 30% to 20% would enable miners to export an additional 10-million tonnes during the October 2012 to March 2014 period, the Mines Ministry said in a note prepared to support the reduction in export duty.
This could bump up total exports during the current year to 20-million tonnes, which is double the current estimates, the Ministry noted, observing that this would still be drastically lower than the 117-million tonnes achieved three years ago before the clampdown on illegal mining dealt a body blow to Indian iron-ore exports.
The Ministry is pushing for an early decision to prune the export duty to enable exporters to ride the current strenghtening, since June, of global iron-ore prices. Export offers for high-grade Indian iron-ore fines (with grading of 65.5% and above) firmed up $10 to $15 over the last month to current levels of $135/t to $137/t CFR China.
The sharp depreciation of the Indian rupee against the dollar – 20% since April 2013 – has also triggered a rush to push exports, but traders representing Chinese steel mills are unable to commit to transactions with Indian miners/traders at the desired volumes, as most mines are going slow in increasing production owing to policy uncertainties, a representative of the Federation of India Mining Industry says.