India on 30 April 2012 announced its decision to export 2.1 million tonnes (mt) of iron ore to steel mills of Japan and South Korea under a long-term agreement due to be signed in May 2012. The iron ore will be supplied to leading steel mills of Japan and Korea, including Posco, Kobe and Nippon Steel.
As approved by the cabinet in March 2012, the iron ore, having 64 per cent Fe content, or high grade lumps is to be sourced from NMDC's Chhattisgarh mines and will be exported through MMTC.
The supplies are slated to begin from July and the agreements are to be signed for three years. Prices are to be decided on a quarterly basis and the export quantity is to increase in the 2012-13 fiscal.
It is expected that the supply of iron ore, although in smaller quantities, had been a core element of India's bilateral ties with Japan and South Korea and would further strengthen the relations.
MMTC's earlier contract to supply iron ore for five years to Japanese and Korean steel mills had expired on 31 March 2011. Following the expiry, further contracts was put on hold as price negotiations had not taken place. As a result of the expiry of the contract, NMDC had managed to export only 1.6 lakh tonnes in the 2011-12 fiscal, too, to the Chinese firms on an ad-hoc basis.
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