A further increase in duties on iron ore exports is not ruled out. Indications came in when the Steel Minister, Mr Beni Prasad Verma, told the Lok Sabha, “We have increased export duty from 5 per cent to 20 per cent. We may increase it further.”

This move is intended to discourage exports and conserve raw material for domestic consumption. About half of the iron ore produced in the country is exported. In fiscal 2010-11, iron ore production stood at 208.11 million tonnes, of which about 111.4 mt was consumed by the domestic industry.

Mr Verma said the suspension of iron ore mining in Bellary district might affect production of crude steel to some extent in the region. Last month, the Supreme Court banned mining in Bellary and later extended it to neighbouring Chitradurga and Tumkur districts on environmental grounds.

Steel imports

Replying to another query on imports of finished steel products, he said, it has declined 8 per cent to 6.8 million tonnes in 2010-11 against 7.38 mt in the previous financial year.

However, in value terms, the imports grew 3 per cent to Rs 26,387 crore in 2010-11 as against Rs 25,623 crore in the previous year, the Steel Minister told Lok Sabha in a written reply.

Quoting the Joint Plant Committee data, Mr Verma said steel imports were the highest in value terms in 2008-09 at Rs 30,714 crore.

While imports have seen a downward trend in the past two years, exports have rebounded during the period. Exports of steel products stood at 3.46 mt in 2010-11 as against 3.25 mt in the previous year.

Production of finished steel grew 15.5 per cent in the past three years, from 57.16 million tonnes to 66.01 million tonnes in fiscal 2011. In the first three months of the current fiscal, the steel output stood at 17.05 mt. Consumption of finished steel has kept pace with production in the past three years. Consumption has grown from 52.35 mt in 2008-09 to 65.61 mt in the last fiscal.

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