Curb in iron ore exports and hike in duty on outbound shipment have resulted in a number of Centre-owned major ports incurring heavy losses of business, a top official said on Tuesday.
“All ports have suffered huge losses of business, including New Mangalore, Ennore, Visakhapatanam, Paradip and Mormugao,” Shipping Secretary Mr K Mohandas told reporters on the sidelines of a conference when asked whether curb on exports, new policies and related developments have impacted ports.
The iron ore exports from the country last fiscal came down to 97.64 million tonne (MT) while in the first eight months of the current fiscal, exports dipped by a little over 28 per cent to 40 MT vis-a-vis the corresponding period last fiscal.
India, the world’s third-largest iron ore exporter, had shipped 117.3 MT of ore in 2009-10.
Apart from this, upward revision in export duty to 30 per cent, the miners say will result in total shipments unlikely to exceed 50 MT in the current fiscal, which is further bound to impact the ports.
Mr Mohandas said ports are dependent on cargo and iron ore used to contribute significantly in ports’ business.
He also added that mining and exports policies did not come under Shipping Ministry’s purview when asked whether the Ministry was taking any step in this regard.
Following the duty hike in the Budget and a slew of events including the imposition of a ban on exports of the raw material from Karnataka since July, 2010, following allegations of widespread illegal mining, iron ore exports from the country have witnessed negative growth.
Production of iron ore in around 45 mines in Goa has also been shutdown due to environmental reasons. An informal export ban is also in place in Odisha.
States mainly depend on ports for exports and iron ore constitute bulk of the cargo from ports.