The closure of several large iron ore mines in Odisha for non-payment of the penalty imposed for excess mining over the past decade has put ore prices on fire. The uncertainty on availability has encouraged another big supplier, central government-owned NMDC, to raise its prices sharply.Between October 2017 and now, merchant miners in Odisha have raised the iron ore lump price by 49 per cent and of fines by 59 per cent. In this period, NMDC increased the price by 35 per cent for lumps and eight per cent for fines. With Odisha and NMDC together accounting for 45 per cent of iron ore supply to the domestic steel industry, this has put the latter under stress.The pace of increase in ore prices within the country is more than double the rate of swing in the commodity in the international sphere, making it clear that the hike is more due to local factors than import demand from China.The main factor is uncertainty over production in Odisha, where 55 per cent of the country's total iron ..
