Tata Steel’s Indian Iron Ore Output Rises Marginally

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): India's Tata Steel produced 22mn t of iron ore in the 2017-18 fiscal year that ended 31 March, marginally higher than the 21.6mn t produced in 2016-17.

Tata, India's largest private-sector iron ore producer, meets the entire iron ore requirements for its two steel plants from captive mines. All four mines are in east India's Odisha and Jharkhand states.

State-controlled NMDC and Sail are the other two major Indian iron ore producers. NMDC increased iron ore production by around 4pc to 35mn t in 2017-18. Sail has not yet published its production figures for 2017-18.

Tata is currently expanding the capacity of its steel operations in India. The 3mn t/yr Kalinganagar steel plant in Odisha is being expanded to 8mn t/yr of capacity. Tata also acquired the 5mn t/yr Bhushan Steel this year. Its flagship Indian steel mill is the 9.6mn t/yr Jamshedpur plant in Jharkhand.

Tata met 29pc of its coking coal requirements through its captive mines but imported the rest of its requirements. The company imported 8.3mn t of coal in 2017-18 from Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the US but did not provide any further details or comparative figures.