India urging firms to acquire overseas iron ore, coking coal assets, official says
Labourers load coal onto a supply truck on the outskirts of Jammu April 6, 2017. REUTERS/Mukesh Gupta/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights, opens new tab
MUMBAI, April 26 (Reuters) - India is encouraging companies to acquire iron ore, coking coal, and other key raw material assets overseas, Steel Secretary Sandeep Poundrik said on Saturday, as the country ramps up its steelmaking capacity to meet rising demand.
"We are encouraging our companies to acquire assets abroad, right from iron ore to coking coal to even limestone and dolomite," Poundrik said at an industry event in Mumbai. "Raw material securitisation is the most important aspect of steelmaking."
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India, the world's second-largest producer of crude steel, aims to boost its overall steelmaking capacity to 300 million tons by 2030, up from about 200 million tons currently.
To support this expansion, coking coal imports are projected to rise to 160 million tons by 2030 from around 58 million tons now, Poundrik had projected on Friday.
Despite an uptick in steel output, India's coking coal imports dipped 0.7% in the fiscal year ended in March due to lower shipments from Australia and the United States, said commodities consultancy BigMint.
India relies on imports to meet 85% of its coking coal needs, with Australia supplying more than half of those shipments.
In a bid to diversify supply, India has also been exploring partnerships with Mongolia. However, logistical challenges remain in sourcing material from the landlocked country, Poundrik noted.
India's state-run miner NMDC (NMDC.NS), opens new tab is exploring coking coal assets, in Indonesia and Australia, Chairman Amitava Mukherjee said on Thursday.
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Neha Arora
Thomson Reuters
Neha reports on metals and mining in India. In her time at Reuters, she has reported on the pandemic when she was a finalist in the Breaking News of the Year category for Journalists of the Year Awards. She has also reported on India's trade policy, central bank's monetary policy, FX/debt markets, as well as done a brief stint with the desk and edited stories. She is a postgraduate with a diploma in journalism from Mumbai's Xavier Institute of Communications, and a graduate in English literature from University of Delhi.
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