The Hindu reported that Goa’s economy is all set for another setback with the state’s iron ore mining industry fearing a whopping 30% decline in annual exports by year end.
Sources in the industry said that in the Q1 of the current shipping season post monsoon iron ore exports from Goa had gone down to 1.1 million tonnes as against 1.6 million tones.
Much to the concern of the officials of the Goa Mineral ore Exporters’ Association, the signals are obvious that the demand from China has considerably gone down.
Mr S Sridhar CEO of GMOEA said that the current prices were down by around 40% to 45% compared with that of April.
Mr Sridhar said that Chinese steel mills had around 70 million tones of ore stacked with them which could be sufficient for their consumption for the next quarter.
Mr Sridhar added that “We never expected this kind of a sharp decline in exports, though it was expected that the unprecedented Chinese boom that prevailed for a few years will eventually taper off.”
Mr Sridhar said that last year, Goa had exported 32 million tonnes of iron ore, over 50% of that being to China alone and indications at this stage were that the State’s exports might not exceed 26 million tonnes by year end.
During the H2 of the current year, Goa exporters fear a tough competition from Australia, once the Chinese open gates for imports.
The sources said that although the signs of imminent decline of intake of iron ore by China were cause for concern, the industry is slightly happy over the Japanese demand. Goa exporters are confident that South Korea too would increase the intake of ore.
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run a car on water…
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