State-owned miner NMDC Ltd reported a 9.8% increase in iron ore production to 3 million tonnes in September, compared to 2.73 million tonnes in the same period last year. Sales also increased to 3.11 million tonnes from 2.91 million tonnes. NMDC s iron ore production for the April-September period rose to 19.56 million tonnes, up from 16.18 million tonnes in the corresponding period of the previous fiscal year.
In the last 10 years, October has proved to be one of the best months for Nifty bulls as the index has given a positive monthly return in nine out of 10 times with an average return of 2.9%. JM Financial says this is the highest average return observed in any calendar month.
State-owned SAIL has sourced 8 shipments of coking coal, each weighing 75,000 tonnes, from Russia between April and September of FY24. The company s chairman, Amarendu Prakash, also revealed that ICVL, a special purpose vehicle of SAIL, RINL, NMDC, CIL, and NTPC, is looking to double its production capacity to 4 million tonnes per annum. Prakash noted that the rising prices of coking coal will directly impact steel manufacturing costs and put pressure on the company s profit margins.
NMDC is not able to ship low-grade iron ore to the country s biggest iron ore customer, China, amid logistics issues, according to a source. This is a major hindrance as Indian producers of low-grade ores depend a lot on foreign markets since most major local steel producers use high-grade iron ores.