KIOCL Ltd has made a shipment of iron ore pellets to Iran under the Centre’s ‘Make In India’ concept.
The vessel – m.v. Aries – with 66,500 tonnes of iron ore pellets was flagged off at New Mangalore Port on Saturday. The p is targeting to export 0.5 million tonnes of pellets during the year.
Addressing presspersons in Mangaluru on Saturday, Malay Chatterjee, Chairman and Managing Director of KIOCL Ltd (formerly Kudremukh Iron Ore Co Ltd), said that the company is bringing the high-grade iron ore (with ‘Fe’ content of 67 per cent) from Brazil and converting it into pellets at KIOCL’s pellet plant at New Mangalore under this concept. After this, the pellet consignment is exported to Iran, he said.
Asked why the company is importing iron ore fines from Brazil, he said as Iran prefers to use only high-grade pellets (with ‘Fe’ content of 66 per cent and above), the company sourced the high-grade iron ore concentrate from Brazil and produced high-grade pellets to meet Iran’s requirements. The ore of this grade is not available in India, he said.
On the potential of Iran market, he said it has a market of around 10 million tonnes for pellets. KIOCL, which is strategically located at New Mangalore on the west coast of India, can serve Iran with least logistic cost.
Asked about the target of export under the ‘Make In India’ concept, he said: “We are hopeful of doing 0.5 million tonnes of export under ‘Make in India’ during the calendar year 2016.”
KIOCL is holding discussions with various steel companies in Iran and MENA (Middle East and North Africa) region for such an arrangement. Under this, KIOCL’s machinery will be put to effective use for converting the high-grade concentrate into pellets and supplying it back to those countries. This will add to the export capacity and enrich the nation with foreign exchange earnings, he said.
