India's largest iron ore miner cut prices of the raw material for steel-making to the lowest in at least a year as demand fell amid the new coronavirus pandemic.
NMDC Ltd. lowered prices of lumps and fines by Rs 400 a tonne over the previous month to Rs 2,250 and Rs 1,960, respectively, in May, a company official told BloombergQuint. That's the second such move since April.
This comes as the government's restriction on production and movement of people aiming to prevent the spread of Covid-19 hurt steel mills. That deepened the slump in demand for the alloy as new construction and purchases of cars and houses were delayed.
NMDC's domestic shipment fell 49 percent year-on-year in April as steel mills shut production or operated at lower utilisation levels.
Also Read: How Jindal Steel Bucked The Trend In Lockdown-Marred April
Yet, Vishal Chandok, research analyst of Emkay Global, sees limited scope of further downside in iron ore prices on the back on firm international rates and strong domestic rebar prices since the re-opening of the market. So far in May, international ore price prices have risen 4 percent over the preceding month to $86.10 a tonne.
NMDC has yet to respond to BloombergQuint's emailed queries.
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