NEW DELHI: India’s imports of iron ore, a key raw material in steelmaking, are set to rise to a seven-year high in the fiscal year ending on March 31, driven by a shortage of high-grade ore and demand from JSW Steel, analysts and industry executives said.
Overall imports are likely to reach 12 million to 14 million metric tons in 2025-26, more than doubling from a year earlier, analysts and trade officials said.
JSW Steel, India’s biggest steelmaker by capacity, was a key driver of iron ore imports for its mills in the western state of Maharashtra and the southern state of Karnataka, said Lalit Ladkat, a senior analyst at London-based consultancy CRU.
A cargo of BHP’s Jimblebar Fines iron ore is heading to India in a rare sale, driven by discounts on the product that was banned for sale in China, Reuters reported last week. The bulk of India’s iron ore imports in the fiscal year originated from Brazil and Oman, which together accounted for about 70 percent of total shipments, Ladkat said. Iron ore output in India, the world’s second-largest crude steel producer, is expected to reach 305 million tons in the 2025–26 fiscal year, up from 289 million metric tons a year earlier, according to commodities consultancy BigMint.
But exports of iron ore are expected to reach 29 million metric tons, up 26 percent from a year earlier, with 85 percent of shipments going to China, Ladkat said.
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