India: Chrome Ore Production Rises in Dec'18

Odisha contributes almost entirely towards chrome ore production in India. Chrome Ore Production in Dec'18 was noted to be 342,080MT. It is about 32% higher as compared to the previous month viz., Nov'18.

Production level by Captive miners went up by 57.4% on M-o-M. Indian Metals & Ferro Alloys Limited (IMFA) contributed the highest amount in the production of Chrome Ore, amongst the Captive mines in India. IMFA and Balasore Alloys witnessed a remarkable hike in production by 94.5% and 52.9% respectively. Meanwhile, Infrastructure Development Company Limited (IDCOL) experienced production cuts by 63.6% M-o-M.

Production level by Merchant miners went up by 23.47% M-o-M. Tata Steel, one of the major merchant miners encountered 24.59% fall in production. Production for Tata Steel stood for 125,365MT in Dec'18. Second Largest producer of Chrome Ore among merchant miners, Odisha Mining Corporation (OMC) faced a sharp rise with 343% increase in production. However, B.C. Mohanty and Sons experienced a fall of 27% in Dec'18.

A total of 32.16% rise was noticed in Dec'18 M-o-M. Meanwhile, a rise of 4.2% was noticed on a Y-o-Y basis in CY 2018. Total Production for the CY2018 was noticed to be 4,487,699MT. A fall in Chrome Ore Production in the past four months can be attributed to a number of factors as during the rainy season production of Chrome Ore was affected as the mines were waterlogged. Also due to the Production cuts, Ferro Chrome demand and prices were affected, which could be another factor for low Chrome Ore production. However, overall growth in production suggests, that the market was stable throughout the year.