Which were India's top iron ore producing companies in FY'24? - A BigMint lowdown

• NMDC emerges as leading domestic miner followed by Tata Steel
  
  
• Both PSU and private companies ramp up output
  
  
• India's iron ore production may reach 305-310 mnt in FY'25
  
  

Morning Brief: In financial year 2023-2024 (FY'24), the top iron ore miner in India was the National Mineral Development Corporation (NMDC), with total output at around 45 mnt followed by Tata Steel at 38 mnt.

India's iron ore production increased significantly to 281 million tonnes (mnt) in FY'24 and, as per BigMint data, both the public and private sector miners had a significant role to play in driving domestic iron ore output higher.

India's crude steel production increased 14% in FY'24 to 144 mnt compared to 126 mnt in FY'23, which explains the surge in iron ore production y-o-y. Notably, many pure-play miners are in the process of acquiring downstream steelmaking assets amid upbeat sentiments surrounding infrastructure growth and steel demand in India.

Leading miners

NMDC's production from its mines in Chhattisgarh stood at over 32 mnt in FY'24, while the company's mines in Karnataka accounted for 12.7 mnt of production.

The other major PSU miner, OMC, recorded production at 33 mnt, with the entire volume coming from Odisha. OMC's production has received a boost after it acquired quality, albeit non-operational, mines post Odisha auctions in 2020.

The primary steel producers have seized a disproportionate share of India's post-auction iron ore production landscape: while Tata Steel has increased production significantly, JSW Steel logged 27 mnt of iron ore production in the bygone fiscal, with the company's Odisha mines registering total production at 19 mnt, with the auctioned Karnataka mines recording total output at 8.2 mnt.

While SAIL and JSPL posted regular figures, the star performers were, of course, Rungta and Lloyds Metals: the former recorded production at around 18 mnt in FY'24; Lloyds churned out 10 mnt from its mines in Maharashtra. Significantly, both miners have fixed their sights on downstream value-addition going ahead.

Outlook

BigMint projects India's iron ore production to increase to around 305-310 mnt in FY'25. This is obviously in sync with our estimation of domestic crude steel production increasing to around 148-150 mnt in FY'25.

Our projections show that the top PSU miners - NMDC and OMC - will increase their output to 50 mnt and 38 mnt, respectively, in FY'25, while Tata Steel and JSW may be expected to ramp up output to 42 and 30 mnt, respectively.

SAIL's output may rise just about marginally due to predominance of low-grade iron ore reserves available to the company, and additional premium being charged for auctions of mineral resulting in very little incentive for production.

However, Rungta is expected to churn out higher volumes, which may touch around 22 mnt in FY'25, while Lloyds will maintain firm production figures.

Peering further into the future, expansion of production by the PSUs and private miners will likely be considerable in the coming years, with many auctioned mines coming onstream. However, beneficiation technology is most likely to be adopted by the key miners in a major way in order to make the best use of domestic raw materials via grade enhancement for quality steel manufacturing and also to stop the inflow of imports.