The government will soon revise the export duty structure of steel products. The new prices would be considered after judging the current market conditions. The government has also decided to resolve the conflict between miners and steel makers over iron ore prices.

The Committee of Secretaries (CoS) is expected to recommend 20 pc duty on iron ore after revising the prices in national and international market. The prices of steel products are dependant on iron ore, so increase in the export duty has a great significance. The ministries of steel and mines want co-ordination between industry and miners in view of high inflationary pressure on the economy.

The export duty on flat steel products is expected to be around 15 percent as previous year duty. The government wanted long-term contracts between the steel industry and the miners.

The prices of the alloy would come down after such agreement. The global prices of the ore are already decreasing in the international market and the government wants low prices of ore in the domestic market as well. It has held its decision on the import duty to give sufficient time to complete the negotiation between miners and industry.

India produces about 190 million tonnes of ore and domestic consumption is about 85 mt. The state owned NMDC is the largest ore supplier, with ore supply of 28% of domestic sales.