Iron ore, which is a key input for blast furnace steelmakers, is at a new high. Iron ore futures in Singapore are up 10 percent. TV Narendran, MD and CEO of Tata Steel discussed the company's iron ore strategy.

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“We will participate in the iron ore auctions,” he said in an interview with CNBC-TV18. “..We will be conscious of what price to bid because when you get these iron ore mines, you have to run it for 50 years. So that way we will be prudent,” he added.

“Hopefully we will have iron ore mines with us even as we reach 2030,” he shared. “We have set up this company called Tata Steel Mining which is going to be focused on both captive and merchant mining,” Narendran further mentioned.

In terms of selling iron ore, he stated, “I would think over the next few years, we will start selling some iron ore. We will explore all the opportunities.”

On steel prices, he said, “The steel prices in India are the lowest in the world right now. Anybody who is using steel to make products that they want to export are in a better position than anybody anywhere else in the world. So I wouldn’t be surprised if there is a regulatory move but we will respect whatever the government decides.”

“The US has always been a market which is difficult to sell a lot of steel into because you have anti-dumping action if anyone exports steel into the US. So it has never been a very big market for Indian exporters."

"What is happening is because the US steel prices are very high, a lot of steel products which use steel are being exported into the US from other countries because the US steel consumers are paying USD 1500 to buy steel."

"So that puts them at a competitive disadvantage compared to other players elsewhere. So we see an indirect positive impact of high prices in US – not so much direct impact on us but indirectly it helps us,” he shared.

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(Edited by : Bivekananda Biswas)

First Published:May 10, 2021 5:02 PM IST