Share Market Live

NSE

Shares of iron ore miner KIOCL Ltd surged in early trade on Friday after the public sector undertaking announced the resumption of operations at its Mangaluru plant.

The Bengaluru-headquartered company on Thursday announced that it has resumed operations at its Mangaluru pellet plant unit from November 24. The announcement came days after the government withdrew export duty levied on iron ore pellets, lumps fines, and specified steel products including pig iron with effect from November 19.

Earlier, the PSU had informed the bourses about the temporary closure of the Mangaluru plant due to lack of demand with effect from August 23.

The PSU stated that weak demand in the domestic market and an unviable international market due to the imposition of export duty on pellets by the government had led to a shed-full condition.

The government in May had raised export duty on iron ore lumps with more than 58 percent Fe content from 30 percent to 50 percent ad valorem.

It also levied an export duty of 50 percent on iron ore with Fe content below 58 percent, an export duty of 45 percent on iron ore pellets, and an export duty of 15 percent ad valorem on different forms of alloy and non-alloy steel including pig iron.

KIOCL Ltd., earlier known as Kudremukh Iron Ore Company Limited, is a central PSU under the Ministry of Steel. The company is involved in iron ore mining, beneficiation, and iron–oxide pelletisation.

The Mini Ratna PSU operates a 3.5 million tonnes per annum iron-oxide pellet plant and a blast furnace unit with an annual capacity of 2.16 lakh tonnes of pig iron at Mangaluru.

KIOCL Ltd. is currently trading at Rs 201.95, up 8.28 percent.

(Edited by : Rukmani Krishna)

First Published:Nov 25, 2022 11:47 AM IST