Mr Beni Prasad Verma steel minister of India said the duty on iron ore might be raised again, to discourage exports.

Mr Verma said that “We have increased the export duty from 5% to 20%. We may increase it further.”

The rise had been made in the current financial year’s budget announcement, despite warnings from mining firms about a spur to commodity prices.

Mr Verma said that around half of what was produced in the past three years had been sent outside the country. The proportion was 49.7% of the 212.9 million tonnes produced in 2008-09, 53.7% of the 218.6 million tonne output in 2009-10 and 46.9% of the 208.1 million tonne produced in 2010-11.

(Sourced from BS)