India, the world's third-largest iron ore producer, has imported 800,000 metric tons of pellets to this point this yr, whereas imports had been negligible between 2021 and 2024, Lalit Ladkat, an analyst with London-based CRU Group, advised Reuters.
Most of those pellets are of Iranian origin and shipped by way of Oman to avoid sanctions, Ladkat stated.
The surge in imports is pushed by increased home costs of pellets and the supply of cheaper, high-quality Iranian pellets, Ladkat stated.
India's Ministry of Metal has obtained a petition from home pellet producers and is analyzing the difficulty, stated one of many sources concerned within the matter, who declined to be recognized because the deliberations weren't public.
The ministry didn't reply to a Reuters e mail in search of feedback. In its letter to the ministry, the Pellet Producers Affiliation of India (PMAI) stated: Regardless that pellet imports had been proven to originate from Oman, there have been “doubts on the precise nation of manufacture/origin as it's understood that this nation doesn't produce pellets.” Rising imports have induced home pellet producers to function at simply 69% of capability, PMAI stated.
Oman as a rustic of origin is uncertain, Manish Kharbanda, president of PMAIm advised Reuters.
In 2019, President Donald Trump imposed new sanctions on Iran, concentrating on the Islamic Republic's export revenues from its industrial metals sector.
Each iron ore and iron ore pellets are utilized in steelmaking.
India's demand is being pushed by sturdy metal manufacturing, underpinned by progress in infrastructure, development, and the automotive sector.
India's completed metal consumption reached 25.1 million metric tons between April and Might, the primary two months of the 2025/26 fiscal yr, up 7.1% from a yr earlier, whereas crude metal output rose 9.5% to 26.9 million metric tons.
