Expect no price hike in June: NMDC's Verma

State-run miner NMDC which currently fixes ore prices on a monthly basis, will not hike cost in June, said NMDC’s chairman and managing director, CS Verma in an interview to CNBC-TV18. Currently the price of fines stands at Rs 2,610 a tonne and the price of lumps at Rs 4,600 a tonne.

The average price of NMDC's iron ore was Rs 3,660 per tonne during Q4, compared to Rs 3,966 crore a year ago - down 8 percent. The decline was due to volatile international prices of the key steel making raw material. The firm which saw its Q4 profit slide 11 percent year-on-year to Rs 1464.9 crore expects to earmark Rs 2,700 crore capex in current financial year. With the increase in demand of iron ore from the domestic steel industry, NMDC collective would be committed to produce 27.4 million tonnes of iron ore during the current fiscal. Read This: NMDC Q4 net profit down 10.79% at Rs 1,465 cr Below is the verbatim transcript of his interview to CNBC-TV18 Q: What were your realizations for the current quarter? A: Our Q4 for the period ended March 31, 2013, the growth in sales have been 27 percent. Growth in production has been about 37 percent. The average selling price in Q4 has been Rs 3832 versus Rs 3966 for the corresponding period last year. Hence, there has been a dip of 3 percent for the Q4 compared to the corresponding period last year. Q: Production has drastically improved this time, what can you point to in terms of production trends and what kind of dispatch target you guys have for FY14? A: This has been the highest ever production, dispatches for a single quarter for the period ended March 31, 2013. Mood is upbeat at NMDC and first two months have been full of activity. Same momentum and pace of activity and operations we are going to maintain for the year as a whole. We have fixed a target of 27.4 million tonnes for the year 2013-14 as a whole. Inspite of the fact that not a single day the celery pipeline was available to us which use to evacuate about 8 million tonnes of iron ore from Bailadila region. Thus, I am sure we will be exceeding our target. Q: There has been no action at all in terms of price hikes for NMDC despite the fact that global iron ore prices are moving higher. Where do things go on the pricing front? A: Our board had taken a decision pending finalisation of our pricing policy by the company. We will be deciding our iron ore prices on a monthly basis. So, for the month of June 2013, our board has taken a decision today that we will keep the prices same as that of May 2013. That is Rs 4600 per tonne for iron ore lump and Rs 2610 per tonne for iron ore fine. Now it is to be decided on a monthly basis. It is difficult to say what will be the price level after one month. All that will depend on the demand and supply forces. Q: You were looking to sell stake in your steel plant. Can you give us an update on who you have received bids from and by when you can get this sale done? A: We have not selected any partner. The whole idea was to explore the possibility and option of whether we could find a good technologically advanced partner. Yes we have received two bids from two companies; our board is yet to take a view on these things.