Reportedly, the steel enterprises in the Indian Karnataka state have been facing the shortage of iron ore supply.

Industry sources indicated that the domestic iron ore supply may be depleted in the end of month. As a result, 23% of the steel production capacity has been forced to close.

It’s known that the Supreme Court decided to prohibit the mining activities in Karnataka state last August.

However, the Supreme Court allowed the miners to sell the on-hand iron ore stock through the auction and National Mining Development Corporation (NMDC) can supply 1 million tons of iron ore per month from its two mines in the state, in order to ensure the sufficient supply to domestic steel industry.

Nevertheless, the iron ores from the auction are unable to meet the strong demand from the local industry to the quality problems. Besides, NMDC didn’t carry out to supply 1 million tons of iron ore per month because of its debt problems.

Consequently, the steel mills including JSW Steel, Mukand, Sunflag and Tata Metaliks have still faced the shortage of iron ore supply.