India's NMDC Seeks Federal Government Aid to Secure New Iron Reserves

Mining Weekly reported that India’s NMDC Limited (NSE:NMDC) is seeking help from the federal government to secure new reserves and scale up operations.
As quoted in the market news:

Faced with falling domestic demand and sales, as well as rising import competition, NMDC believes government support in accessing new reserves is critical to enhance economies of scale and to match rising competition from global majors.
According to a company official, iron-ore imports into the country were rising sharply as local steel companies preferred to source raw materials from large overseas miners, such as BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto and Vale, as the major producers were able to adopt more aggressive pricing strategies during the current global downturn in commodities.
As a result, the government-owned and -managed NMDC was looking at the federal government to offer a helping hand in increasing the number of operational mines in its fold as higher-volume production would enable it to match the pricing power enjoyed by global miners, he said.
NMDC’s total sales for April to August, at 11.27-million tonnes, were down 17% compared with sales for the corresponding months of 2014, compelling the company to drastically lower its prices. Production for the April to August period was down 13% at 10.52-million tonnes, compared with the corresponding months of the previous year.

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