NMDC is a Navratna Public Sector Enterprise and hence it can take commercial and financial decisions including pricing of iron ore without government interference. Minister of Steel Beni Prasad Verma said this in Lok Sabha.

Verma further said that NMDC’s prices for export of iron ore to Japanese Steel Mills are being fixed considering the percentage prices increase or decrease as settled between Australian iron ore supplier and Japanese Steel Mills.

Prices of iron ore are fixed by the individual companies based on commercial prudence and general market situation.

Whereas, domestic iron ore prices by NMDC is being fixed considering factors like prevailing iron ore prices in other sectors, demand supply scenario for its iron ore.

Verma said sales under export agreements are done on Free on Board (FOB) port basis whereas domestic sales are done on Free on Rail (FOR) or Free on Truck (FOT) mine (Bailadila) basis and as such these two types of prices are not directly comparable.