KIOCL aims to increase its overseas sales in markets that were until recently Chinese by entering into an initial agreement to sell pellets to Abirates Dhabi in Abu Dhabi earlier this year.
KIOCL is a major producer of low aluminum, less than 3 percent aluminum pellets while its Fe content of 64 percent is in line with other Indian tier 1 producers such as BRPL and Jindal Steel. The company ships its pellets from the port of New Mangalore in southern India.
India boosted pellet sales to Europe in the 2018-19 fiscal year ending March 31st, after global pellet shipments were cut by an accident at Brazil's Vale's Feijao iron ore mine.
Sales of Indian pellets to the UK increased more than 500 percent from a year earlier to 371,650 tonnes in 2018-19. For the first time, exports to the Netherlands amounted to 54,430 tons, to Poland 66,920 tons and to Turkey 53,990 tons.
In 2018-19, KIOCL produced about 2.24 million tonnes of iron ore pellets and plans to produce 3 million tonnes of pellets in 2019-20. The company typically exports nearly 80 percent of its products.
