<article><p class="lead">India's Tata Steel produced 22mn t of iron ore in the 2017-18 fiscal year that ended 31 March, marginally higher than the 21.6mn t produced in 2016-17.</p><p>Tata, India's largest private-sector iron ore producer, meets the entire iron ore requirements for its two steel plants from captive mines. All four mines are in east India's Odisha and Jharkhand states.</p><p>State-controlled NMDC and Sail are the other two major Indian iron ore producers. NMDC increased iron ore production by around 4pc to 35mn t in 2017-18. Sail has not yet published its production figures for 2017-18.</p><p>Tata is currently expanding the capacity of its steel operations in India. The 3mn t/yr Kalinganagar steel plant in Odisha is being expanded to 8mn t/yr of capacity. Tata also acquired the 5mn t/yr <a href="https://direct.argusmedia.com/newsandanalysis/article/1681173">Bhushan Steel</a> this year. Its flagship Indian steel mill is the 9.6mn t/yr Jamshedpur plant in Jharkhand.</p><p>Tata met 29pc of its coking coal requirements through its captive mines but imported the rest of its requirements. The company imported 8.3mn t of coal in 2017-18 from Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the US but did not provide any further details or comparative figures.</p></article>
