RAIPUR (India), Jan 13: The head of a mineral-rich eastern Indian state said on Friday he had asked the federal government to ban iron ore exports because of shortages faced by the local industry.

“I met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Jan. 2 and told him that iron ore exports should be stopped. I am hopeful of a positive outcome,” Raman Singh, chief minister of Chhattisgarh, told Reuters.

Singh said he wanted state-run National Mineral Development Corporation (NMDC) to stop exporting ore from the state.

Nearly 70 sponge iron units, which account for 30 per cent of India’s annual output of 10 million tons of sponge iron used in making galvanised steel, had shut operations for two weeks till Jan. 4 to protest against a shortage of iron ore and coal.

The Chhattisgarh Sponge Iron Manufacturers Association says heavy demand for iron ore and coal from large Indian companies and foreign buyers are starving the smaller firms.

“Our sponge iron units need a monthly supply of 500,000 tons of iron ore, but are getting only 70,000 tons,” Suresh Agrawal, president of the association, said.

“We will begin a shutdown in March again if NMDC fails to supply the raw material.”

NMDC had mined 15.7m tons of iron ore from Chhattisgarh out of the firm’s total output of 20.7m tons in the fiscal year ended March 2005. It exported nearly 5m tons mainly to Japan.