MMTC Ltd., Metals and Minerals Trading Corporation of India, is one of the two highest earners of

foreign exchange The foreign exchange market (Forex, FX, or currency market) is a global decentralized or over-the-counter (OTC) market for the trading of currencies. This market determines foreign exchange rates for every currency. It includes all as ...

for India and India's largest public sector trading body. Not only handling the export and import of primary products such as

coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal is formed when ...

, iron ore, agro and industrial products, MMTC also exports and imports important commodities such as

ferrous In chemistry, the adjective Ferrous indicates a compound that contains iron(II), meaning iron in its +2 oxidation state, possibly as the divalent cation Fe2+. It is opposed to " ferric" or iron(III), meaning iron in its +3 oxidation state, suc ...

and nonferrous metals for

industry Industry may refer to: Economics * Industry (economics), a generally categorized branch of economic activity * Industry (manufacturing), a specific branch of economic activity, typically in factories with machinery * The wider industrial sector ...

, and agricultural

fertilizers A fertilizer (American English) or fertiliser (British English; see spelling differences) is any material of natural or synthetic origin that is applied to soil or to plant tissues to supply plant nutrients. Fertilizers may be distinct from ...

. MMTC's diverse trade activities cover third country trade, joint ventures and link deals and all modern forms of international trading. The company has a vast international trade network, spanning almost in all countries in Asia, Europe, Africa,

Oceania Oceania (, , ) is a geographical region that includes Australasia, Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia. Spanning the Eastern and Western hemispheres, Oceania is estimated to have a land area of and a population of around 44.5 million ...

, and in the United States and also includes a wholly owned international subsidiary in

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, bor ...

, MTPL. It is one of the Miniratnas companies. MMTC is one of the two highest

earner for India (after petroleum refining companies). It is the largest international trading company of India and the first

public sector The public sector, also called the state sector, is the part of the economy composed of both public services and public enterprises. Public sectors include the public goods and governmental services such as the military, law enforcement, inf ...

enterprise to be accorded the status of Five Star Export Houses by

Government of India The Government of India (ISO: ; often abbreviated as GoI), known as the Union Government or Central Government but often simply as the Centre, is the national government of the Republic of India, a federal democracy located in South Asia, ...

for long standing contribution to exports Being the largest player in bullion trade, including retailing, MMTC's share was 146 tonnes of

gold Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile me ...

out of the total import of 600 tonnes of the precious metal in 2008–09.

History

Foundation

The company was incorporated on 26 September 1963 at New Delhi. It falls under Commerce Ministry. The Corporation started functioning on 1 October. The main objectives of the company was export of

mineral ores Ore is natural rock or sediment that contains one or more valuable minerals, typically containing metals, that can be mined, treated and sold at a profit.Encyclopædia Britannica. "Ore". Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Retrieved 7 April ...

and import of essential

metals A metal (from Greek μέταλλον ''métallon'', "mine, quarry, metal") is a material that, when freshly prepared, polished, or fractured, shows a lustrous appearance, and conducts electricity and heat relatively well. Metals are typical ...

. According to a latest news, MMTC is Asia's biggest gold and silver importer.

State Trading Corporation

After

Independence Independence is a condition of a person, nation, country, or state in which residents and population, or some portion thereof, exercise self-government, and usually sovereignty, over its territory. The opposite of independence is the statu ...

the government decided to authorize the

mining Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the Earth, usually from an ore body, lode, vein, seam, reef, or placer deposit. The exploitation of these deposits for raw material is based on the economic ...

of scarce

mineral resources Natural resources are resources that are drawn from nature and used with few modifications. This includes the sources of valued characteristics such as commercial and industrial use, aesthetic value, scientific interest and cultural value. O ...

to the

rather than

private sector The private sector is the part of the economy, sometimes referred to as the citizen sector, which is owned by private groups, usually as a means of establishment for profit or non profit, rather than being owned by the government. Employment The ...

, although India's National Mineral Policy clearly states that it does not "preclude the State from securing the co-operation of private enterprise in the larger interest of the State or with a view to accelerating the pace of development" Under the

Constitution of India The Constitution of India ( IAST: ) is the supreme law of India. The document lays down the framework that demarcates fundamental political code, structure, procedures, powers, and duties of government institutions and sets out fundamental ...

, mineral rights and authority of mining laws remain vested with the state governments. On the other hand,

Central government A central government is the government that is a controlling power over a unitary state. Another distinct but sovereign political entity is a federal government, which may have distinct powers at various levels of government, authorized or dele ...

regulates the development of minerals under the Mines and Minerals (Regulation) Act of 1957. The MMTC has its origins in the 1950s, when the

Indian government The Government of India (ISO: ; often abbreviated as GoI), known as the Union Government or Central Government but often simply as the Centre, is the national government of the Republic of India, a federal democracy located in South Asia, ...

, with the interest of boosting agricultural and industrial development, determined to earn valuable foreign currency through the export of

canalized River engineering is a discipline of civil engineering which studies human intervention in the course, characteristics, or flow of a river with the intention of producing some defined benefit. People have intervened in the natural course and b ...

mineral ores, which the country had huge deposits of. As a consequence of the government's decision to earn

foreign currency A currency, "in circulation", from la, currens, -entis, literally meaning "running" or "traversing" is a standardization of money in any form, in use or circulation as a medium of exchange, for example banknotes and coins. A more general de ...

, the State Trading Corporation of India Ltd. was founded in 1956, as a wholly owned

government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government is ...

subsidiary, to handle the export and import of selected commodities.

1963-2000

The company had commenced its operation on 1 October 1963. With the rapid growth of the State Trading Corporation (STC) in its direct trading activities and in view of the importance given to the exports of mineral ores in the country's Five Year Plans, a decision was taken by the Government of India to split the STC and establish another corporation to deal exclusively with the trade in minerals and metals. Japan and South Korea continued to be the major markets till the year of 1994. Then it made a foray into European market with the exports of one lakh tonnes of iron ore to

Slovakia Slovakia (; sk, Slovensko ), officially the Slovak Republic ( sk, Slovenská republika, links=no ), is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the s ...

and

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Moldova to the east, and ...

. Also in the same year, the company had commenced import of gold and silver against special

import license An import license is a document issued by a national government authorizing the importation of certain goods into its territory. Import licenses are considered to be non-tariff barriers to trade when used as a way to discriminate against anoth ...

for supply to the customers in the domestic area. Imports worth 20 metric tonnes of gold and silver worth 270 tonnes was made and the company opened new gold vaults at

Hyderabad Hyderabad ( ; , ) is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Telangana and the ''de jure'' capital of Andhra Pradesh. It occupies on the Deccan Plateau along the banks of the Musi River, in the northern part of Southern India ...

and

Vizag , image_alt = , image_caption = From top, left to right: Visakhapatnam aerial view, Vizag seaport, Simhachalam Temple, Aerial view of Rushikonda Beach, Beach road, Novotel Visakhapatnam, INS Kursura submarine museu ...

to offer its services to the customers in these areas. However,

manganese ore Manganese is a chemical element with the symbol Mn and atomic number 25. It is a hard, brittle, silvery metal, often found in minerals in combination with iron. Manganese is a transition metal with a multifaceted array of industrial alloy use ...

exports remained depressed due to recession in the steel industry. The wholly owned subsidiary MMTC Transnational Pte Ltd,

was incorporated under the control of company in the year 1994 itself. During the year 1995, MMTC opened a duty-free jewellery show room at

Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport is an international airport serving Mumbai and the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR). It is the second busiest airport in the country in terms of total and international passenger traffic af ...

and a Memorandum of understanding was signed with the government of

Orissa Odisha (English: , ), formerly Orissa ( the official name until 2011), is an Indian state located in Eastern India. It is the 8th largest state by area, and the 11th largest by population. The state has the third largest population of S ...

for development of existing Gopalpur minor port into an all-weather, deep water and direct berthing port. In the same year, Board for Industrial & Financial Reconstruction (BIFR) had approved the scheme of merger-cum-amalgamation of Mica Trading Corporation of India Limited (MITCO) with MMTC. From the year 1996 onwards, the company started to import the

Chemical A chemical substance is a form of matter having constant chemical composition and characteristic properties. Some references add that chemical substance cannot be separated into its constituent elements by physical separation methods, i.e., w ...

items and

Homeopathic Homeopathy or homoeopathy is a pseudoscientific system of alternative medicine. It was conceived in 1796 by the German physician Samuel Hahnemann. Its practitioners, called homeopaths, believe that a substance that causes symptoms of a dise ...

Medicines. In 2003, MMTC's joint venture with the Orissa government, namely Neelchal Ispat Nigam Ltd., emerged as the second largest exporter of pig iron from India.

2012

On 14 September 2012. the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs decided disinvestment of 9.33% in MMTC. Today MMTC has the distinction of being: * Largest

exporter An export in international trade is a good produced in one country that is sold into another country or a service provided in one country for a national or resident of another country. The seller of such goods or the service provider is an ...

of minerals from India * India's Largest Bullion Trader * India's largest importer of Steel-

Coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal is formed when ...

References

External links

Official Website of MMTC Ltd

{{authority control Trading companies, India Government-owned companies of India Metal companies of India Companies based in New Delhi 1963 establishments in Delhi Companies listed on the National Stock Exchange of India Companies listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange