India's Essar Steel seeks LNG cargo on GLX trading platform

Essar Steel India Ltd sought a liquefied natural gas ( LNG) cargo on an online trading platform this week, three industry sources said on Thursday. The company, a unit of Indian commodity conglomerate Essar Group, was seeking a cargo on a delivered ex-ship (DES) basis for delivery into Dahej over Dec. 28 to 29, the sources said. It sought a cargo through LNG trading marketplace Global LNG Exchange ( GLX) on Wednesday but did not attract any offers, one of the sources said Essar Steel typically buys natural gas from Gail India in the domestic market and buys LNG sometimes in the spot market, a second source added. Essar Steel's mill in the western state of Gujarat is currently operating at 6.5 million tonnes a year due to constraints in iron ore supply and shortages of natural gas used to run its furnace.