New Delhi, May 13 : In a relief to steel producers, the country's largest public sector mining company, NMDC has reduced the prices of iron ore by Rs 400 per tonne. It has also reduced the price of directly reduced calibrated lump ore (DRCLO) by Rs 470 per tonne. The price changes have been made effective from May 9, the company said in a statement. In April as well, the NMDC had reduced the price of iron ore by Rs 500 per tonne and DRCLO by Rs 580 per tonne. In this way, within a span of one month, the miner has reduced the iron ore by Rs 900 per tonne and DRCLO by Rs 1,050 per tonne. The main customers of DRCLO are metal companies in Chhattisgarh. This reduction in the prices of iron ore has given a lot of relief to the steel companies, especially sponge iron-based steel companies of Chhattisgarh. NMDC has considered the current market scenario of steel and iron ore and taken informed decisions to rationalise the prices. It may be noted that all the major steel mills are running at reduced capacity because of depleted demand of end products. Some of the merchant miners at Orissa including OMC have reduced the iron ore prices by Rs 500 per tonne in their recently-concluded auction, but still could not dispose of the entire quantity. NMDC's CMD N. Baijendra Kumar said: "The reduction in prices by NMDC has given a lot of relief to the steel companies and they appreciated this move of NMDC at this difficult juncture." /IANS