Indian export offers for high grade iron ore fines with Fe content of 63.5 percent and above have gained $2/mt over the past week to the range of around $91-92/mt CFR China, but the outlook for a recovery is limited by the strong bearish sentiments which dog the market, traders said on Tuesday, June 24.
"The gains in offers are too small to mark a recovery, also given that volumes are very low. Buyers' disinterest continues to be too deep for any recovery to be sustainable," an Orissa-based miner-exporter said.
" Reports indicate that Chinese steel mills are operating while maintaining the lowest raw material stocks possible. Given this fact, coupled with the continued liquidity problems faced by Chinese traders, buyers are not interested in concluding transactions for any significant volumes in the Indian markets," he added.
He said that the marginal gains in offers are more in the nature of a technical upside for speculative reasons than due to any fundamental demand-driven factors.
Market sources state that several traders representing Chinese steel mills have been heard talking of prices falling to lows of around $80/mt.
Though this may be too speculative, it indicates the depth of negative outlook, the sources added.
The sources said that transactions volumes are negligible since traders are taking offers but have been pulling out of the market without giving any counter bids.