Indian export offers for high grade iron ore fines (with Fe content of 63.5 percent and higher) have increased by $0.95/mt during the past week to around $56.85/mt CFR China, after persisting in a narrow range amid a negative outlook and uncertain fundamentals of finished steel prices, traders said on Friday, September 23.
“There is nothing in the market to attract the attention of either buyers or sellers; hence the lackluster trading conditions,” an Odisha-based miner-exporter said.
“The much-expected restocking by Chinese steel mills just after the festival holidays has not materialized either, indicating a lack of appetite among the mills to carry raw material stocks. Accordingly, traders representing these mills have remained inactive in the Indian market,” the miner-exporter said.
Market sources pointed out that persistent thin trading has reflected a negative outlook and the expected restocking ahead of the Chinese holidays early next month may not materialize either.
The sources pointed out that, with the monsoon rains starting to recede, production from mines in the states of Odisha and Goa are expected to rise and offers could face fresh downside pressures from the supply side.
For example, the Goa government on Thursday lifted restrictions on transportation of iron ore by roads, which had earlier been imposed owing to heavy rains in the region.