Indian export offers for high grade iron ore fines (with Fe content of 63.5 percent and higher) have declined by $2/mt during the past week to $76/mt CFR China as the market reversed its upward momentum in face of buyers’ resistance to higher levels, traders said on Friday, September 15.
“The upward momentum of the market has been losing steam during the past two weeks. But in the past week resistance to higher levels became stronger and traders representing Chinese steel mills have started to retreat, being willing to wait for the market to find a new bottom,” an Odisha-based miner-exporter said.
“A large part of the weakness of the physical market can be attributed to mounting contract selling pressures in the futures market,” the miner-exporter added.
At least two other traders said that expectations of offers breaching the $80/mt mark have failed to materialize, with offers softening after touching the level in question. They also said that the raw material market is waiting for signals from the finished steel market.
According to reports received in India, most Chinese steel mills are comfortable with port stocks and only fresh support from the easing of selling in futures and a fresh surge in finished steel prices can trigger restocking of raw materials, the trader added.