Indian iron ore export offers record declines for third straight week

Indian export offers for high grade iron ore fines (with 63.5 percent and above iron) have remained on a downtrend for the third consecutive week, shedding $3-4/mt over the past week and declining to $131-132/mt CFR China due to aggressive pricing pressure coming from buyers, traders said on Monday, May 6.
 
Two miner-exporters based in the eastern Indian province of Orissa told SteelOrbis that buyers representing Chinese steel mills have increased the pressure for downward price corrections to lower raw material prices in views of the softening of steel prices over the past month.
 
"Indian iron ore fines offers have shed close to $10/mt over the past one month. Chinese buyers are not concluding transactions at current offers and are looking for prices to fall below the $130/mt mark," one trader said.
 
However, some other traders said that, according to reports in local markets, tenders for supplies by large global iron ore miners are still pending and bids by Chinese buyers would determine the medium-term direction of iron ore fines prices.
 
The traders said that, if reports last week indicating oversupply of ex-Australia iron ore are accurate, prices can stabilize below the $130/mt mark, and hence the current pressures on Indian offers and very low buying interest.
 
Market sources said that traders representing Chinese steel mills are aggressive in their restocking strategy to ensure a lower average May price compared to the average April price and this could indicate another downside risk of $4-5/mt for fines over the coming weeks.