Indian export offers for high grade iron ore fines (with Fe content of 63.5 percent and higher) have showed high volatility during the past week, falling to a weekly low of $58/mt but bouncing back amid revived buying interest to show a net gain of $2/mt for the week at $60-61/mt CFR China, traders said on Friday, August 5.
“Forces of correction pushed local offers below the $60/mt mark to a low of $58/mt but the lower levels triggered renewed buying interest,” said an Odisha-based miner-exporter.
“However, much of the high-volume transactions were concluded by aggregating traders who were quick to seize deals at every rise,” the miner-exporter added.
Market sources said that a combination of buyers’ resistance to higher levels, unwinding of speculative positions in the futures market and weakness in finished steel prices had triggered the downward trend in the middle of the week.
But at the close of the week, several traders representing Chinese steel mills were able to conclude high-volume transactions based on the market perception that corrections will be restricted in the short term. Indian offers are also supported by low stocks available at pitheads owing to monsoon rains and most export transactions were concluded for physical stocks at ports and stockyards, the sources added.