Indian export offers for high grade iron ore fines (with Fe content of 63.5 percent and higher) have followed a fluctuating trend in the past week but have managed to close the week $1/mt higher week on week at $57/mt CFR China amid an overall pessimistic outlook, traders said on Friday, June 2.
"Offers moved both ways within a narrow range during the past week. With key drivers continuing to remain weak, it is very difficult to get a short-term price direction," an Odisha-based miner-exporter said.
"There is no consensus on whether offers have hit the bottom. The gains during the week are too modest to be able to make any short-term prediction possible and so buyers have mostly remained out of the market," the miner-exporter added.
Market sources said that, in the absence of any discernible trend, there is a lot of talk of the next possible bottom being at around $50-52/mt and hence the lack of any buying interest at current levels.
At least two other traders said that there are several reports in the Indian market that traders representing Chinese steel mills are facing liquidity issues and so they are reluctant to conclude transactions for even low volumes in the Indian market.