Indian export offers for high grade iron ore fines (with 63.5 percent and above iron content) have further decreased in the past week, declining by $3-4/mt to $134-136/mt CFR China, with buyers retreating once again without concluding any transactions, traders said on Monday, April 29.
"Most representatives of Chinese steel mills are forcing a faster downward price correction. Indian market players believe that Chinese buyers are looking to reduce their average costs of stocks through lower May prices," traders based in the eastern Indian province of Orissa said.
"Reports in the local Chinese markets indicate that there is an oversupply of Australian iron ore, but it cannot be confirmed whether this is just speculation aimed at driving down prices," the traders said.
Some eastern Indian traders said that there has been a number of inquiries which failed to materialize into transactions owing to holidays in China ahead of May Day.
However, several other traders told SteelOrbis that the weak buying interest in Indian ore is much more fundamental since this is the second week of price decrease, with offers shedding $3- 4/mt in the past week and $4-5/mt in the previous week.
These traders said that finished steel inventories are showing increasing trends at mills and in markets in China and Southeast Asia, where the easing of iron ore inventory restocking activity is expected to result in lower average costs of raw materials during the next two months.