Indian export offers for high grade iron ore fines (with 65 percent and above iron content) have attracted little activity during the past week, with just a few small transactions recording nominal gains of around $1/mt with prices hovering at about $115/mt CFR China amid ongoing lack of demand from buyers, traders said on Monday, June 17.
Two Orissa-based miner-exporters told SteelOrbis that there is a lack of confidence in the Indian iron ore export market with traders representing Chinese steel mills showing no significant buying interest for the last two to three consecutive weeks.
The miner-exporters said that even the transactions concluded over the past few weeks have remained too small to indicate any short-term trend and local markets have been gripped by a lot of confusion regarding the restocking strategies of Chinese mills in the short and medium terms.
Market sources said that the aggregate gains of around $2/mt recorded in ex-India iron ore offers over the past two weeks have clearly underlined the weakness in the market and the reluctance of buyers to conclude large transactions.
The sources said that the modest gains were more in the nature of corrections at lower levels and that Indian iron ore fines would continue to be under a downside risk of $5-10/mt in the coming weeks, unless Chinese domestic steel prices show signs of strengthening which in turn could trigger restocking of raw material.