Indian export offers for iron ore fines (with Fe content of 63.5 percent and higher) have indicated sideways movement during the past week at around $92-93/mt CFR China, amid a negative outlook and expectations of offers falling below the $90/mt mark in the short term, traders said on Tuesday, June 10.
"Indian offers showed tentative signs of a mild recovery mid-week moving to $94-95/mt but have failed to hold on to gains as buyers have been unwilling to conclude transactions because of bearish sentiments and expectations of a further weakening," an Orissa-based miner-exporter said.
"There have been enquiries in the range of $89-90/mt but we have turned them down. Only very small volumes of transactions have been reported during the week at current levels," he added.
Market sources said that traders representing Chinese steel mills have only been interested in offers below the $90/mt mark and only for small volumes, while local traders or miner-exporters have not responded to this interest.
The sources said that there have been reports of some interest in low grade fines (with Fe content below 58 percent) and transactions for volumes in the range of 30,000-40,000 mt have been completed for July shipments at prices ranging at $74-77/mt.