Indian export offers for high grade iron ore fines (with Fe content of 63.5 percent and higher) have remained range-bound for the most part of the past week, edging up a marginal $1/mt towards close to around $56-57/mt CFR China, in a market of low volumes with buyers awaiting a definite price direction, traders said on Friday, September 4.
“The short-term trends in the physical market have been set by futures. However, gains have not being sustained in the face of weak fundamentals led by soft finished steel prices,” an Orissa based miner-exporter said.
“Uncertainties in the Chinese markets are deep rooted and steel mills are not expected to restock aggressively and so Indian offers continued to hold significant downside risks from current levels,” the miner-exporter added.
Market sources said that local offers are expected to come under oversupply pressures as mines in eastern India are expected to increase production with the withdrawal of the monsoon rains and operations resuming in the western province of Goa over the next two to three months.
In a low-volume export market, this will add to pressures on Indian offers, the sources added.
A section of the market maintains that the three-day holiday in China has also contributed to muted interest in Indian offers.