Ex-India pellet prices have inched lower in the past week with buyers largely staying away, while sellers have preferred local sales, resulting in only a single trade being confirmed during the past week, SteelOrbis learned from trade and industry circles on Friday, January 3.
Sources said that ex-India pellet prices have shed $1/mt to the range of $108-110/mt CFR China, with very few inquiries owing to the year-end holidays and mills in China reported to have completed restocking early.
The sources said that a southern India-based pellet producer has reported the sole trade of the week, for 50,000 mt via a tender, receiving a highest bid of $108/mt CFR.
According to the sources, even while the market has seen a lack of activity on the part of buyers, sellers have continued to push for domestic sales, fetching better prices, and have been holding back from submitting offers overseas.
As per industry calculations, in the case of an Odisha-based pellet producer, export sales realisations on ex-plant basis worked out at INR 6,300/mt ($74/mt) while local sales have been done at the higher level of INR 7,550/mt ($88/mt) ex-plant.
“Overall activity in seaborne deals is very low as mills in China prefer to meet their limited requirements from port-side stocks. Sellers are focussing on local sales at better prices,” a member of the Pellet Manufacturers’ Association of India (PMAI) said.
“Unless bids improve significantly to minimum levels of $118-120/mt CFR, sellers are unlikely to be aggressive on the export front,” he said.