Ex-India pellet prices remained stable but no deals were heard over the past week as buyers, mostly from China were absent from the market owing to holidays and uncertainty whether the finished steel market is stable enough to absorb current higher levels of raw material prices, SteelOrbis learned from trade and industry circles on Friday, June 30.
Sources said that ex-India pellet prices were kept stable in the range of $120-123/mt CFR China but trade activity remained silent from the absence of buyers.
However, a section of the market remained optimistic taking a cue from a government-run pellet producer which floated an export tender for 50,000 mt and to close end next week.
The sources pointed out that inactive market conditions were largely owing to the closure of business in activity rather than any fundamental change in market dynamics and improvements both in trade and prices were expected once business resumed next week.
A section of trade however expected prices to react in face of buyers’ resistance pointing out that finished steel prices in China had still not consolidated and showed volatility in view of which mills lacked confidence to undertake aggressive restocking of raw materials and hence limited buying would be restricted to port stocks.