Indian export offers for high grade
iron ore fines (with Fe content of 63.5 percent and higher) have edged up by a slight margin of $1/mt compared to one week ago to $60-61/mt CFR China with the market moving within a narrow range with downside bias, traders said on Friday, August 19.
"Anticipations of a price correction have definitely been gaining momentum, and this has kept buyers from responding to offers," an Odisha-based miner-exporter said.
"After this week's peak level of $62/mt failed to be sustained, a sub-$60/mt level is a distinct expectation," the miner-exporter added.
However, at least two other traders have said that in the short term Indian export offers are expected to move within a narrow range of around $2/mt, in either direction, as there are uncertainties over the key drivers of the market, like the direction of finished steel prices and steel output in China.
The limited correction is the result of anticipated lower production from mines in the eastern region of
India during at least the next two months of rainy season, the traders said.