Indian export offers for high grade iron ore fines (with Fe content of 63.5 percent and higher) have remained stable during the past week at $83.1/mt CFR China, as business activity is still to pick up after Chinese New Year holiday and as buyers prefer to wait and observe new emerging price trends, traders said on Friday, February 3.
“With traders representing Chinese steel mills absent from the Indian market for most of the week, virtually no significant transactions have been reported and so offers remained unchanged,” an Odisha-based miner-exporter said.
“Buyers are waiting for market activity to pick up before concluding new transactions. Actually, current offers are on a knife edge and can move in either direction from current levels,” the miner-exporter added.
However, at least two traders said that Indian offers are expected to remain under pressure from the supply side as production seems to be rising in provinces like Odisha and Goa. At the same time, sentiments are depressed as India’s national budget has disappointed all expectations of a reduction in the 30 percent export tax on high grade iron ore.