Indian export offers for high grade iron ore fines (with Fe content of 63.5 percent and higher) have edged up marginally by $1/mt during the past week to $80/mt CFR China amid thin trading and few buyers even as Chinese holidays ended mid-week, traders said on Friday, February 23.
“Despite the gains, offer levels can go either directions since the gains during the past week came amid thin volumes and traders representing Chinese steel mills are yet to fully get back to business,” an Odisha-based miner-exporter said.
“Most of the small volume transactions are limited between local aggregating traders and counterpart traders in Singapore. Immediate market trends will only become clearer once traders representing Chinese mills are back in the local market and re-stocking appetite of Chinese steel mills,” the miner-exporter added.
According to two other traders re-stocking levels by Chinese steel mills would largely depend on when production limits on the mills will kick in, adding that local market expects offers to remain range-bound in the short term without aggressive buying surfacing.
Market sources said that offers on the other hand can find supply support as March 15 draws near, the deadline for mines in Goa to shut down as per Supreme Court order and few mines in Odisha remaining closed after failure to pay up court levied penalties.