Indian export offers for high grade iron ore fines (with Fe content of 63.5 percent and higher) overcame a mid-week correction to bounce back towards the close of the week, rising by $1.20/mt week on week to $84.65/mt CFR China with buyers becoming active at the lows both in terms of volumes and number of contracts backed by rise in speculative futures, traders said on Friday, March 1.
“The week started off with a correction setting in early and offers dipping to a mid-week low of $81.65/mt. But the lower levels attracted renewed buying interest with the market expecting that that bottom would not be sustained in view of persistent worries over supply disruptions in the wake of the Vale dam disaster,” an Odisha-based miner-exporter said.
“The futures market also rebounded during the week amid speculative buying with participants expecting supply disruptions to affect steel mills more than anticipated earlier and this helped the market to overcome the earlier correction,” he added.
Market sources said that, with the correction proving to be short-lived, buyers are expecting offers to touch the $87/mt mark over the next few days, resulting in a sharp rise in both the number of transactions concluded by aggregating traders in the local market and the average volume of contracts.