Indian export offers for high grade iron ore fines (with Fe content of 63.5 percent and higher) have continued to seek lower levels, edging down by $2.50/mt week on week to $60.80/mt CFR China, amid negligible market activity, traders said on Friday, October 27.
“With the prolonged downtrend, it is very difficult to predict a bottom. Hence, most buyers are out of the market,” an Odisha-based miner-exporter said.
“Fundamental key drivers like billet prices remain weak and the lack of activity in the futures market too does not offer any support to the physical market, thereby deepening pessimism among buyers,” he said.
“Several traders representing Chinese steel mills received offers but have not responded and we hear that buyers are waiting for offers to fall further to a new bottom of around $57-58/mt mark before considering any transaction, reflecting the overall negative outlook,” the miner-exporter added.
At least two other traders said that there have been several reports in the Indian market that Chinese steel mills have been reducing blast furnace capacity utilization, triggering concerns over the impact on raw material demand and transactions in the seaborne iron ore trade.