Indian export offers for high grade iron ore fines (with Fe content of 63.5 percent and higher) have edged down $0.08/mt week on week to $83.25/mt CFR China, but the lower offers at the close of the week did not reflect the wide mid-week fluctuations triggered by confusion over disruption of supplies by Vale, which prompted strong speculation in futures, thereby impacting trades in the physical market too, traders said on Friday, March 22.
“There is a lot of confusion over supplies from Vale and the size of the resulting impact. First, we hear of reports that supply disruptions from Vale would be limited, followed by reports of lower supplies from Vale’s Alegria mine, resulting in a mid-week yo-yo movement in offers ,” an Odisha-based miner-exporter said.
“The market here in uncertain of any definitive trend emerging in the short term and has concerns regarding the continuation of the present volatility. Under these conditions, neither buyers nor sellers are willing to make any significant volume contract commitment,” the miner-exporter added.
Market sources said that offers dipped $3/mt on a single day in mid-week and, just as buyers were expecting offers to have hit bottom, reports of a cyclone in Australia and its impact on production and supplies of iron ore from the region further compounded the uncertainties in the market and offers took a fresh hit.