Indian export offers for high grade iron ore fines (with Fe content of 63.5 percent and higher) have entered the New Year with an upward movement, rising by $4/mt during the past week to $76.70/mt CFR China, on the back of revived restocking by Chinese steel mills and apprehensions of a fall in supplies for exports particularly from mines in the eastern state of Odisha, traders said on Friday, January 5.
“The rise in the number of active traders representing Chinese steel mills in the local market indicates revived restocking by the latter ahead of the Chinese New Year holiday next month,” an Odisha-based miner-exporter said.
“The rise in the number of transactions and in the tonnages being transacted came despite reports of finished steel prices retreating in the Chinese market, which indicated that higher iron ore price levels are consolidating and that buyers see limited downside risks in the medium term,” the miner-exporter added.
Two other aggregating traders said that Indian export offers are also supported by apprehensions of lower volumes likely to be available for overseas shipments over the next few months in the wake of at least 10 iron ore mines in Odisha closing down after they failed to pay the court-mandated penalty for violation of mining laws. They estimated that closure of these mines will result in a shortfall of at least 20 million metric tons in production in Odisha in a full year.