Indian export offers for high grade iron ore fines (with Fe content of 63.5 percent and higher) have moved within a narrow range during the past week, rising marginally by $0.6/mt week on week to $88.55/mt CFR China amid muted trading conditions and market participants being unsure of short-term trends, traders said on Friday, May 3.
Sources said that the market is still uncertain over how much of the recent supply-side disruptions will ease in the medium and long term. The sources said that, while some of the mines of global miners have been getting back into operation, actual shipments from key suppliers in Brazil and Australia are still tight.
“Buyers are waiting for the tightness of global supplies to ease and are putting pressure on Indian high alumina fines before concluding any deals,” an Odisha-based miner-exporter said.
“Both buyers and sellers are on the sidelines waiting for definite trends to emerge and it is a stalemate market at present with little activity,” the miner-exporter added.
Market sources said that, with Cyclone Fani hitting the eastern coastal states of Odisha, Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal since early Friday, its impact on mining operations and transportation logistics is yet unclear.
While initial reports indicated significant dislocation, the impact of Cyclone Fani will become clearer over the next few days and the extent to which mining operations and port stockyards have been hit will determine local offers in the short term, the sources added.