Indian export offers for high grade iron ore fines (Fe content 63.5 percent and above) have surged ahead riding on speculative positions in the futures market, increasing by $1.60/mt week on week to $73.4/mt CFR China even though the market has started to show signs of cooling down towards the close of the week, traders said on Friday, October 19.
“A lot of speculative positions surfaced during the week in the futures market and this impacted the physical market with offer levels reacting upwards. But towards the close of both the futures and physical markets have showed signs of running out of steam,” a Odisha-based miner-exporter said.
“However, despite the rise in offer levels, except from a few aggregating traders, miner-exporters have been largely confined to small-volume transactions and buyers are cautious too as overall the market remains sceptical over the sustainability of the higher levels in the absence of definite support from key fundamental drivers,” the miner-exporter added.
According to two other traders, there was a marked slowdown in market activity on Friday, October 19, as buyers have been expecting a downward correction and have preferred to wait for the market to seek a bottom before making fresh deals. The slowdown in the market is also attributed to fewer traders active, particularly in eastern India where businesses are still closed for festival holidays.