Indian export offers for iron ore pellets have gradually increased during the past week but no deals were concluded as local producers did not have any volumes for export in January having already concluded sales to local steel mills, SteelOrbis learned on Friday, January 3.
According to traders and at least two producers, iron ore pellet exporters are now getting ready to increase export offers further for February loading and align export offers with higher sales realizations to local steel mills.
Market sources said that iron ore pellets of high grade with alumina content of two percent and lower have been quoted marginally higher at $117/mt CFR China compared to $115-116/mt CFR China in the previous week, but the submission of quotes was not followed up by contracts with buyers as exporters did not have ready volumes for loading in the current month.
At least two eastern Indian pellet manufacturers said that they would commence offers for February loading at higher offers in the range of $118-120/mt CFR China for high grade pellets from next week, aligning export offers to local sales realizations.
“Producers will all start pushing up offers over the next two weeks as, with local steel mills increasing pellet sourcing, exportable volumes are low as evident for no stocks available with any manufacturer to commit loading in the current month. Higher export offers will test the market but, considering Chinese steel mills are willing to pay a premium for pellets compared to lumps, higher export offers are likely to be absorbed by buyers,” a member of the Pellet Manufacturers’ Association of India (PMAI) said.