Indian export offers for high grade iron ore fines (with Fe content of 63.5 percent and higher) have moved sideways in a narrow range of $1/mt during the past week at $57-58/mt CFR China as uncertainties in the currency market cast gloom on sentiments and restricted activity in the market, traders said on Friday, August 14.
"The local market is yet to get a hang on the impact of Chinese currency devaluation on buying sentiments," an Orissa-based miner-exporter said.
"Further weakening of the Chinese currency would reduce the import raw material appetite of Chinese steel mills. Higher costs of imports would not match finished steel prices," the miner-exporter said.
"Indian exporters would have to lower their offers to keep pushing volumes, while most buyers are seen to be deferring significant volume transactions," he added.
Market sources said that local sentiments have also impacted by imminent over-supply issues with mining operations in the western Indian province of Goa expected to resume from next month. Almost the entire production of low grade iron ore from the province is shipped overseas.