Indian export offers for high grade iron ore fines (Fe content of 63.5 percent and above) have recorded a minor gain of $1/mt during the past week to a range of $132-133/mt CFR China, too small to represent any reversal of the persistent bearish trend in the market, traders said on Monday, May 13.
Two miner-exporters based in the eastern Indian province of Orissa have told SteelOrbis that the marginal one dollar gain reported in a very small number of transactions has been too small to represent any shift in the price trend during the past week.
Traders representing Chinese steel mills have made a few enquiries and only transactions for very small volumes have been reported in the market and the nominal gains in prices quoted have made no change to the bearish sentiments for Indian iron ore export offers, the miner-exporters said.
According to market sources, Chinese traders have been resisting any kind of upward correction in iron ore offers against the backdrop of the softening trend in billet prices in China.
Buyers have been applying pressure to force offers below the level of $130/mt before concluding transactions, but Indian traders and miner-exporters have been resisting during the past week, resulting in the lack of direction of offers, the sources said.