Indian export offers for high grade
iron ore fines (with Fe content of 63.5 percent and higher) have indicated negligible change over the past week, remaining at around $92-93/mt CFR
China, as buyers have showed no interest in concluding transactions, traders said on Tuesday, July 1.
"The export offers of the past week were merely symbolical since no significant transactions have been reported in the market as buyers showed little confidence as regards making bookings at current levels," an Orissa-based miner-exporter said.
"Buyers have been seeking offers at around or just below the $90/mt mark. But such levels were not viable for me," he added.
"The negative outlook has been getting stronger and even mid-week gains of $1-2/mt have not been sustained and offers fell back to lower levels but still failed to evoke any interest," he added.
Market sources stated that traders representing Chinese steel mills said that the latter had further reduced raw material inventories and preferred to operate with the lowest levels of stocks to cope with the tight liquidity situation.
Under the circumstances, trading volumes are expected to worsen further and even minor gains will not be sustained, the sources said.
There is a distinct possibility that current bearish sentiments and the lack of evident support could force a further weakening of Indian offers to around $90/mt later this week, some eastern Indian traders have indicated.