Chinese Steel Mills Continue to Book Pellet Vessels from India

Amid limited offers in Chinese spot market and good demand for Indian pellets amid emission restrictions, mills have continued to book Indian pellet cargoes this week at marginally higher prices over last week. SteelMint's pellet export assessment has moved up by USD 2-3/MT W-o-W.

Essar Steel - an integrated steelmaker with steelmaking capacity of 10 MnT p.a. - has recently concluded deal for 50,000 MT pellet s (Fe 64% min, 2.6% Alumina max) at around USD 149-150/MT, CFR China. The material loading will start in mid-September.

In another deal reported, eastern India based pellet maker-Rashmi Metaliks has concluded an export deal of 50,000 pellets yesterday (24th Aug'18) at around USD 148-149/MT, CFR China for September loading.

Earlier this week SteelMint reported that an Indian trader concluded a pellet export deal at around USD 145-146/MT, CFR South Korea according to the sources. SteelMint has learned that around four cargos for pellets have been booked this month by South Korean steel mills so far. They are aggressively looking for pellets.

Spot pellet premium continues to surge - Spot pellet premium for Fe 65% grade pellets assessed at USD 84.2/DMT, CFR China this week up by USD 7.35/DMT W-o-W against 76.85/DMT a week before. Pellet premium this week has reached record high levels.

Indian Pellet Exports during Jan-Jul'18-: According to the vessel line up data maintained with SteelMint, India exported 4.36 MnT pellets in Jan-Jul'18. in the first seven months (Jan-Jul) of CY'18 China remains the highest importer of Indian pellets with 3.38 MnT, followed by South Korea.

BRPL remained the largest pellet exporter during the time frame with exports of 1.14 MnT followed by KIOCL & JSPL. Essar Steel has exported 0.54 MnT pellets during Jan-Jul'18