India: Entire Quantity of Iron Ore Fines Booked in OMC E-auction
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Odisha's state-owned miner- Odisha Mining Corporation (OMC) had scheduled its iron ore e-auction yesterday i.e. 05 Nov'18. Total quantity put under the hammer was 295,523 MT iron ore fines and DR CLO. The material was from Gandhamardan, Daitari, and Koira mines. Traders were restricted to take part in this auction. The miner had kept base prices unchanged against the previous e-auction held on 05 Sep'18.
According to market sources report to SteelMint, the entire quantity of iron ore fines put up for auction was sold out with bids being fetched higher by about 25% on an average basis over the set base price.
Fines from Gandhamardan mines got the bids by INR 350-400/MT higher over the set base price of INR 1,300/MT. Bids for fines offered from Koira mines witnessed bids up by INR 350-400/MT against the base price at INR 1,150/MT. .Material offered from Daitari mines observed an increase in bids by INR 50/MT against base price which was INR 2,400/MT.
Major participants in the OMC iron ore fines e-auction were- JSPL, Vizag Steel, MSP, Shyam Metaliks, Monnet Ispat, Bajarang Power & Ispat, and MESCO.
However, DR CLO which was offered from Raikela mines remained unsold.
Base price and Bid Price comparison of OMC Iron ore e-auctions-:
| Mines | Size | Fe (%) | Base Price as on 09th July'18 | Base Price as on 05th Sept'18 | Bid Price as on 05th Sep'18 | Base Price as on 05th Nov'18 | Bid Price as on 05th Nov'18 | Quantity Offered | Quantity (Sold) |
| (mm) | (INR/MT) | (INR/MT) | (INR/MT) | (INR/MT) | (INR/MT) | (MT) | (MT) | ||
| Gandhamardan | -10 | 60-62 | 1,100 | 1,300 | 1,500 | 1,300 | 1,650-1,700 | 90,000 | 90,000 |
| Kurmitar (Koira) | -10 | 62-60 | 850 | 1,150 | 1,250-1,300 | 1,150 | 1,500-1,550 | 90,000 | 90,000 |
| Daitari | -10 | 64-62 | 2,080 | 2,400 | 2,500 | 2,400 | 2,400-2,450 | 114,000 | 114,000 |
| Raikela | 10-40 | 62 | - | - | - | 5,178 | - | 1,523 | Unsold |
| Total | 295,523 | 294,000 | |||||||
Base prices in INR/MT on ex-mines basis; including royalty
Source: SteelMint Research
Odisha based merchant miners had announced three successive price hike in Aug'18 and early September which made Odisha iron ore prices to hover close to 6 years high. However, later miner started offering discounts to buyers of around INR 300-400/MT varying as per the quantity of purchase. The month of October did not witness any price revision rather widening of discounts by miners to escalate buying interest.
