India: Goa govt defers iron ore e-auction to 31 Aug, lowers offered quantity

The Directorate of Mines and Geology (DMG) of Goa has postponed the iron ore e-auction to be held on 27 Aug'21 to 31 Aug'21. Also, the quantity put to auction has been revised to 1.574 million tonnes (mn t) as against 2.037 mn t announced previously.

Most of the quantity put under auction is of low grade with the highest grade (as per DMG analysis) being Fe 58.01%. Among the total offered quantity, 1.12 mn t is run-of-mine (ROM) and within grades ranging from Fe 30.12-57.74%, 0.33 mn t are fines having Fe content of 18.6-50.60% and 0.12 mn t are lumps ranging from Fe 38.94-58.01%.

Out of the total material put to auction, about 41%, or 0.65 mn t, is from Bandekar Brother Pvt Ltd, followed by Shri Zacarias Antao (Late) at 0.12 mn t and Kunda R Gharse at 0.11 mn t. Other major suppliers include V.G.Quenim at 0.1 mn t and Baddrudin Hussainbhai Mavani at 0.06 mn t.

In the last e-auction held in 24 Mar'21, about 1.62 mn t of iron ore was put under the hammer out of which only 64% (ie, 1.03 mn t) of the offered quantity received bids.

Iron ore export prices continue to drop

Meanwhile, iron ore export prices continue to decline amid persistently weak Chinese demand. SteelMint's weekly export index for low-grade Indian iron ore fines (Fe 57%) decreased by $1/t w-o-w to $44/t FoB east coast India. Prices have fallen by around $30 m-o-m.

Indian iron ore export shipments decreased to 2.05 mn t in Jul'21, down 2% on a m-o-m basis as compared to 2.09 mn t in Jun'21, according to vessel line-up data maintained with SteelMint. Exports decreased due to limited Chinese demand for low-grade ore.

As per data maintained with SteelMint, total iron exports from Indian ports for the week (15-21 Aug) were recorded at 155,310 tonnes compared to 243,851 tonnes towards the last week of Jul'21.