India: Iron ore concentrate prices stable, market waiting for OMC auction

• Stability in pellet, iron ore prices support offers
  
  
• Active trades continue to happen
  
  
• Market awaits price clarity post-auction
  
  

Iron ore concentrate prices in Jabalpur, central India, continued to remain stable this week. Active deals along with stability in pellet & Odisha iron ore prices have kept concentrate prices supported, BigMint Noted.

BigMint's bi-weekly index for Fe 63% concentrate currently stand at INR 5,700/t ($69/t) exw, stable as against the last assessment on 10 February, 2024. Also, few players were witnessed not offering in the market this week.

"Market awaits for OMC iron ore auction scheduled on 19 February to get price clarity as pellet market is weak in terms of trades, export is closed due to Chinese New Year holidays while iron ore fines prices have been supportive", mentioned a Jabalpur-based seller.

"Currently, we are not taking new orders and fulfilling the previous orders as our production is down owing to some technical work in the plant", another Jabalpur-based source said to BigMint.

Rationale:

• Two (2) trades of 20,000 t and 40,000 t were recorded in this publishing window and were accorded with 50% weightage.
  
  
• Ten (10) offers and indicative prices were reported and all were taken into consideration as T2 trades, receiving 50% weightage.
  
  

Factors supporting prices:

• Pellet prices stable amid muted trade: SteelMint's bi-weekly domestic pellet (Fe 63%) index, PELLEX, remained unchanged at INR 9,550/t ($115/t) DAP Raipur on 13 February, 2024 compared to the last assessment on 9 February. Although pellet prices in Raipur remained stable but inquiries remained subdued as buyers are less interested in booking material at current offers.
  
  
• Odisha prices stable w-o-w: BigMint's weekly Odisha iron ore fines (Fe 62%) index remained stable w-o-w at INR 5,800/t ($70/t) ex-mines on 10 February, 2024. Iron ore prices in Odisha remained volatile throughout the week, as few miners offered ore in the merchant market. No major bookings of iron ore fines were witnessed this week amid limited material availability.
  
  

Outlook

Iron ore concentrate prices are expected to remain supported in the near term amid active trades. Market participants are waiting for OMC's iron ore auction results which may lead to price clarity.