India: Low Grade Iron Ore Fines Export Prices Fall Slightly as Chinese Buying Interest Weakens

With decent restocking done by Chinese mills for upcoming Lunar New Year holidays, low-grade Indian iron ore fines demand has turned slow this week. Also sufficient restocking made by Chinese mills ahead of Lunar New Year holidays starting from 24th Jan has witnessed a fall in demand this week.

As per market sources report to SteelMint, an Odisha based manufacturer is heard to have concluded low grade iron ore (Fe 57%) fines deal earlier this week. The miner is heard to have concluded three pellet deals of around 50,000-55,000 MT iron ore fines (Fe 57%) each for January loading. The deal is concluded at around USD 60/MT, CFR China.

SteelMint's assessment of Indian low-grade iron ore fines (Fe 58/57%) export price has inched down to around USD 57-59/MT, CFR China, down by USD 1/MT against last week.

Chinese spot iron ore prices opened up this week at USD 94/MT, CFR China and depicted a fall to USD 93.25/MT, CFR China towards weekend. As per data mysteel data, Iron ore inventory at major Chinese ports dropped to 123.4 MnT this week, down 1.8 MnT against previous week.