India: NMDC iron ore prices to now include royalty, DMF, NMET components

India's largest merchant iron ore mining company, NMDC, has announced list prices of iron ore today, SteelMint learnt from reliable sources.

NMDC fixed prices for DR CLO (Fe 67%, 10-40mm) at INR 6,270/t and iron fines (64% - 10mm) at INR 4,210/t (FoR prices from Bacheli complex, including royalty, DMF and NMET) with effect from today. The miner has revised its pricing policy from earlier exclusive of royalty, DMF & NMET to that inclusive of royalty, DMF & NMET, effective from today onwards.

Factors behind the price revision:

• • Odisha iron ore prices fall m-o-m: Odisha Mining Corporation (OMC) has scheduled an auction for 3.01 mnt of iron ore (2.15 mnt of fines and 0.86 mnt of lumps) on 20 Jul'23. OMC reduced the base price for fines by up to INR 750/t and that of lumps by INR 1,400-1,800/t compared to the auction held on 16 Jun'23.
    
    
  • Indian mills raise imports of Australian iron ore - In a recent development, certain Indian steel mills have started importing Australian iron ore fines in place of mainstream Brazilian iron ore concentrates.SteelMint has heard that Australian miners have started supplying low- to medium-grade iron ore fines (Fe57%-60.5%) to western India-based mills. Low global iron ore prices and quality issues are some of the factors behind increase in imports.
    
    
  • Iron ore exports fall over 25% m-o-m in Jun'23 - India's iron ore and pellet exports have edged down from 3.39 million tonnes (mnt) in May'23 to 2.66 mnt in Jun'23. While iron ore exports fell m-o-m in June, pellet exports stayed largely stable m-o-m, SteelMint data show. Iron ore exports fell around 26% to 2.14 mnt in June against 2.88 mnt in May. Pellets exports remained stable m-o-m to 512,700 tonnes (t) in June compared to May's 511,864 t.
    
    
  • Indian steel index drops to over 2-year low; but global price uptick spells good news - The India Steel Composite Index fell to an over-two year low for the week ending 14 July, 2023. W-o-w, the index dropped 0.9% to 140.90 points. The last time, the index dropped below this level was on 26 March, 2021 (136.80). As can be gauged, it was the long products slide that impacted the index downward sharply.