India: Sponge iron prices volatile as buyers resist higher offers - 1 Feb

Sponge iron prices remained volatile today despite rising trends seen in the morning which did not match buyers' expectations. This led to a slight increase in offers across the country.

About 23,650 tonnes (t) of sponge iron transactions were recorded today in India as against 12,500 t on 31 January.

Snapshots of key markets

• Rourkela: Prices rose slightly amid decent demand at the current offers. A bunch of transactions were reported in the Jalna (Maharashtra) market. A significant improvement in spot trade was seen today compared to yesterday. Overall, market participants are still unclear about the price movements.
  
  
• Raipur: Bulk buying was observed at higher prices. The market showed improvement today and active trades were seen at higher prices. The prices were supported by sudden spike in rates in the northern region though these subsided later on. Since limited bookings were done in the past few days, buyers have now shown some tendencies to book orders. Sponge prices improved by INR 150/t d-o-d.
  
  
• Bellary: Buying activity in sponge iron remained moderate today, with slight variations in offers seen across the region owing to the Budget announcements.
  
  
• Durgapur: Prices rose marginally because of positive sentiments emerging from the northern region. Sellers raised their offers initially but did not hold these through the day due to limited buying. Price saw an uptick of INR 150/t d-o-d.
  
  
• Ramgarh: Despite a price increase of INR 150-250/t, average trade was witnessed in the region. Buyers seemed less interested in taking positions and waited for the market to stabilize.
  
  

Rationale -
This index has been derived based on transactions, offers, bids and indicative price data sets. Transactions are considered as T1 and given a weightage of 50% whereas other data sets are considered as T2 and given a weightage of the balance 50%.

Click for detailed methodology

T1 - Trade, T2 - Offer/Bid/Indicative