BigMint is a Market Intelligence and Price Reporting firm that caters to the data and analytics requirements of businesses in the commodities sector. It publishes real time prices and information, which is impartial, independent and reliable, sourced from all industry interfaces – sellers, buyers, agents and traders. This data is filtered and passed through very stringent, calculative assessments before final prices are derived, thereby giving our clients accurate pricing.

Go to List

Indian low-grade iron ore index increases by $2/t, trades inactive

...

Fines/Lumps

BigMint Bureau

1245 Reads

19 Nov 2020, 18:32 IST

Indian low-grade iron ore index increases by $2/t, trades inactive

SteelMint's weekly low-grade iron ore fines (Fe 58/57%) FoB India index increased by $2/t this week. Index stands at $81/t FoB east coast India. Amid increase in spot iron ore fines price in China and successive hike in iron ore offers from Odisha, export prices have moved up. However Indian iron ore miners/exporters are less active amid limited inventories and sharp hike in domestic market.

Price indicators - No low-grade export deal (T1) heard so far this week and therefore not considered for calculation of index. However, the weightage of T1 transferred to calculation of T2 inputs.

SteelMint has received three indicative prices and offers during the publishing window and only three inputs were considered for price calculation as T2 inputs, with an average price of $81/t FoB India.

Rationale: The index has been calculated using an average of T1 and T2 price inputs. Transactions confirmed by either a buyer/seller are designated as T1 input while bids, offers, and indicative prices are designated as T2 inputs. Both T1 and T2 categories of inputs carry 50% weightage each in price calculation for FOB price assessment.

Market highlights -

Hike in spot iron ore prices in China - Chinese spot iron ore fines (Fe 62%) increased by around $4/t on a weekly basis and stood at $ 127.25/t CFR China yesterday against $123.4/t a week before. However, on a daily basis also, the price has increased up by $1.1/t yesterday against $126.15/t CFR a day before.
Futures close higher - Dalian iron ore futures' have increased with most traded contract of Jan'21 today closing at RMB 876.5/t against RMB 835.5/t a week back.
According to the sources, demand for low-grade ore is moderate currently and buyers are restocking iron ore amid better margin in steel. However, market participants are expected demand in iron ore in the upcoming days as environmental measure is now mild in China expecting improvement in air quality soon.
Chinese market participants highlighted disparity in bids and offers for Indian low-grade fines, hence no trades were reported.
On the other side, domestic offers for Indian low-grade iron ore fines (Fe 57%) are hovering at INR 2,900-3,000/t (ex-mines, incld. Royalty, DMF and NMET). Prices have been increased by INR 800-900/t w-o-w.