Indian Sponge Iron Export Bookings to Bangladesh Pause on Rising Offers

Indian sponge iron export bookings to Bangladesh have slowed down this week. No major export bookings of sponge iron were reported after recent hike in offers by USD 10/MT W-o-W. The export offers have gained momentum on account of surge in eastern India's domestic sponge prices by INR 600-800/MT (USD 8-12) this week.

The latest offers by Kolkata, eastern India based exporters for 80 FeM Sponge C-DRI lumps reported at near to USD 280/MT, which was last week traded at around USD 270/MT, CPT Benapole (dry port of India & Bangladesh). On CFR basis, the fresh offers would be high by USD 15/MT to USD 295/MT CFR Chittagong, Bangladesh.

Few market sources also indicated offers at USD 285/MT CPT Benapole basis, however no deals were reported.

As per sources, the bids from Bangladeshi mills remained at last week offers, however the Indian suppliers are not looking to deal at lower offers due to sufficient orders along with high input cost & better demand in the domestic market.

Further if sources are to believed once the prices stabilize, the Bangladeshi buyers will take position as the price rise was sudden and significant as well.

Inline with this, the imported scrap offers to Bangladesh being constant rise and currently reported for Shredded scrap in containers at around USD 320/MT, CFR Chittagong, up by USD 10-15/MT W-o-W.

Meanwhile it is being cited that, there are no fresh deals of Indian sponge iron exports to Nepal and the last week, deals for couple of rakes (around 5,000 MT) were reported at around USD 240/MT loaded to rake in eastern India. This attract freight cost of USD 25/MT CPT Raxaul border/Nepal.