NMDC Pellet E-auction receives Dull Response - Sources

NMDC conducted an auction for 19,000 MT iron ore pellets from Karnataka in 17 May'17. Pellets of grade Fe 64-64.5% were offered in 19 lots of 1,000 MT each. Pellets offered comprised of size ranging from 6-16 mm with silica content between 4 to 4.5%, alumina content 2-3% and tumbler index of 95%.

As per market sources report to SteelMint, base prices remained unchanged at INR 6,085/MT against the anticipations of sponge manufacturers who were expecting decline of about INR 500/MT in the e-auction base prices.

Unmoved base prices in the e-auction resulted in less attraction from southern India based sponge manufacturers. As offers from other Bellary based pellet manufacturers are cost-effective.

According to market sources report to SteelMint, only 3,000 MT pellets offered was sold and remaining quantity of 16,000 MT remained unsold. As per trade sources, the material was booked by a Tamil Nadu based steel maker.

Last pellet e-auction received dull response - Prior to this, NMDC had auctioned 20,000 MT pellets on 30 Mar'17. The e-auction received poor response with only 1 lot of 1,000 MT getting sold. The base price was fixed at around INR 6,075/MT (basic).