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

SteelMint: Indian pellet export market remains silent; prices drop

...

Pellets

BigMint Bureau

596 Reads

23 Sep 2020, 18:42 IST

SteelMint: Indian pellet export market remains silent; prices drop

SteelMint's pellet export index (FoB east coast India) has decreased sharply by $12/t w-o-w to $115/t on Wednesday (i.e 23th Sept) amid plunge in global spot iron ore fines price and limited buying interest from Chinese mills due to price volatility.

One pellet export deal was heard to be concluded at $126/t CFR, China this week. However, this was not considered under T1 calculation as it was not confirmed by buyer or seller yet.

SteelMint has received around four indicative prices (T2) and they have been taken into consideration for final price calculation as T2 inputs with an average price of $115/t.

Market overview - Chinese spot iron ore fines (Fe 62%) prices fell sharply yesterday by around 3/t d-o-d to $117/t CFR as against $120/t CFR China a day before. On weekly basis prices have declined by around $13-14/t against $130.8/t CFR China at the beginning of last week. Decline in iron ore futures and bearish market sentiments amid upcoming week long (1st to 8th Oct 2020) national day holidays in China have resulted in price correction.

Pellet inventory at major Chinese ports has decreased around 0.6 mn t to 10 mn t last week against 10.6 mn t a week before as per Steelhome data.

Higher realizations in domestic market -SteelMint learned that many major India's pellet makers were not actively offering pellet in the export market. However, India pellets markers are exploring the domestic market as domestic realization for ex-plant is still higher by around $11-12/t than the current export realizations.

SteelMint's assessment for domestic market in Barbil (Odisha) at around INR 8,200-8,300/t (Loaded to wagon) equivalent to INR 7,900-8,000/t ($107-109/t) ex-plant realization. On the other hand ex-plant export realization stands around INR 7,000-7,100/t. Hence higher realizations in domestic market has kept pellet makers away from exports. Also amid heated discussions of pellet export duty, exporters/traders are little skeptical about the future market therefore they are not much active in concluding fresh deals.