SteelMint: Indian sponge iron prices show mixed trends on falling steel prices - 3 Jan

India's daily sponge iron prices fell by INR 50-200/t in Bellary, Rourkela and Raipur due to limited trades reported today. Meanwhile, prices rose by INR 150-250/t in Durgapur and Ramgarh as most of the manufacturers resisted to slash their offers. There was lack of buying interest through participants, thus spot trades remained low. Buyers booked sufficient orders over the past couple of days, hence they decided to held back their bids and booked material as per requirement, SteelMint learnt from sources.

About 14,510 t of sponge iron transactions were recorded today in India as against 25,965 t on 2 January.

Trade Dynamics

• Sponge iron CDRI (FeM 80%) prices in Rourkela were assessed at INR 32,800/t exw. About 1,000 t of sponge iron PDRI (FeM 77-78%) trade was recorded from Odisha today. Deals were concluded DAP Rourkela.
  
  
• Sponge iron PDRI (FeM 80%) prices in Raipur were assessed at INR 32,400/t exw. Limited trading activities took place today in Raipur market due to sufficient buying done in last 3-4 days. Also, the buying remained less in semis and finished steel.
  
  
• Sponge iron PDRI (FeM 80%) prices in Bellary were assessed at INR 30,900/t exw. CDRI prices stood at INR 32,450/t exw. Buying activity in sponge iron remained weak today, owing to slower performance of semi-finished steel and healthy bookings in sponge iron made in the previous week, which is the main cause for the slow buying today.
  
  
• Sponge iron PDRI (FeM 78%) prices in Durgapur were assessed at INR 32,450/t DAP.
  
  
• Sponge iron PDRI (FeM 78%) prices in Ramgarh were assessed by SteelMint at INR 31,150/t exw, and CDRI at INR 33,650/t exw.
  
  

Going forward, the price movement of sponge iron will depend largely on billets, also the availability of sponge iron is a bit of concern in the Odisha spot market once the mentioned plants as per SPCB Odisha would be temporarily shutdown from 6 January, 2023.

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