SteelMint iron ore fines index falls marginally, trades remain subdued

SteelMint's weekly index for Odisha iron ore fines (Fe 62%) fell marginally this week by INR 50/t to INR 5,150/t (ex-mines, including Royalty, DMF & NMET). Miners have kept offers largely stable. Odisha produced 12.05 mn t in Jan'21, up marginally as against 11.86 mn t in Dec'20, according to the provisional data of the Odisha Govt. maintained by SteelMint.

No confirmed deals for fines have been reported this week therefore not taken under consideration as T1 Trade and kept the weightage nil in this index. SteelMint has also received twelve (12) offers, indicative prices under T2 trade in this publishing window out of those nine (9) were taken into consideration and given 100% weightage. To see SteelMint's iron ore assessments, pricing methodology and specification documents, ,Click here.

OMC to auction 1.4 mn t iron ore : Odisha's leading miner - Odisha Mining Corp (OMC) has scheduled its next iron ore e-auction on 10th Mar'21 for 1.44 mn t iron ore fines. Out of the total 590,000 t fines offered is from Guali and Jilling-Langalota iron ore mines. OMC allotted two new mines Guali and Jilling-Langalota also put up for auction along with the other mines of OMC. It is to be expected that auctioning of iron ore from these mines may increase the availability of iron ore in the market and cool down the ore prices further.

JSW to auction 600,000t low grade fines - JSW Steel is going to re-auction 600,000 t low grade (Fe 55-58%) iron ore fines from its Jajang mines, Odisha. The auction is scheduled for 10 Mar'21 and the base price of the auction is reduced to INR 1,100/t (inclusive of Royalty). The material put up for auction cannot be booked for export purposes.

Odisha iron ore prices-:

India's NMDC rolls over iron ore prices for Mar'21 - India's largest merchant and govt-owned iron ore miner, NMDC has kept iron ore prices unchanged for Mar'21, SteelMint learned from credible sources. The company's iron ore sales were recorded at 3.25 mn t in Feb'21, lower by 13% m-o-m. NMDC's iron ore rake movement from its Chhattisgarh mines to state-based steel units stood at 75 rakes (0.29 mn t) in Feb'21, slightly down compared to 84 rakes a month ago, as per railway movement data maintained with SteelMint. Raipur-based steel mills preferred booking NMDC ore over domestic pellets, due to cost-effectiveness.
FoR prices, Royalty, DMF, NMET & other taxes extra

SAIL's auction from CG mines receives no participation - Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL) conducted an auction yesterday (5th Mar'21) for 84,000 t iron ore fines (Fe 55-58% grade) from its Dalli mines in Chhattisgarh. As per trade sources report to SteelMint, the company did not receive any participation in the auction, due to the low-grade ore offered.

NMDC resumes iron ore e-auctions from its Donimalai mines - NMDC has resumed iron ore auction from its Donimalai mines after it restarted production on 18 Feb'21. In the auction conducted on 2nd Mar'21, entire quantity of 708,000 t was booked at base price. JSW Steel Ltd stood the largest buyer at 0.47 mn t followed by RINL and BMM at 0.1 mn t each. Bid price for lump (Fe 62.1%) stood at INR 4,989/t basic, taxes extra. It resumed operations after obtaining a lease extension for 20 years w.e.f. 03 Nov'18 from Govt. of Karnataka and completing the associated statutory requirements.