SteelMint: PELLEX inches up INR 100/t, however trade remains limited

SteelMint's bi-weekly domestic pellet (Fe 63%) index, PELLEX, stood at INR 8,900/tonne (t) DAP Raipur on 19 July 2022, up INR 100/t compared to the last assessment on 15 July. Two deals around 8,000 t have been reported at INR 8,950/t DAP Raipur in this publishing window.

Rationale:

• PELLEX has been derived using data points: i.e. trades, offers and bids. You can download the detailed methodology by clicking on this link Click here.
  
  
• Two deals were reported and taken into consideration in this publishing window and hence accorded 50% weightage for T1 trade.
  
  
• Five (05) firm offers, bids and indicative prices were reported. Around four (04) were taken for price calculation and given 500% weightage.
  
  
• SteelMint received one bid at around INR 8,150/t but not considered for calculation of the index.
  
  

Buyers were mostly silent due to increased offers and were waiting for some price correction in the upcoming days.

This week's Odisha Mining Corporation's (OMC's) iron ore auction received weak response due to fewer participation. Out of 1.62 mnt fines on offer, only 6,35,000 t (39%) received bids. The miner marginally decreased the base price for fines by up to INR 150/t for this auction and bid prices remained largely close to the set base price except for the Jilling lot. About 1.13 mnt lumps was also put on offer, of which 462,000 t (41%) received bids. The majority of the lots fetched flat bids except for the Jilling and Khandbandh lots as against the last auction in end-Jun'22.

Pellet-based DRI (P-DRI, FeM 80%) prices in Raipur were stable w-o-w at INR 34,900/t exw. On a daily basis, sponge iron prices decreased by around INR 300/t on 19 July.

Indian pellets market overview-

• The current assessment for Odisha's Barbil iron ore pellets (Fe 63%) is stable at INR 7,500/t loaded on to wagon.
  
  
• Iron ore pellet (Fe 63%) prices in Bellary inched down to INR 9,900/t exw today as against INR 10,000/t on 15 July, as per SteelMint assessment.
  
  

Region-wise pellet offers and deals: