The Indian Sponge iron exports offers to Bangladesh have slightly decline this week by USD 5/MT.
According to SteelMint’s weekly price assessment the latest export offers for 80 FeM sponge lumps by East India based manufacturers stand at USD 390-395/MT which is down against last week of around USD 395-400/MT; CPT Benapole (land port of Bangladesh and India). On CFR basis, the offers are hovering at USD 405-410/MT, CFR Chhittagong, Bangladesh.
Presently in Bangladesh, the sponge iron offers are quite high as compared to imported scrap offers which are hovering at USD 390/MT for Shreded (containerize) & USD 360/MT for HMS from UK, CFR Chittagong, Bangladesh.
A renowned exporter stated. “The smelters who have to make quality billets like to maintain sulphur-phos and it is must to melt sponge iron, thus usual demand is active even though sponge iron cost is higher than the imported scrap (comparing landed cost on CFR Chittagong basis). In this week, a deal of 2,000 MT has been conclude at USD 390/MT CPT”.
Further, the trade participants reported, buying interest is mostly via road route (via Benapole port) rather than sea route (through Chhittagong port) due to minimal logistic time of around 15 days.
Indian Sponge iron market bullish
Since start of Jan 2018, the Indian sponge iron market is quite uncertain as prices are highly volatile. After the closure of major mines in Odisha, the sponge producers have sharply raised their offers, however with the low buying interest the prices are gradually declining.
Currently, the domestic offers for 78-80 FeM Sponge iron (C-DRI) are hovering at INR 22,000-22,200/MT (USD 343-347) in Durgapur and INR 21,000-21,200/MT (USD 328-331) ex-Rourkela. The prices decline by INR 300-500/MT (USD 4-8) in current week.
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