Indian sponge iron export observes very thin trade despite falling prices in Indian domestic market.
Indian sponge iron export continues to remain low this week owing to low demand from Bangladesh based mills, which is the largest importer of Indian sponge iron, with an annual imports of 200,000-250,000 MT. Notably Indian domestic sponge iron prices have also corrected by INR 500-1,000/MT (USD 8-15) in last 3-4 days on rising production and falling demand.
As per SteelMint’s weekly assessment, the current offers for FeM 78-80 Sponge lumps grade hovering at USD 365-370/MT CPT Benapole (dry port of India & Bangladesh) & USD 385-390/MT CFR Chittagong Port, Bangladesh. These prices are similar against last week assessment, but no major deals have been reported.
Bangladesh steel market is on bearish phase with falling domestic prices, buyers are unwilling to make bids above USD 355-360/MT CPT Benapole. But at the same time Indian exporters are not very keen to cut their offers as domestic realizations are still better than exports. Indian domestic offer (for export grade) stands at INR 21,500-22,000/MT ex-Jharkhand /Odisha, truck freight to border is around INR 2,500/MT (USD 37.5).
Availability of local scrap
Bangladeshi mills are quite inactive for imported scrap and sponge due to availability of local scrap generated from ship breaking. According to local sources more than 50 vessels have been breached in last one month.
Current offers for local ship breaking scrap stated at BDT 31,000-32,000 (USD 366-378) & Ship cutting plate at around BDT 41,000/MT (USD 484).
Imported scrap offers assessed at USD 405/MT for PNS & HMS 1 at USD 395/MT, CFR Chhittagong.
Leave a Reply