Bangladesh has slowed down sponge iron bookings this week amid regular bookings in previous weeks, falling domestic production as well steel prices in the country.
SteelMint learned that, domestic steel prices in Bangladesh have continued to move down on limited trades. Hence raw materials booking have lessened by medium scale mills.
Latest offers for Indian sponge iron (80 FeM, 100% lumps) is hovering at USD 265-270/MT CPT Benapole(dry port of India & Bangladesh), this is equivalent to USD 285/MT CFR Chittagong.
As per sources, small parcels total of around 1,500-2,000 MT have been sold in the beginning of week at the price range of USD 270-275/MT CPT Benapole. However after that no major deals were reported even though the offers moved down by USD 5/MT on falling Indian domestic prices.
Meanwhile, sponge iron demand from Nepal was quite active in last 10-15 days as near to 5-6 rakes (13,000-15,000 MT) sponge C-DRI (lumps) have been booked at the price range of USD 245-247/MT ex-mill, eastern India. This attracts freight cost of USD 25-30/MT CPT Raxaul/Jogbani border, Nepal.
In line Bhutanese based mills reported bookings during mid of Sep’19 for couple of rakes sponge iron at around USD 240/MT (INR 17,000) ex-mill with a Odisha, eastern India based largest sponge iron producer.
India exported around 539,502 MT sponge iron during Jan-Jul’19, in which exports to Bangladesh recorded at 318,923 (59%), Bhutan at 81,832 MT (15%), Nepal at 80,765 MT (14.9%) & Malaysia at 45,410 MT (8.4%).
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