Weekly: Indian iron ore market overview

SteelMint’s benchmark Odisha iron ore fines index fell this week. Market participants expect prices to come down further in coming days on improved supply and sharp decline in semi-finished and finished steel prices. However, most of the buyers and sellers have kept away from concluding trades this week and are waiting for budget announcement, anticipating some changes in duty structure.

SteelMint’s index for Odisha iron ore fines (Fe 62%) index stands at INR 5,900/t (ex-mines, including Royalty, DMF & NMET), lower by INR 100/t w-o-w.

SteelMint has also received nine offers, indicative prices in this publishing window out of those seven taken into consideration. To see SteelMint’s iron ore assessments, pricing methodology and specification documents, Click here.

• Govt owned steelmaker- Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL) conducted an auction from its Bolani mines for 104,000 iron ore fines (Fe 62.5%). Out of the offered quantity, only 72,000t received bids at base price i.e at INR 4,250/t (loaded into rakes and excluding royalty, DMF & NMET). However, the bids have dropped by upto INR 750/t against last auction on 15 Jan’21.
• Odisha Mining Corp (OMC) has scheduled its next iron ore e-auction on 1st Feb’21. The auction is being conducted for 933,000 t iron ore lumps. The miner has increased the base price by up to INR 1,500/t against last auction’s base price held on 2nd Dec’20.
• Sarda Mines has been slapped with a demand of INR 2056,38,43,567 for producing the permitted annual limit of Thakurani B iron ore block in February and March of 2020.

Chhattisgarh-: NMDC conducted iron ore e-auctions for 701,400t iron ore from its Chhattisgarh mines. Offered quantity comprised of 600,000 t of fines, 50,400 t DR CLO and rest comprised of lump and ROM. The DR-CLO lots received a good response and bids increased by around INR 1,300/t over the set base price. However, the fines lot received a weak response with just two rakes getting booked at base price.

Karnataka -: NMDC Kumarswamy mines conducted an iron ore e-auction on 22nd Jan’21. Out of the total 428,000 t put to auction 344,000 t iron ore was booked. JSW Steel bought 172,000 t iron ore in the auction followed by Arjas Steel Private Limited at 48,000 t. The bids in the auction were almost in line with base price.

India iron ore prices-: