Rungta Mines & Essel Mining, Odisha’s largest merchant miners, which can together contribute almost 16 MnT Iron ore for merchant sales, have cut their Iron ore lump offers by INR 200/MT, however fines prices have been kept unchanged.
Other miners may cut offers in the month of April looking at falling Sponge iron prices and increasing availability of merchant Pellets in Indian domestic market.
|
Rungta Mines Iron ore Prices (INR/MT) |
||||||
|
Material Type |
Grade |
Nov-13 |
Dec-13 |
Jan-14 |
Feb-14 |
Mar-14 |
|
Lumps |
Fe 63 (5-18) |
6,600 |
6,800 |
6,800 |
6,800 |
6,600 |
|
Fines |
Fe 63 |
2,450 |
2,650 |
2,650 |
2,650 |
2,650 |
Prices are loaded to wagons; including royalty
Source: SteelMint
Falling Exports of Pellets
With Indian Government imposing of 5% export duty on Pellets clubbed with falling global prices, have resulted in drastic fall in Pellet exports from India. Exports which touched 1.2 MnT during Apr’13-Jan’14, have been negligible in February & March, 2014.
Increase in availability of Pellets has put pressure on Iron ore lumps and quite a lot of Sponge manufacturers have shifted to Pellet.
[show-rjqc id=”21″]
50:50 Rule in Odisha
Odisha Government’s order of supplying 50% of Iron ore production to state based industries have also impacted prices. Trade sources say miners are sitting on inventories but they do not have permit to sell more than 50% to mills based outside state.
Currently, case against this order is being heard in the Odisha High Court and verdict on the same is expected probably next week.
Leave a Reply