Falling Iron ore offers in Chinese spot market have also weighed upon mill scale prices. Indian exporters have reported SteelMint that currently Fe 70/68 mill scale is being asked at USD 114/MT CFR China (in bulk) by Chinese steel mills. However, Indian exporters are reluctant as they claim their purchase price is much higher than the current buying levels.
“Current buying is seen at USD 113-115/MT CFR China, which is lower by USD 8-10/MT from our purchase price. We think, we will wait & watch till market recovers in China”, said a mill scale exporter based in Eastern India.
Mill scale is a by-product generated during re-rolling process and used by the Pellet manufacturer in blast furnaces because of high iron content. Indian mill scale exports have increased recently as there is no export duty or differential freight charge on it, unlike Iron ore.
India had exported around 1.2 MnT mill scale during FY13, in which most of the shipments were made from Kandla followed by Vizag.
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