SteelMint | Morning Brief

Iron Ore & pellets –

• SteelMint’s weekly index for Odisha iron ore fines (Fe 62%) increased by INR 300/t to INR 6,700/t (ex-mines, including Royalty, DMF & NMET) in recent deals.
• In a recent Karnataka e-auction held on 08 Apr ’21, out of the total quantity of 518,000 t put to auction, 41,000 t was booked. Veerabhadrappa Sangappa & Company iron ore lumps Fe 64.05% received bids at INR 5,895-5,905/t as against INR 5,575/t received in the last e-auction held on 24th Mar ’21.
• An Indian player placed an order with Metso Outotec for supply of a large capacity Grate Kiln pellet plant in Odisha, India according to the company’s press release. “With its annual pellet production capacity of 6 mn t, the new plant will be the first large-scale Grate-Kiln pellet plant in the country”, said Jari Algars, President, Metals business area at Metso Outotec.

Scrap & Metallics –

• SteelMint’s domestic steel scrap index improved slightly by INR 400/t to INR 37,000/t DAP Mandi Gobindgarh on improved buying inquiries.
• China’s largest EAF steelmaker- Shagang Steel raised scrap purchase price on 10 Apr’21 by RMB 80-100/t ($12-15) for all grades.

Semi-finished steel –

• SteelMint’s daily billet index was assessed at INR 40,300/t (+300) exw Raipur on 10th Apr ’21.

Finished steel –

• Indian HRC export prices increased by $20-25 in a recent deal. A private integrated steel producer based in western India has booked around 30,000-50,000 t HRC at around $925/t CFR Vietnam basis for May to Jun ’21 shipments, SteelMint learned from its authentic trade channels.
• Steel mills based in Maharashtra and Karnataka are facing oxygen shortage at their alloy steel plants and stainless steel plants. Keeping in view the Oxygen supply crisis amid rising COVID-19 cases in the states, the government is wanting to divert oxygen supply for medical usage and urging steel mills for the same.
• ArcelorMittal, Europe increased its coil prices by Euro 20/t. The current price of HRC stands at around Euro 920/t and for CRC & hot-dipped galvanized at Euro 1,070/t. Bullish sentiment across the European market and supply shortage led to this hike in coil prices.

Ferro alloys –

• Malaysia-based manganese alloys producer Sakura Ferroalloys has declared force majeure because of a transformer breakdown, a credible source shared with SteelMint. It is expected that the shipments from Sakura will be affected for the month. In Feb ’21, India imported 2,223 t of ferromanganese from Malaysia, which was entirely from Sakura.