The price rally in iron ore and pellets has continued to drive up sentiments in the Indian concentrates market. Prices of iron ore concentrates in Madhya Pradesh’s Jabalpur have risen by INR 100-150/t, w-o-w. SteelMint’s assessment for Fe 63% concentrate stands at INR 4,500/t exw. SteelMint’s weekly Odisha iron ore fines index (Fe 62%) was at INR 5,400/t ex-mines last week. Notably, NMDC also increased iron ore fines prices for Feb’22 delivery by INR 200/t. SteelMint’s bi-weekly domestic pellet price (Fe 63%) stands at INR 12,650/t DAP Raipur.
Iron ore concentrates prices are being supported by the continuous increase in the offers of pellets, backed by higher export prices. Due to limited avaliability of high grade material and rising prices in Odisha, pellet manufacturers have partially shifted towards Jabalpur.
The concentrate players received a lot of orders in the last month and due to pending delivery of these and limited availability of the materials, offers of concentrates may increase further.
Madhya Pradesh, the fifth-largest iron ore producing state in India, produces around 3.5-3.8 mnt of iron ore annually. About 96-97% of total production is below Fe58% grade, which is beneficated and used by pellet producers as well as for sintering. The Jabalpur region produces 1.80-1.90 mnt of iron ore concentrates annually. Chhattisgarh consumes 40% of the total production, Maharashtra 40% and Rajasthan 15%. Procurement also happens from Odisha occasionally.
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