Imported Iron Ore Offers to India Fall Marginally W-o-W

Offers for imported lump from South Africa have noticed a slight reduction of USD 2/MT against last week.

South African imported lump are around USD 78-79/MT, CIF India for shipments to arrive in Jul’15 for Panamax vessels & around USD 75/MT, CIF India for Capesize vessels. Last week the prices were around USD 80/MT, CIF India. Spot lump premium is USD 0.125/ dmt unit.

In comparison to May’15, spot iron ore prices in China have gained momentum this month. Monthly average spot iron ore fines (Fe 62%) prices have moved up from USD 60/MT, CFR China in May’15 to USD 64/MT, CFR China in Jun’15 (till 17 June 2015).

Also, prices of South African lump have moved up to USD 78/MT, CFR China. With spot iron ore prices witnessing uptrend this month, iron ore imports have become costlier.

“There are hardly handful of new iron ore import shipments seen coming up. To a greater extent the iron ore being imported are the ones from the shipments which were in pipeline. Spot iron ore fines (Fe 62%) touched USD 65/MT, CFR China last week. Iron ore imports are less viable at such prices. – shared a market participant.

Iron ore imports to India are likely to fall in Jun’15. 0.3 MnT iron ore has been imported in Jun’15 (till 10 Jun’15). 0.2 MnT iron ore is at anchorage & 0.06 MnT is expected to arrive by the end of this month. Thus, it can be inferred that total iron ore imports to India might be around 0.6 MnT in Jun’15 whereas Indian iron ore imports were recorded at 0.9 MnT last month.