South African Kumba Lump Offers to India Remain Stable

Offers for imported South African Kumba lump are in the range of USD 65-67/MT, CIF West Coast of India for immediate delivery. While offers for the shipments to arrive in Oct’15 were heard to be around USD 70/MT, CIF West Coast of India.

“Domestic pellet prices in Gujarat were expected to increase following rise in offers for imported lump last week. But looking at preference of steel mills for imported ore, domestic pellet prices have remained unchanged at INR 5,350/MT (delivered Kandla),” highlighted a market participant in western India.

Recently, an Indian importer has booked a quantity of  around 70,000 MT Kumba lump on iron ore price index. Loading of which is expected to take place somewhere between 5th & 10th of Oct’15.

Spot lump premium was assessed at USD 0.12/dry MT unit. Premium witnessed a marginal drop in mid of last week as end users in China switched to sintering fines in order to cut costs.

Imported iron ore is less lucrative option for end users in other regions of India as domestic iron ore prices have reduced significantly. Prices of iron ore in majority of the mineral rich states have noticed a fall.

Many Odisha based merchant miners have cut prices for the 2nd time within the time span of 20 days. In order to fetch better response from bidders in recent e-auctions, DMG (Department of Mines and Geology, Govt. of Goa) also lessened the base prices.

Domestic Iron Ore Price Comparison

Odisha prices are ex-mines & inclusive of royalty
* NMDC prices excluding royalty and other taxes
Goa and Karnataka base prices (basic) are those of e-auctions 
**Prices mentioned are weighted average
1 USD=65.7 INR