Sponge iron stock in major regions like Odisha and Chhattisgarh is heard to be rising continuously on the backdrop of low buying interest witnessed among ingot/billet makers.
Odisha (Rourkela) based manufacturers reported that few major plants have high inventory as compared to regular stock level. Thus, they are willing to sell the material at cheaper rates as compared to general market price. Here, offers for 80 FeM C-DRI are hovering in the range of INR 11,000-11,400/MT ex-plant. However, they are providing a discount of INR 200-300/MT to book sales in volume.
Few Raipur based sponge agents have also mentioned that they have a lot of sellers for immediate delivery to sell P-DRI at INR 11,500-11,700/MT ex-plant. While, sponge DR-CLO makers said that they have received poor response this week.
A Durgapur based manufacturer quoted, “We don’t want to deal at lower rates as payments will get halted for the next 3-5 days on account of coming holidays for 2-4 days.”
It is expected that C-DRI sellers will rise in Karnataka region as sponge makers here are planning to produce C-DRI instead of P-DRI, viewing the low premium between C-DRI and P-DRI, which is now only at INR 500/MT. Moreover, smelters based in this region are preferring to purchase C-DRI over P-DRI. Current 80 FeM P-DRI lump offers are assessed at INR 11,400-11,500/MT and the same grade C-DRI at INR 12,000-12,100/MT ex-plant.
Current C-DRI and P-DRI offers
| Market (FeM) | Particulars | Current Price | D-o-D | W-o-W | M-o-M |
| Ex-Raipur (80) | C-DRI | 12,300 | -300 | -900 | -1,200 |
| P-DRI | 11,650 | 0 | -450 | -800 | |
| Ex-Rourkela (80) | C-DRI | 11,100 | -400 | -750 | -1,300 |
| P-DRI | 10,800 | 0 | -200 | -900 | |
| Ex-Durgapur (78) | C-DRI | 12,100 | -150 | -200 | -550 |
| P-DRI | 11,100 | -150 | -300 | -550 | |
| Ex-Bellary (78) | C-DRI | 11,700 | 0 | -550 | -900 |
| P-DRI | 10,850 | -250 | -500 | -850 |
Prices in INR/MT
Source: SteelMint Research
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