Indian Pellet Export at 226,000 MT in May’16

Indian pellet exports double at 226,350 MT in May’16 as it was 110,500 MT in Apr’16. Major exporters were JSPL, BRPL, KIOCL and PEC Ltd.

Starting FY17, Jindal Steel & Power (JSPL) resumed pellet exports after a long gap of around 2 years on better realizations. In first two months of FY17, the pellet maker exported around  0.16 MnT pellets.

Another major contributor was Odisha -based pellet maker, BRPL. The pellet maker has installed capacity of 4 MnT pa pellet plant, supplied not even a single rake in May’16 in the domestic market. As pellet buying in domestic market continued to remain weak amid limited buying interest, BRPL is focusing more on exports.

China, the major pellet export destination for India

Apparently, China is major export destination for Indian pellets as it has shortfall of pellet due to Samarco dam destruction from Nov’15, which supplied over 10-11 MnT DR grade pellets to China; pellet imports will increase from India. However, in the first two months of FY17, India exported around 80% (0.27 MnT) of the total pellet exported to China.

On the other hand, Indian government measure to pace off pellet export duty to zero in FY16 will help to boost pellet exports. Also, due to fewer freight transitions, pellets imports from India to China is much feasible.

Pellet Exports from India in May’16

NA: Not Available
FoB Prices in USD/MT
Provisional data
Source: SteelMint Stats, Customs