India: NMDC hikes iron ore prices for May’25 amid rise in steel prices

• Steels mills hike HRC, CRC prices
• NMDC CG auction fetch premium bids
• Miner had last revision in Jan’25

India’s largest merchant iron ore mining company, NMDC, increased list prices of iron ore CLO (calibrated lump ore) and fines, BigMint learnt from sources.

The miner has fixed prices of DR CLO (10-40 mm, Fe 67%) at INR 7,210/t ($85/t) and of iron ore fines (-10 mm, Fe 64%) at INR 5,500/t ($65/t), an increase of INR 140/t ($2/t) and INR 440/t ($5/t), respectively. Prices are on FOR basis from its Bacheli complex and include royalty, DMF and NMET charges.

Notably, in its last revision, the miner decreased list prices of iron ore CLO (calibrated lump ore) and fines by INR 350/t ($4/t) on 9 January.

Factors behind price hike:

• HRC, CRC trade level prices by INR 1,300/t w-o-w: Trade-level prices for hot-rolled coil (HRC) rose by up to INR 1,300/t ($15/t) w-o-w, reaching INR 51,500-53,800/t ($609-636/t) across markets. Cold-rolled coil (CRC) prices also increased by up to INR 1,100/t ($13/t) w-o-w, now at INR 59,600-60,300/t ($705-713/t). The market is abuzz with speculation of a hike in list prices by mills to the tune of INR 1,500-2,000/t ($18-24/t).
• NMDC CG recent auction fetch higher bids: NMDC auctioned 108,600 t of iron ore from its Bacheli mines on 22 April 2025. Around 25,800 t of DRCLO (10-40 mm, Fe 67%) and 14,000 t of lumps (10-20 mm, Fe 65.5%) were sold at 13% and 7% premiums, respectively.
• NMDC’s iron ore production drops: NMDC’s monthly iron ore production from Chhattisgarh and Karnataka stood at 3.55 mnt in March, down 27% from 4.86 mnt in the same month of last year owing to wage settlement disputes and strikes. Cumulative production saw a slight 2% decrease in FY’25, reaching 44.04 mnt compared to 45.02 mnt in FY’24.
• Bids largely stable m-o-m in OMC’s iron ore fines auction: In OMC’s auction for 1.535 million tonnes (mnt) of iron ore fines (Fe 51-65%) on 19 April 2025 in which 1.149 mnt (75% of the offered quantity) were booked at INR 4,150-5,550/t ($49-66/t) ex-mines. Bids (weighted average) remained stable m-o-m. Though bids have increased around INR 500/t ($6/t) for fines and INR 100/t ($1/t) for lumps against January 2025 auction prices.