In conversation with Mr. Amir Ali Akbari – one of the major iron ore exporters from Iran, SteelMint learned that owing to stronger steel prices, iron ore prices in China are likely to remain strong.
Fe 62% fines index yesterday closed at USD 66.1/MT, CFR China, up 2.4% D-o-D.
Below are the excerpt of the interview with Mr Amir Ali Akbari on iron ore export scenario from Iran-
1. What are current export prices (FoB) from Iran for Hematite (Fe 62/61%) and Concentrate (Fe 65%) ?
At the time being selling price of magnetite and hematite iron ore with Fe 62% is according to the benchmark index. Of course there are some discounts for cargoes containing unwanted impurity and bargaining from traders.
2. What is your view on current scenario. Do you feel prices to remain range bound in the next 15 days ?
This week we can see that price of steel is rising specially in Tangshan region and also Shanghai Round bars and hot rolled plates is heating Dalian Stock Exchange till we face with a favorable increase of price for iron ore, coal and coke. What happens usually during June, July & August due to monsoon in India, this year forced prices increasing very sharply but Chinese traders are still interested in sailing cargoes rather than goods available in Chinese ports.
Prices for steel products of China to be delivered in August is increased and this is the reason for being optimistic and I expect prices to move up to USD 70/MT, CFR China.
3. Have there been any change in vessel freight rates ?
This week we see growing demand for vessels chartering along with increased oil price, now price of small size vessels rose to USD 14-15.5/MT and USD 12-12.5/MT for vessels carrying 55,000 MT ore.
Notably Baltic Exchange’s main sea freight index has also increased recently boosting freight rates of all vessels.
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