SteelMint interviewed Mr. Amir Ali Akbari – from Copper Star Co. in Iran. The company is into exporting iron ore because of long term contracts with mines apart from selling cargoes in exchange. Below are the excerpts of the interview:
1. Iron ore prices in China kept hovering between USD 73-75/MT, CFR China last week and have increased this week. How are the sentiments prevailing in current scenario?
We were expecting lower prices after entering of China government in Dalian and Shanghai exchanges , but high level of demand, comparatively less inventory and influence of hierarchic traders made wrong all equations for iron ore prices and this week , Monday and Tuesday we saw increase USD 2/MT in prices reaching to USD 80/MT.
2. Iron ore inventories at Chinese major ports have shown decline in past few weeks. Anything you would like to comment on this.
High demand for high grade material has resulted in reduced inventories at Chinese major ports.
3. Have you recently concluded export deals for Iranian iron ore? If yes then at what price and for which material type & grade
At the time being our group has purchased 150,000 MT of Fe 61% with normal composition that is in local transport stage and we will load a 55,000 MT cargo of grade Fe 62% in near future.
Vessels from Iranian ports mostly containing Fe 58%+ cargoes.
Worth to know that number of traders started to export by containers showing that even with high expences of container shipment the market prices are still interesting.
4. What is current vessel freight from Iran to China for Handymax, Supramax vessels?
Increased price of iron ore was not ineffective on shipment fairs . Now 55, 000 MT vessels asking USD 12.8-13.3/MT and USD 15-16/MT for cargoes less than 30,000 MT.
5. How do you foresee the price scenario in China in the next 10-15 days?
I forecast a positively growing market according to demands with less fluctuations.
6. What do you feel is the main reason behind strong iron ore prices. Is it increase in steel prices or speculative trading ?
In my last interview I mentioned that the market will follow steel prices and now we can see daily increase of steel prices specially Tangshan steel caused more benefit for steel mills significantly and subsequently iron ore traders offering higher prices due to high demand.
But I think that all traders should be careful because market is not stable at this moment.
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