Indian Iron Ore Imports Up 12% M-o-M in Sept’17

India iron ore imports were recorded at 0.39 MnT in Sep’17 according to the customs data maintained by SteelMint; the imports were up 12% M-o-M against the quantity of 0.34 MnT in Aug’17.

The imports were down 30% Y-o-Y for the month of Sep against 0.55 MnT in Sep’16.
In FY18 India’s iron ore imports for the first six month stands at 2.57 MnT down by 13% against the same period last fiscal that was 2.96 MnT.

Indian importers turned active as soon as the global iron ore prices started falling and started booking vessels. Further downtrend in global iron ore prices in May and Jun’17 supported iron ore import bookings to India. Monthly average global iron ore fines (Fe 62%) index was seen at USD 70/MT, CFR China in Apr’17, USD 61/MT, CFR in May’17 and USD 57/MT, CFR in Jun’17.

Jindal SAW remained the largest importer in Sept’17 – West India based pellet maker – Jindal SAW imported 0.17 MnT iron ore from South Africa and remained the largest importer. Gujarat based steel mills jointly imported a vessel of 93,000 MT South African lump. Southern India based steel mills also combiningly imported iron ore lump vessel from South Africa. KIOCL imported a vessel from Oman in Sept’17.

Shipper-wise iron ore imports in Sep 2017

Provisional Data
Source: SteelMint Stats

South Africa continues to remain the preferred source of Indian iron ore imports –
South Africa accounted for 86% share in Indian iron ore imports for the Month of Sep’17 at 0.33 MnT and remaining 14% came from Oman which was 0.06 MnT.

Western India ports accounted for largest share in imports –
Mundra was the largest port that accounted for 0.17 MnT material in Sep’17 with the share of 43%. The second largest was Kandla quantity at 0.09 MnT with 24% share, Krishnapatanam stand at 0.07 MnT (19% share) and Mangalore 0.06 MnT (14% share).