According to the data maintained by SteelMint, Essar Steel has imported a bulk vessel of 20,000 MT sponge (DRI) from Iran.
The Vessel name ‘Ana Ocean’ carried the material which reached Magdalla port in the western region of India on 19 May’17.
“Since last couple of months, the plant’s DRI feed was on maintenance, hence the company imported bulk quantity’’ a market participant stated.
Although exact price of the deal was not know, but sources said that deal would have been closed at around USD 230-250/MT CFR India. Specification of the material assessed: Fe 88-92%, Carbon (C) 1.5% min, SiO2 – 4% max, Phosphorus-Sulphur: 0.10% max & Moisture 3%.
Essar Steel is one of the largest steelmaker in India with annual steelmaking capacity of 10 MnT. This is first time when the India imported a bulk vessel of DRI as the Nation is known as largest producer & exporter in the world for Sponge.
Notably, India’s sponge import shrunk since few years as the production for the material is increase significantly. In FY17, the nation’s coal based sponge production grew by 6.5% to 24.4 MnT against 22.9 MnT during FY16.
Coming for imports – in FY17, India’s total DRI import was reported at 40,000 MT against 30,000 MT in FY16 & 14,000 MT in FY15.
Source: SteelMint Research
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