Indian pellet export prices slipped as Chinese buyers were reluctant to book cargoes over the last few days.
SteelMint’s FoB east coast India 64% Fe pellet index moved down to $97/t today from an assessment of $100/t on 23 June.
Chinese buyers are wary of booking pellet cargoes from India in light of heightened tension between the two countries on land boundary issues. Buyers may remain quiet for at least another week to see how much impact the conflict has on trade between the two countries.
Domestic pellet prices in India are likely to remain well-supported in the near-term on the back of NMDC lifting ore prices for July and brisk sales of Odisha private mines’ ore stocks. Easing of restrictions has led to steel mills stepping up output and ore purchases amid tight iron ore supplies in Odisha as new mine owners are yet to start production.
South India-based pellet maker KIOCL has floated an e-tender for exporting 55,000t pellets this month. The tender will be held between 14:00 hrs on 01 Jul’20 and 14:00hrs on 03 Jul’20 IST among empanelled customers.
Rationale
— No export deals were reported from the east coast for China or south-east Asia destinations.
— SteelMint received a total of four offers and indicative prices which were included in the final price calculation, averaging at $97/t.
— SteelMint classifies market data as T1 and T2. T1 includes confirmed deals while offers, bids and indicative prices are included as T2 inputs. Both T1 and T2 categories of inputs carry 50% weightage each in price calculation.
— In the absence of deals, the average of T2 transactions was given a 100% weightage in today’s final price calculation.
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