India: Odisha Iron Ore Miners keep Prices Unchanged for Nov’13

Odisha iron ore miners have preferred to keep their prices unchanged for the month of November’13 due to lower productions in October.

Big merchant iron ore miners like Essel and Rungta, based in the India’s eastern region, Odisha, have kept their offers unchanged for November delivery. Prices are usually reviewed twice in a month by these producers.  Miners mention that production had been low by almost 20-25% in the month of October owing to heavy rains in the state have made them to stick with same offers.

Current Offers

Current offers from big miners stay at  INR 6,600/MT (US$ 108) for Calibrated Lumps Ore (CLO) of size 5-18mm and grade 63% Fe. Iron ore fines are offered at INR 2,450/MT (US$ 41) for Fe 63%.

However medium and smaller merchant miners offer similar grade of Calibrated Lumps Ore (CLO) at around INR 5,400/MT (US$ 88) and iron fines at around INR 2,100/MT (US$ 34). Prices had been raised earlier in the month of October by INR 200/MT looking at increase in sponge iron and pellet prices in domestic market.

Odisha is India’s largest iron ore producing state , which contributes almost 43% of total production, with a merchant capacity of around 35 million tonnes per annum.

What to expect further

With sponge iron prices falling upto INR 800-900/MT week-on-week, in Indian spot market, manufacturers are unwilling to place fresh orders at current offers. However with few more pellet plants commissioning in new few months, it is likely that merchant availability of pellets will put pressure on pellet and iron ore prices.

NMDC to declare iron ore prices this week

NMDC, India’s largest iron ore miner with an annual production of 28 million tonnes, likely to  declare November prices in the first week of the month. It had hiked prices by INR 100/MT in the month of October.

Iron Ore exports from India drop down in October- Reports

With provisional data available with port authorities, steelmint learned that iron ore exports have dropped down significantly as ports like Paradip, Vizag and Haldia were impacted with the  recent cyclone ‘Phailin’, that hit Indian east coast in the month of October. It is expected that exports have been down by almost 30-40% in the month October 2013 as compared to previous month.