Wednesday, December 2,
SteelMint Exclusive
Iron ore mines in Orissa have slashed their prices for lumps and size ore up to Rs 500/MT, whereas iron ore fines prices remain unchanged.
Iron ore lumps prices in Orissa corrected almost after 9 months, when Orissa govt tried to crub illegal mining in the state and made norms tighter. Orissa govt took action against illegal mining in the month of March and since then prices of iron ore have increased by almost 90-100%.
In the month of march iron ore prices were hovering around 3000-3200 which had touched Rs 5800-6000 for 62/63 % Fe iron ore.
The much awaited price cut happened last night. Mines such as Serajuddin, KN Ram, MG Mohanty and some other miners have reduced their prices by Rs 500/MT, where as mines like Essel ,Rungta and Patnaik Minerals have slashed their prices by Rs 250/MT.
Whereas iron ore fines prices remain unchanged over high export prices and good demand from the exporters. Iron ore fines Fe 63% prices are hovering around Rs 2150-2300/MT
Current prices of iron ore size ore (5-18) is around Rs 5300-5600 on ex mines basis, where as bookings of 10-30 and 10-80 mm sized iron ore remains closed.
Steel market has been going through a sluggish period with demand for finish goods being low. Poor demand for finish good and higher raw material prices had lead to reduction in production capacities. As a result the procurement of iron ore and coal had reduced. Moreover, mines in Orissa which were closed on violating forest laws have gradually started their operations, which have increased the supply of iron ore in the market.
With reduced procurement and increased supply, price cut for iron ore was already expected. So, a reduction in prices was not a big surprise but it could be a respite for steel manufacturers and might help them in attaining better conversions/margins.
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