SteelMint iron ore fines index falls marginally by INR 50/t

• Iron ore supplies in Odisha are expected to increase as two more auctioned mines commence production
• NMDC to auction 701,400 t iron ore from Chhattisgarh mines
• NMDC restarts production from its 7 mn t Donimalai mine in Karnataka

SteelMint’s weekly index for Odisha iron ore fines (Fe 62%) has come down further by INR 50/t to INR 5,200/t (ex-mines, including Royalty, DMF & NMET). Limited deals were reported this week. Odisha-based major merchant miners continue to keep offers unchanged.

Serajuddin mines have resumed iron ore offers on 16th Feb after a gap of over two months, Market insiders are expecting prices to correct further as two Odisha’s auctioned mines – Guali and Jilling have commenced production with a combined capacity of about 12 mn t pa.

In a confirmed trade, a trader has booked around 15,000-20,000 t iron ore fines (Fe 62%) from its Odisha mines this week at INR 5,000- 5,200/t (ex-mines, including royalty, DMF & NMET). Hence, it was taken under consideration as T1 Trade and given 50% weightage in this index.

SteelMint has also received Nine (9) offers, indicative prices under T2 trade in this publishing window out of those eight (8) were taken into consideration and given 50% weightage. To see SteelMint’s iron ore assessments, pricing methodology and specification documents, Click here.

However, SteelMint’s lump (5-18mm) index has increased by INR 400-500/t to INR 8,000-8,100/t (ex-mines, including Royalty, DMF & NMET) amid limited availability of lumps with merchant miners as few of them have nearly exhausted their EC limit.

Odisha iron ore prices:

• NMDC to auction 701,400 t iron ore from Chhattisgarh mines – NMDC is going to conduct two iron ore auctions for around 651,000 t from its Bacheli mines and 50,400 t from Kirandul mines, Chhattisgarh. Both the auctions are scheduled for 25 Feb ’21. In its previous auction conducted on 28th Jan’21 for 701,400 t iron ore, only the DR-CLO lots received bids higher by around INR 1,300/t over the set base price.
  
• NMDC restarts iron ore operation at Donimalai mine-: India’s largest iron ore miner – NMDC has restarted operations at its Donimalai iron ore mine, the company said in its recent BSE filing. It resumed operations after obtaining a lease extension for 20 years w.e.f. 03 Nov’18 from Govt. of Karnataka and completing the associated statutory requirements. The mine has an EC limit of 7 mn t pa.
• Bids for iron ore lump up by around INR 150/t in recent Karnataka e-auction – In a recent Karnataka e-auction held on 17th Feb’21, out of the total quantity of 590,000t put to auction, 305,000 t was booked. JSW Steel stood the largest buyer at 136,000 t. Iron ore lumps (Fe 59.25%) supplied by Vedanta received bids at INR 4,782-4,792/t (basic) against bid price of INR 4,628/t in the last auction conducted on 12th Feb’ 21.