SteelMint | Morning Brief

Iron ore & pellets –

• NMDC conducted iron ore e-auctions on 30 Apr for 231,000t iron ore from its Chhattisgarh mines, out of which 180,600 t was from its Bacheli mines and 50,400 t from Kirandul mines. According to market sources reporting to SteelMint, the auction received aggressive response with bids moving up by around INR 280/t in fines, INR 930/t in DR-CLO, INR 300/t in ROM and INR 600/t in lump over the set base price.
• SteelMint’s bi-weekly domestic pellet index “PELLEX ” continues to remain stable at INR 14,550/t DAP Raipur. Two deals with total quantity of 8,000 t pellet were reported in this publishing window at INR 14,200-14,400/t DAP, Raipur.

Coal-

• Australian premium hard coking coal price decreased marginally this week as the spot market continued to witness limited trading activities with participants awaiting tender result for short-term market direction. Latest prices for the Premium HCC are currently assessed to be at around $110.00/t FOB Hay Point, Australia.
• The Transnet rail disruption that occured on 28 April is expected to continue till 7 May, causing API4 index to jump up by $6/t, in just two days, to $92/t.

Scrap & Metallics-

• One of the major pig iron producers and suppliers in India, has recently concluded an export tender for around 30,000-40,000 t for May ’21 shipment, SteelMint learnt from trade sources. The deal was heard to have been concluded around $530-535/t FoB India levels (equivalent to $560-565/t CFR China). Few offers were also heard around $570/t CFR China.
• SAIL conducted an auction for 8,700 t of basic grade pig iron on 30 Apr ’21 from its Rourkela Steel Plant, Odisha. Entire quantity was booked at INR 37,450/t exw, sources reported to SteelMint. Bid price decreased by INR 1,150/t compared to the previous auction conducted on 22 April.
• Benchmark sponge iron (P-DRI) prices dropped slightly by INR 50/t to INR 28,750/t ($388), exw Raipur, Central India.
• Imported scrap offers to India have increased due to limited offers. Containerised shredded scrap deals are known to have been concluded at $470/t CFR Nhava Sheva. Fresh offers in containers moved up significantly by $10/t to $480-485/t CFR levels w-o-w.
• Japanese scrap (HRS 101 grade) prices moved up further by $5-10/t in recent deals of around 2,500-3,000 t concluded recently at $515/t CFR China basis. New offers increased further and now stand at $525-530/t CFR China.
• SteelMint’s domestic steel scrap index has marginally increased to INR 38,000/t DAP Mandi Gobindgarh. Trade participants remained cautious amidst uncertainty in future market outlook and there were limited future bookings due to ongoing lockdown restrictions.

Semi-finished steel-

• SteelMint’s daily billet index has been assessed at INR 41,200/t (=) exw Raipur on 30th Apr ’21 at 18:00 IST. The index remained unchanged yesterday on account of active demand & limited bids on floated higher offers. Hence, deals have been concluded mostly on firm offers.
• Khouzestan Steel Company (KSC), Iran’s leading steel exporter, is reported to have sold 30,000 t billets through a tender. According to SteelMint sources, the mill concluded the tender at $620/t, FoB for Jun ’21 shipments, with China as likely destination. The mill also managed to conclude its 30,000 t slab tender floated at $750/t, FoB.

Finished steel –

• An integrated private steelmaker based in western India is reported to have booked around 10,000 t HRC for export to Vietnam at $975/t CFR basis for end May-early Jun ’21 shipments.
• India’s largest structural steel tubes manufacturer, APL Apollo Tubes Limited, is likely to announce an increase of INR 2,500/t ($34) in list price of coil-based pipes in May ’21 on account of an uptick in Hot-Rolled Coil prices, according to the latest information shared with SteelMint.
• Local mills in Nepal reported a hike in rebar prices by NPR 2,000/t ($17), w-o-w, on account of rising billet import offers from India and an active domestic demand.
• Europe’s largest steel producer, ArcelorMittal, has further raised its coil prices. The current price of HRC stands at around Euro 1,020/t compared to Euro 1,000/t last week.

Ferro alloys –

• MOIL, India’s largest manganese ore miner has decreased prices of all grades of Manganese ore by 5% on prevailing prices since 01 Apr ’21.