India Steel Market Watch
October 29: Iron ore lumps offers in the domestic market fell by Rs 100-200 per ton as inventory levels remained high, industry sources said.
Fines prices, however, remained unchanged, sources said.
Rungta Mines and Serajjudin revised lumps prices by Rs 200 per ton, while Indrani cut offers by Rs 100 per ton.
The lowering of the prices may impact lump prices of other miners, industry insiders said.
Earlier in October, NMDC slashed prices of iron ore fines by 12% to Rs 1,460 per ton on subdued ore demand.
The price of the higher grade iron ore (lumps) has been reduced by Rs 300-350 per ton to Rs 2,500 per ton for October 2015.
Considering the global iron ore supply-demand scenario, analysts are of the view that a further downward revision in prices by NMDC is possible in the near term. NMDC saw its sales go down 17% to 13.11 million tons (mt) for April-September this fiscal from 15.85 mt. Production was also down almost 14.3% to 12.37 million tons in the first half of the current fiscal compared to 14.44 mt in the same period last year mainly due to low demand for steel.
Goa, India's top iron ore exporting state, resumed production in August. The state has an annual limit of 20 million tons in the current fiscal. However, sources said e-auctions in Goa recorded lukewarm responses with sales levels hovering around 20-30% of the offered quantity.
Following are prevailing domestic iron ore prices:
|
|
|
Price (ex-mines) |
Price (ex-mines) |
W-O-W |
Company |
Size |
Grade |
29-Oct-15 |
15-Oct-15 |
|
NMDC |
6-20mm |
65 |
2500 |
2500 |
0 |
|
10-150mm |
64 |
2210 |
2210 |
0 |
|
Fines |
64 |
1460 |
1460 |
0 |
Rungta |
5-18mm |
65 |
NA |
NA |
NA |
|
5-18mm |
63 |
3000 |
3200 |
-200 |
|
10-30mm |
65 |
NA |
NA |
NA |
|
10-30mm |
63 |
2900 |
3100 |
-200 |
|
Blue Dust |
63 |
1800 |
1800 |
0 |
Essel |
5-18mm |
63 |
NA |
NA |
NA |
|
10-30mm |
63 |
2900 |
2900 |
0 |
|
Blue Dust |
63 |
1600 |
1600 |
0 |
Serajuddin |
5-18mm |
63 |
2600 |
2800 |
-200 |
|
Blue Dust |
63 |
1600 |
1600 |
0 |
Indrani |
5-18mm |
63 |
2600 |
2700 |
-100 |
|
Blue Dust |
63 |
1400 |
1400 |
0 |
KJS Ahluwalia |
5-18 mm |
63 |
2600 |
2600 |
0 |
|
Blue Dust |
63 |
1600 |
1600 |
0 |
Source: Traders