Seaborne iron ore pellet and concentrate prices were slightly higher in the week to Friday December 7, their first uptick in more than a month.
The MB 65% Fe Blast Furnace Pellet index, published by Fastmarkets MB, was at $120.10 per tonne cfr China on Friday December 7, up by $0.66 per tonne from a week earlier.
A Chinese mill bought a 50,000-tonne cargo of 64% Fe Indian Essar pellet at around $115 per tonne cfr and a second shipment of the product changed hands at $112 per tonne cfr, sources said.
Concurrently, traders assessed the 64% Fe Indian Jindal pellet price at $110 per tonne cfr.
For 64% Fe Indian BRPL pellet, market participants gave price assessments around $110-115 per tonne cfr, while an offer was heard to have been tabled at $116 per tonne cfr.
An offer for a 64% Fe Indian KIOCL pellet consignment was heard to have been tabled at $124 per tonne cfr, according to trade sources. Most market participants believe that the seaborne iron-ore pellet prices bottomed out the previous week.
Some assessments provided by traders seem to point to the market stabilizing slightly with some of the assessments unchanged from the previous week, while there were some pellet cargoes being assessed at slightly higher prices.
Although demand for pellets in the Chinese market remained limited amid thinner mill margins and less appetite for high-cost materials, traders said, the price of seaborne iron-ore pellet cargoes increased after eight consecutive weeks of drops.
source: fastmarket |
