Indian miner National Mineral Development Corporation (NMDC) has kept iron ore prices unchanged for June deliveries. The company had previously increased prices of lumps by Rs700/mt ($10/mt) and fines by Rs1,500/mt ($21/mt) on May 12.
NMDC’s iron ore lumps are priced at Rs7,650/mt ($105/mt) and fines at Rs6,560/mt ($90/mt), effective from June 6, according to a company release.
However, other private miners in Odisha such as Rungta Mines increased iron ore prices recently by about Rs1,000/mt ($14/mt) following an Rs3,000/mt ($41/mt) increase in bids for Odisha Mining Corporation’s (OMC) iron ore e-auctions held on June 2. The total quantity of iron ore auctioned was 619,000mt.
Steel mills in Central India are taken by surprise that NMDC did not hike prices and it’s good news for all domestic sponge iron producers. Few mills in Raipur also said NMDC’s ore is now priced lower by around 1,500/mt ($21/mt) compared to other Odisha-based miners.
NMDC iron ore lumps and fines were priced at Rs2,250/mt ($31/mt) and Rs1,960/mt ($27/mt), respectively, on May 2020, have surged by almost 240pc on an annual basis.
Meanwhile, international iron ore prices have shot from $96/mt in June 2020 to an all-time high of $233/mt in mid-May 2021 consequently softening to the current level of around $208/mt.
Indian pellet sponge prices have also reached an all-time high of Rs31,000/mt ($426/mt) ex-works Raipur, which had bottomed to Rs15,000/mt ($206/mt) in mid-June 2020.
($1=Rs72.84)