September 08, 2008

Chinese finds Indian forecasts for iron ore demand on higher side

Shanghai Securities News reported that during the recent iron ore marketing conference hosted by Federation of Indian Mineral Industries at Goa, India iron ore enterprises and the mining firms magnified China's demand, possibly in order to seek further price rise meanwhile.

The report said that during the conference, the Indian speakers wrongly reported that China's domestic iron ore is mainly underground mined and thus is more expensive than imported iron ore and concluded with a higher forecast of China's demand for imported iron ore than the real situation.

This may distort Indian spot market even further and lend negative impact on the forthcoming benchmark talks with global mining majors.

But on the other hand, the spot prices for Indian iron ore have literally hit the roof. As per the recent release from China Chamber of Commerce of Metals Minerals and Chemicals Importers and Exporters the average reference prices for import transactions of Fe 63.5% Indian iron ore concluded during the week ending on August 20th 2007, the price surged by USD 8 on FOB basis and by USD 13 on CNF basis to reach the highest ever levels of USD 100 to USD 103 and USD 135 to USD 138 per tonne on FOB India and CIF China basis respectively.

(Sourced from MySteel.net)