Chinese iron ore market, in all likelihood, would open on a positive note today, after week long Lunar New Year holidays, as there are strong signals of buyers would return to the spot market to secure volumes quickly in anticipation of prices climbing up in coming days.

During previous years, it was seen that Chinese buyers stay away from buying and the market remained dead but we have heard of some transactions of iron ore from India during the holiday period this time.

It is learnt that some trading houses have taken positions to take advantage of likely increase in prices. This is pointing to a positive scenario for Indian iron ore miners, as the expectation is that spot prices of Indian iron ore would remain firm.

The factors attributing to positive scenario include

1. Chinese steel mills would have to continue to import high volumes of iron ore on spot to match their increased crude steel production levels

2. All kind of numbers are being dropped in by the Big 3 regarding the on going iron ore benchmark talks. As against the previous forecasts in the range of 35% to 50% by analyst, now miners are saying that current spot levels point to 100% increase.

3. There is strong move by Indian steel majors to get the export tax hiked.

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(Sourced from www.steelprices-india.com)