Indian government-owned miner, National Mineral Development Corporation (NMDC) has reduced iron ore prices by Rs300/mt ($4/mt) for lumps and by Rs200/mt ($2.7/mt) for fines for August deliveries from the prior month.
NMDC’s iron ore lumps will be priced at Rs7,150/mt ($96.3/mt) and fines at Rs6,160/mt ($83/mt), according to a company release. NMDC sells over 70pc of its production volume in the form of fines.
The company has lowered prices twice successively by a total of around Rs400-500/mt. Earlier, the company had lowered prices by Rs200/mt in July for both lumps and fines.
Following weak global cues and China tightening policies on production cuts, the supply of iron ore is expected to ease internationally. International iron ore prices on Thursday declined by $13.1/mt to $170.05/mt cfr China from a day ago. Prices lowered by around $45/mt from $215/mt cfr China in a month.
NMDC’s price cut is followed by the downward revision by major Odisha-based iron ore miners.
With resumption in the production at Donimalai mines in March, domestic supply in India showed signs of recovery. The monsoon season could also start its withdrawal soon and ease mining output.
NMDC reported a 39.73pc surge in iron ore production to 3.06mn mt in July from the previous year. Sales also increased by 28.02pc to 3.29mn mt in the same period.
In July last year, NMDC iron ore lumps and fines were priced at Rs2,650/mt ($35/mt) and Rs2,360/mt ($31/mt), respectively, lower by around 170pc compared to this year.
Indian pellet sponge prices were on an uptrend for the last three weeks, reaching Rs31,000/mt ($418/mt) ex-works Raipur against Rs29,000/mt on July 15.
($1=Rs74.21)