Reuters reported that price offers to sell iron ore to top buyer China rose recently with Indian suppliers bullish on demand from Chinese steel mills ahead of the holiday season and helping iron ore indexes hit seven month highs on Tuesday.
Chinese consultancy Mysteel said offers of Indian ore fines with 63.5 iron content rose to USD 176 per tonne to USD 178 per tonne on Wednesday, CFR delivered to China up by USD 1 per tonne from Tuesday
Traders said they saw strong upward momentum in iron ore import prices as steel mills follow purchase plans before the end of Chinese New Year, although a repeat of the winter buying sprees seen in past years was not expected.
An iron ore trader in Shandong province said "Import prices will remain strong this week, although transactions are not supporting as prices are higher than spot levels but everything shows that offers will continue to rise in coming months. Now you can''t easily find forward shipments at less than USD 177 per tonne CFR and I expect prices to inch up to USD 182 per tonne CFR soon."
Metal Bulletin Iron Ore Index analyst Mr Christopher Ellis said "It looks unlikely that we will see any significant falls going into the new year as the supply situation, notably from India, looks set to remain tight well into the next quarter.”