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India’s Cash Iron-Ore Price for China May Rise as Supplies Fall
By resourceINTEL · November 13, 2009 · 10:02 am · Leave a Comment
Nov. 13 (Bloomberg) — India’s iron-ore price for cash sales to China may rise about 4 percent this month as supplies shrink from one of India’s biggest producing states following a government directive to mines to halt work.
Prices may climb to $110 a metric ton by the end of November from $106 a ton at present, R.K. Sharma, secretary general of the Federation of Indian Mineral Industries, said today. The government of Orissa, which exports about 13 percent of India’s ore, issued notices to 69 companies, including ore mines, because of environment concerns, Ashok Mohadeo Rao Dalwai, the state government’s steel and mines secretary, said today.
Total iron ore imports by China, the world’s biggest buyer, rose 37 percent to 514.8 million tons in the first 10 months of 2009 from a year earlier, the customs office said on Nov. 11.
Cash prices for Indian 63.5 percent benchmark iron ore exported to China rose above $100 a ton this week on higher freight costs, increased Chinese demand and disruptions to Indian supply, Commonwealth Bank of Australia said yesterday.
“Imported fines prices could hold these levels or increase further in the short term if India’s authorities continue their clampdown on licenses and permits in the iron ore export sector,” Commonwealth Bank analysts David Moore and Lachlan Shaw said in a report.
The Orissa government is inspecting all the mining companies in the state for forest and environment violations, Dalwai said. More iron ore miners in Orissa may lower production following the scrutiny, Sharma said today…read more at the Bloomberg
