There were very few buyers for the
iron ore stocks lying at pitheads and port stockyards in the western Indian coastal province of Goa, an official from Goa Mineral Ore Exporters Association (GMOEA) said on Friday, May 22. Buyers' disinterest was evident from the bids or rather lack of them at the e-auction concluded last Wednesday, May 20. Of the 1 million metric tons of
iron ore put on offer at the auctions, only 442,000 mt were successfully auctioned with most traders remaining on the sidelines, he added.
Since Indian's Supreme Court approved the auctioning of the 16 million mt of
iron ore across the province in January this year, the Goa government has held six auctions under court monitoring but was able to liquidate only 5 million mt of raw material.
The official said that
iron ore mined in Goa was predominantly low grade below 58 percent Fe content and was mostly for export since Indian steel mills generally did not have facilities suitable for use of such low grade ore in blast furnaces.
But with international
iron ore prices in a slump, exporters and traders are not interested in increasing stocks through competitive bidding at auctions since most are uncertain of concluding transactions that would even cover the acquisition costs of
iron ore given current levels of export offers, the official said.