PRICING NOTICE: Impurity range amendments for 65% Fe iron ore blast furnace pellet index

Fastmarkets is adjusting the impurity ranges for its 65% Fe iron ore blast furnace pellet index from Friday May 7.

Following a one-month consultation during which favorable feedback was received, Fastmarkets is widening its maximum acceptable alumina and phosphorus ranges for inclusion and normalization in its cfr China 65% Fe iron ore blast furnace pellet index (MB-IRO-0012).

This change will reflect more clearly the product types that Fastmarkets includes in this index and normalizes to its base specification, which have comprised a number of higher-alumina and higher-phosphorus brands since they became the prevailing source of liquidity in the cfr China spot market for iron ore pellets.

The base specifications of this index remains unchanged, meaning this change is not expected to have any material impact on the behavior of the price.

The new specifications are:

MB-IRO-0012 Iron ore 65% Fe blast furnace pellet, cfr Qingdao, $/tonne
Quality: Fe content base 65%, range 60-70%; silica base 4.5%, max 6%; alumina base 0.4%, max 3.5%; phosphorus base 0.03%, max 0.08%; sulfur base 0.01%, max 0.02%; moisture base 2.0%/DW, max 3.0%/DW; granularity max size >90% >10.0mm; compression strength base 250daN, min 200daN
Quantity: Min 10,000 tonnes
Location: cfr Qingdao – normalized for any Chinese mainland sea port
Timing: Within eight weeks
Unit: $ per tonne
Payment terms: Letters of credit on sight – other payment terms normalized
Publication: Weekly. Friday at 6.30pm Singapore time
Notes: All origins. Data history from April 2012

To provide feedback on the amendments to the specifications, or if you would like to provide price information by becoming a data submitter to this index, please contact Peter Hannah by email at: pricing@fastmarkets.com. Please add the subject heading “FAO: Peter Hannah, re: Iron Ore Pellet Pricing”

To see all of Fastmarkets’ pricing methodology and specification documents, go to: https://www.fastmarkets.com/about-us/methodology.

What to read next
Fastmarkets has had a strong interest in the proposed new assessments and would like to gather additional information on the specification and grades that should assess.  Based on the feedback, the proposed specifications have been updated as follows:  Quality: Selected Nordic (Swedish, Finnish, Norwegian) export grades of both planed and rough sawn timber spruce (whitewood) […]
While Fastmarkets understands that the PIX sawn timber FAS Finland indices have not been widely adopted by the industry, we have received feedback that there is commercial use for the indices. Therefore, we propose to maintain them for the time being.  The following indices are affected:  The extended consultation period for this proposed discontinuation starts […]
To increase the transparency of our methodology, Fastmarkets clarifies that the quotation period of the MHP nickel payable indicator is the month of delivery, or the month M. Any data points Fastmarkets received otherwise will be normalized to the M month based on the monthly spreads of the prevailing exchange-traded Class-1 nickel reference price, or […]
Following an initial consultation with the market and a review of the typical data sets that have been collected over recent months, Fastmarkets is proposing changes to the specifications of the index for MB-IRO-0009 iron ore 65% Fe Brazil-origin fines, cfr Qingdao, by raising the silica base specification to 2.7% from 2.2%, as well as an […]
Despite the current headwinds, strategic partnerships and continued investment in the right areas, coupled with the underlying strong long-term demand fundamentals, will pave the way for success for lithium producers, according to the participants of the executive panel during the Fastmarkets Lithium Supply and Battery Raw Materials Conference, which took place from June 23-26 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
The US and Europe must adopt long-term, consistent policies and should learn lessons from China, according to lithium industry experts speaking at Fastmarkets’ Lithium Supply and Battery Raw Materials Conference in Las Vegas, US, over June 22-25.