Launch of high-grade iron ore VIU indices for silica, alumina content, cfr Qingdao: pricing notice

The new indices have been introduced in response to feedback from index users requesting more pricing references for high-grade iron ore fines and their related VIU adjustments in the seaborne market, in addition to Fastmarkets’ existing coverage on mid-grade VIUs.

The VIU penalties are calculated through a regression analysis that harnesses data points from Fastmarkets’ high-grade iron ore pricing suite, which include the MB-IRO-0187 – Iron ore 67.5% Fe pellet feed premium cfr Qingdao index, the MB-IRO-0189 – Iron ore 65% Fe concentrate premium cfr Qingdao index  and the MB-IRO-0177 – Iron ore pellet premium over 65% Fe fines, cfr China.

The specifications and trading parameters of the indices can be found in Fastmarkets’ Iron Ore Methodology: MB-IRO-0187 on page 17, MB-IRO-0189 on page 14 and MB-IRO-0177 on page 13.

The specifications of the VIU values are as follows:

MB-IRO-0194 – High-grade iron ore, % Si VIU, cfr Qingdao $/dmt
Silica Value-In-Use adjustments (HG-Si-VIU) calculated from data of high-grade cargo brands (≥65% Fe), silica range: 0.5-8.5%

MB-IRO-0195 – High-grade iron ore, % Al2O3 VIU, cfr Qingdao $/dmt
Alumina Value-In-Use adjustments (HG-Al-VIU) calculated from data of high-grade cargo brands (≥65% Fe), alumina range: 0.01-1.5%

Please send any questions or comments to pricing@fastmarkets.com and steelrawmaterials@fastmarkets.com. Please indicate if comments are confidential. Fastmarkets will consider all comments received and will make comments not marked as confidential available upon request

Please indicate if any comments are confidential. All feedback will be considered, and comments not marked as confidential may be made available upon request.

To see all Fastmarkets’ pricing methodologies and specification documents, go to the Fastmarkets methodology page.