India: BRPL Concludes Pellet Export Deal to Turkey

Eastern India based pellet maker - Brahmani River Pellets has recently concluded pellet export deal to Turkey, SteelMint learned from market sources.

According to vessel line up data maintained with SteelMint, vessel named “MV PARNASSOS” carrying 62,000 MT pellets sailed out from India’s Paradip port today. Deal for pellets with Fe 64% and 3% Al was learned to be concluded at around USD 124/MT, CFR Turkey. Freight for Turkey is around USD 13/MT.

If trade sources are to be believed the pellet maker is likely to supply around 500,000 MT pellets to Turkey and this is the first vessel of the consignment.

BRPL is trying to explore the non-Chinese markets like Africa and Europe to marginalize the dependency on the Chinese market for pellet exports. Earlier in the month of Mar’19 BRPL had concluded a pellet export deal to South Africa for 50,500 MT pellets. BRPL stood the largest Indian pellet exporter in FY'19 with exports at 2.38 MnT, up significantly by 40% as against 1.70 MnT in FY’18.

SteelMint has learned from trade sources that Chinese mills have marginally raised its bids for Indian pellets to USD 121-122/MT CFR, China against last assessment at USD 117-119/MT, CFR China for Fe 63% grade pellet (0.5+/-) with 3% Al content. However, no deal was learned to be concluded at this rate.

China's largest steel-producing city, will continue to partially enforce steel output and sintering restrictions until September. China govt. also plans to relocate around 13 steel mills from downtown addresses to coastal areas amid environmental concerns.

Spot pellet premium increased this week -: Spot pellet premium for Fe 65% grade pellets assessed at USD 33.4/DMT, CFR China this week, up by USD 3/DMT W-o-W against USD 30.4/DMT a week before.

BRPL, co-owned by Thriveni Pellets Pvt Ltd and JSW Techno Projects Ltd. has capacity of 4 MnT p.a.