Metal Bulletin Launches New 65% Fe Pellet Index

Metal Bulletin today announced that it will publish a new reference price for the iron ore physical market- a new Iron Ore Index, basis 65% iron content blast furnace pellet, delivered Qingdao.

The new Index addresses the requirement in the market for an independent and objective representation of the international iron ore pellet spot market.

The Metal Bulletin 65% Pellet (MBIOI-PT) utilises price and transaction data from a broad spectrum of industry participants and widespread contact base of steel producers and iron ore traders across China and also via Shanghai Steelhome. MBIOI is the world’s only iron ore index with access to such data from a major Chinese source. The MBIOI-PT is a tonnage weighted calculation of actual physical transactions, normalised to 65% Fe, CFR Qingdao utilising the value-in-use of different grades as defined by the market, and is published weekly on Friday, at midday London time.

Cameron Hunt, Director - MB Index, said. “The new Index will bring transparency to this growing market. Metal Bulletin’s unique market balancing mechanism ensures that the Index reflects the underlying pellet spot market without bias or influence. The pellet market is an increasingly important part of the Chinese market. A significant percentage of global capacity increases will be shipped as concentrate or pellet.”