Rakesh Sethi: Iron ore prices hard to climb up substantially rest of this year

Asian Metal: Thanks for accepting the interview of Asian Metal. Could you please make a brief introduction of yourself and your company?

Rakesh Sethi: Well, my name is Rakesh Sethi, the vice president of business development of Radiant World. Radiant is an established and rapidly growing business group with significant business exposure in allied segments like Exports, Mining, Beneficiation of Iron Ore and mill scale, Real Estate Lifestyle, Textile, Garments and Steel cutlery. We are among a handful of companies in India that have managed to successfully export to and import from both East and West coasts of India. The Group is also engaged in import of Sugar and Manganese Ore.

Asian Metal: What grade of iron ore can you supply and what is your monthly supply volume? Compared with those products offered by other miners and exporters, can you tell us the superiority of the product?

Rakesh Sethi: Our company operates iron ore mines in India and Turkey. As for the Indian iron ore, the supply grades vary from 50%min to 63.5%min. The normal supply capacity can be totaled 4.5 million tons per year. Radiant World is one of India’s largest private exporters of iron ore fines. Besides, we are known for its consistent quality in export of iron ore fines and mill scale. What’s more, Radiant World has obtained all required license and approval from Govt. of India for transportation, storage and export of ion ore fines and mill scale. We have processing facilities with a capacity of 200 TPH for upgrading the ore at Madhya Pradesh. This includes a crushing and a washing plant. The process of iron ore beneficiation increases the iron content of the raw ore. This also reduces the SIo2 and Al content to improve its quality.

Asian Metal: Could you tell us what kind of index you prefer to take when offering quotations? Will you provide some discounts?

Rakesh Sethi: Normally we take the Platts Index as a reference when making quotations and will also provide some discounts if the buyer has real purchasing ability and can place orders within a short period. I want to mention that we only deal with spot goods and we will not sign long-term contracts.

Asian Metal: The Platts Index showed a downward trend this month, so what is your opinion?

Rakesh Sethi: If the demand from downstream industries cannot be released truly, then the price fluctuation is meaningless. I think the price in June and July will decrease again. The Chinese construction activity will come to an end during that period, so the demand will be soft, thus the price of iron ore cannot climb up substantially. I think the yearly average price of iron ore in 2013 will be between USD130/dt to USD150/dt. The peak point of USD150/dt has passed, so I do not think the price can be as high as USD150/dt again during the rest of this year.

Asian metal: The demand is not that promising for the time being, so what is your expectation?

Rakesh Sethi: I think the government plays an important role. I hope the Chinese new leadership can publish some positive policies, then the Chinese domestic economy can be prosperous and only by this way can the iron ore market be activated. Most Chinese steel mills are in a condition of oversupply, so I do not think the demand for iron ore will be stronger soon.

Asian Metal: Do you have any plans of enlarging production quantity?

Rakesh Sethi: Not at the moment. I want to stabilize present situation and pay much attention to the quality improvement of the product. I prefer to take a wait-and-see attitude.

Asian Metal: I hear that the Goa government and Karnataka government banned export and mining activity, and for other states, the export tax is as high as 30%. What is your view regarding the situation?

Rakesh Sethi: As far as I know, the supreme court of India just released a new policy and the mining activity can be done in Karnataka state from April 18th. But the export is still banned. For Goa state, the miners and exporters still cannot restart their business. In my point of view, the central government is not that keen to export, so the export tax is high. The government hopes to boom local economy. Besides our own mine sites in India, we also involve in middle trading. We export iron ore from Mexico, Iran, Indonesia, Australia and Africa.

Asian Metal: Thanks for the communication and best wishes to your international business!