Iron Ore Fines

Second-tier fines 58–65% Fe priced off the 62% index with a differential

Iron ore fines are bought on iron content and sold on everything else. Fe (58–65% for the second-tier trade, with 62% the index reference) sets the headline, and the price is written as the 62% Fe CFR China index plus or minus a differential that the gangue decides: silica (3–8%), alumina (1–4%, with the alumina-to-silica ratio watched by sinter plants because high alumina thickens slag and raises coke rate), phosphorus (0.03–0.12%, the number that pushes a Kazakh or a high-P Indian ore into a discount), sulphur (≤ 0.05%) and loss on ignition (2–10%, high in goethitic and lateritic ores and effectively iron you pay freight on and then lose in the furnace). Free moisture (8–12%) matters twice over — once as paid weight and once as a carriage question, because fines with moisture above their transportable moisture limit can liquefy at sea, so a certificate of the TML and a moisture declaration within seven days of loading are conditions of shipment, not paperwork. Size is 0–10 mm for sinter feed; anything finer than 45 microns in quantity goes to a pellet plant instead. UN Comtrade 2025 export declarations under HS 2601 show the second tier CBIL works in: South Africa 65.7 million MT at an average USD 93/MT, Canada 61.6 million MT at USD 98, Malaysia 20.1 million MT at USD 59, Oman 10.7 million MT at USD 137 (a book weighted to pellets), Kazakhstan 10.7 million MT at USD 65, the USA 5.2 million MT and Pakistan 0.9 million MT at USD 56, out of 15 declaring origins. Australia and Brazil had not filed 2025 declarations at the time of writing; they are the benchmark the second tier prices against, not a market CBIL claims a seat in. Malaysia's own 2025 destination list says where a second-tier fines cargo actually goes: China 11.9 million MT at USD 58/MT, Viet Nam 6.1 million MT at USD 60, Indonesia 1.7 million MT at USD 65 and India 0.3 million MT.

CBIL is a commodity brokerage company and does not pretend to broker Pilbara or Carajás term tonnage; the majors sell that themselves, on their own contracts, to mills they have known for decades. The page is for the second tier: mid-sized miners and traders in Malaysia, South Africa, Kazakhstan, India, Indonesia and Oman with spot and short-term parcels of 58–65% Fe fines, and the sinter plants, pellet plants and traders that take them. That market is priced by differential, and the differential is settled on the surveyor's certificate: SGS, Intertek or Bureau Veritas sampling at the load port to ISO 3082, chemistry to ISO 2597 and ISO 11536 for loss on ignition, moisture to ISO 3087, with the load-port certificate governing unless the contract writes in discharge-port re-analysis. Parcels are structured in Supramax and Panamax lots out of Kuantan, Saldanha, Sohar and East Kalimantan anchorages and Capesize where the load and discharge ports take it, on FOB and CFR terms, and because CBIL also runs a chartering desk (LaycanDesk) the freight is quoted alongside the cargo so a CFR offer and an FOB-plus-fixture number are comparable on the same day. Send your Fe floor, the silica, alumina and phosphorus ceilings your sinter plant runs to, and the discharge-port draft, and we will work the origin to them.

Need the ship as well? Our chartering desk prices bulk ore and metallics freight on LaycanDesk.