Iron Ore Pellets (BF & DR Grade)

Blast-furnace pellets at 63–65% Fe and direct-reduction pellets at 67% Fe and above, priced as a premium over the fines index

A pellet is a manufactured burden: concentrate balled and fired into 9 to 16 mm spheres that a furnace can charge without sintering. Blast-furnace grade runs 63 to 65% Fe and is bought on cold compression strength (250 daN per pellet is the working floor), tumble index, reducibility and, for fluxed pellets, basicity. Direct-reduction grade runs 67% Fe or better with silica plus alumina of 3% or less and low phosphorus, because a reduction shaft makes no slag and every unit of gangue goes on to the electric-arc furnace. The two are priced separately, each as a premium over the 65% Fe fines index. In 2026 the Atlantic blast-furnace pellet premium averaged about USD 28 per tonne in the first quarter and USD 31 in the second, and the largest producer's third-quarter contract premium was USD 40 per dry tonne; the direct-reduction premium, assessed at 67.5% Fe, was about USD 42 and USD 43. Realised pellet prices at the largest seller were about USD 137 per tonne in the second quarter. Supply is concentrated. Brazil exported 26.3 million MT in 2024, Sweden 16.0 million, Canada 13.9 million, Oman 10.3 million from the pellet plant at Sohar, which has 9 million MT a year of capacity, and India 8.2 million. In 2026 supply tightened: the Sohar plant was suspended in March and had only partly resumed by late June, making about 200,000 MT in the second quarter against 1.74 million MT a year earlier; a Swedish pellet line is shut from mid-April to November, taking about 2 million MT out of shipments; and India's pellet exports fell 53% to 3.47 million MT in the year to March 2026 as its own mills took the tonnage. Pellet plants on the Gulf coast, which shipped more than 10 million MT in 2024, are behind the Strait of Hormuz, severely restricted since 28 February 2026, and are not offered as active supply.

The buyers are easier to map than the sellers. China imported 23.0 million MT in 2025, with its intake of Indian pellets falling from 7.76 million to 3.72 million MT and Swedish and Ukrainian tonnage rising. Germany imported 11.2 million MT, 43% from Sweden and 38% from Canada. Egypt imported 8.2 million MT, mainly from Brazil, Oman and Sweden, for its direct-reduction plants. Japan took 6.0 million MT, the United States 4.9 million, Türkiye 3.7 million and Belgium 3.4 million. CBIL brokers Indian merchant pellets in part cargoes and Supramax lots from Paradip, Haldia and Visakhapatnam, and trader resale parcels of Brazilian, Swedish, Canadian and Omani pellets, against SGS, Intertek or Bureau Veritas certification of chemistry, size, cold compression strength, tumble and abrasion indices and moisture, sampled at the load port to ISO 3082. The mine and pellet plant of origin are named on every offer and checked against the certificate of origin before a price is given. Because CBIL also runs a chartering desk, LaycanDesk, the freight is quoted with the cargo on FOB and CFR terms.

See also: Iron ore pellets CFR India (Paradip, Vizag, Hazira) · Iron ore lump, the other direct-charge ore · DRI and HBI, what DR-grade pellets become · Iron ore fines and the 61% Fe index

Need the ship as well? Our chartering desk prices Chattogram to Vietnam mill scale freight on LaycanDesk.

Excluded origins are not offered, including product re-exported, blended or re-processed through a third country. Every lot moves with a certificate of origin naming the producing plant, mine or grower country, and nothing is quoted before the seller and loading point are known.