even now pellets are worth a minimum $20 premium,to IO lump.
Possibly more now Sanmarco has taken 75MT of pellets out of the market ongoing.
Using lump in the blast furnaces should technically take Steel costs down at Whyalla Blast furnace under current IO price with there being little or no premium for lump.
Call it $20+ million extra cash income possible from a shift to exporting pellets in the future.
Also increased filter cake may also mean time to upgrade downstream handling to take the extra 600kt a year and turn it also into pellets for export although cake plant is just reaching FINALLY its design production specs,so I would expect some tweaking up of production a little beyond production targets set the best part of 10 years ago.
Mixing it at 10% of export ore sure means a lot of lower grade ore can get exported without further processing.
However the effect of directly blending all filter cake with low grade is impressive and where the money may currently be after reverting back to lump in the blast furnace.
600kt
67% FE to 53% FE +1.2MT @60%FE
67%FE to 55% FE +1.5MT
2MT
67%FE to 53%FE + 4MT @60%FE
67%FE to 55%FE +5MT
2.4MT
etc etc etc
DYOR + DYODD - ++++ OPTIONS-That others just don't have.
ARI Price at posting:
5.8¢ Sentiment: Buy Disclosure: Held
