Iron Ore Market in Brief: amid the rush to make inventories ahead of China’s National Day holiday, seaborne prices getting close to USD 100
Seaborne iron ore prices rose on September 12 amid Chinses steel makers’ support on stocking up ahead of the week-long holidays of National day starting at October.
Commodity | Price | Difference / MT |
MB 62% FE IRON ORE FINES INDEX | USD 99.30 per ton CFR Qingdao | +4.64 USD |
MB 62% FE PILBARA BLEND FINES INDEX | USD 99.69 per ton CFR Qingdao | +4.64 USD |
MB 62% FE IRON ORE INDEX-LOW ALUMINA | USD 97.60 per ton CFR Qingdao | +4.65 USD |
MB 58% FE PREMIUM INDEX | USD 86.57 per ton CFR Qingdao | +4.07 USD |
MB 65% FE IRON ORE INDEX | USD 105.60 per ton CFR Qingdao | +4.20 USD |
MB 62% FE CHINA PORT PRICE INDEX | 768 Yuan per wet metric ton | +14 Yuan |
MARKET DRIVERS
According to market participants, with the chinses steel makers building inventories ahead of the upcoming long holidays of China, a strong support was prompted for prices. “Some steelmakers are also anticipating stricter production restrictions due to the Chinese 70th National days celebrations coming”, a trader added.
Consequently, discounts were narrowed for some low-grade iron products with low-alumina content. For instance, Yandi fines was most recently dealt at a discount of around USD3.40-3.50 to the October index, despite the previous discounts close to USD 5 to the October index last week.
And with support being shown for low-alumina products, the price for Brazilian Blend fines has now recovered above the USD90-pertonne mark, having traded at less than USD87 per MT just last week. Seaborne iron ore transactions stayed active with at least eight deals concluded on trading platforms or via miner tenders as of 6.15 pm.
China’s iron ore futures trended up during the day, with the benchmark January contract ending 2.9% higher than the previous day’s settlement.
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“It looks like mills are willing to pay higher price cargoes again, likely because some are anticipating a stricter restriction to be imposed nearer to the early October holiday, this may actually lead to prices crossing the USD100-mark again,” a trader said.
PORT PRICES
Pilbara Blend fines were traded at around 740-745 yuan per MT in Shandong province on Thursday, compared with 735-742 yuan per MT a day earlier. The latest range was equivalent to USD95.60-96.30 per MT CFR China in the seaborne market.
Report By: MohammadReza Barakchian
