Saturday, July 09,
The spot iron ore market in China finally showed some signs of improvement as higher steel & billet prices encouraged steelmakers to restock iron ore.
Highlights of the week:
* Offers for Fe 63.5/63 of Indian cargo went up to $179-180/MT i.e. up $3-4/MT from the quotes seen last week.
* China’s central bank hiked the interest rates by 25 basis points, the third hike seen this year
* Prices for the most traded rebar contract on Shanghai Futures Exchanged rose by 1.7% from last Friday to reach 4,808 yuan ($744)/MT
* In the Iron ore forward swap market, the Singapore Exchange-cleared July contract went up by more than $5 to reach $168.87/MT, signalizing for the price gain in physical market to sustain. However, traders believe the price gains to be short-lived as the demand is not so strong.
According to traders, “Iron ore prices might continue to be firm in the next week as Chinese mills would continue to restock. However, in the long term prices are expected to come down as I don’t see any support for steel prices due to the traditional slack season and record high production”
Reported by: Monica Patnaik (monica.patnaik@steelmint.com)
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