Monday, May 24,
Iron ore prices on the Chinese spot market remains largely unchanged on Tuesday.* Traders remain cautious and are still unwilling to make bigger purchases.
Indian exporters quote Fe 63.5/63 at $180-181/MT.
According to traders in China, “The key issue is that whether steel mills have enough inventories right now to avoid making big iron ore purchases or not. And this will depend to some extent on whether the output stays at current levels”
Steel output is expected to drop in the next few weeks as the country is facing what could be its worse power shortages in history, with the State Grid Corporation predicting a capacity gap of 30-40 gigawatts over the summer.
The chairman of one of China’s biggest mills, Baoshan Iron and Steel , told reporters on Tuesday that his company would not suffer too much.
But thousands of smaller mills are expected to bear the brunt of a “load-shedding” programme as the government tries to guarantee stable electricity supplies to residential users.
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