Chinese prices of imported iron ore for both port inventories and seaborne cargoes dipped further on November 15, with sales still flat.
On Monday, Mysteel PORTDEX 62% Australian Fines in Qingdao declined by Yuan 7/wmt ($1.1/wmt) from last Friday to reach Yuan 613/wmt FOT and including the 13% VAT. Also today, Mysteel SEADEX 62% Australian Fines slid by $0.5/dmt from Friday to $88.75/dmt CFR Qingdao.
Even though today was the first trading day of the week, steel mills’ buying interest for ore was still relatively dull. Thinning profit margins on their finished steel are causing them to cut production and raw materials procurement, market sources said. Iron ore futures prices on the Dalian Commodity Exchange also lost further ground throughout the day today.
Consequently, iron ore traders struggled to defend their offering prices for stocks at hand, and some seemed intent to sell what they could before prices decline further.
By 17:30 Beijing time today, Mysteel had heard that most deals were concluded by mills buying just for immediate production needs, with the prices of many deals being lower than last Friday.
The seaborne iron ore market on Monday was also relatively tepid. By 17:30 Beijing time, Mysteel had heard of only one deal being reached on a public trading platform involving Brazilian Blend Fines.
Written by Victoria Zou, zyongjia@mysteel.com
This article has been published under an article exchange agreement between Mysteel Global and SteelMint.
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