Spot iron
ore prices were unchanged on Wednesday with top importer China still away for
the Lunar New Year holiday. Volumes for Iron ore swap also fell.
Swap prices along
with Spot iron ore were steady with the February contract at $143.69 a tonne,
March at $142.63 and April at $141.56.
The volume
of iron ore forward swaps cleared by the Singapore Exchange, which clears the
bulk of global volume, fell to below 100 lots from Friday to just 48 lots or 24,000
tonnes on Tuesday, a fraction of this months high of 1,232 lots.
Atlas Chief
Commercial Officer Mark Hancock told reporters that there is an expectation of
increase in both Chinese demand and price after Lunar New Year.
However, a
Singapore- based physical iron ore trader said, “Chinese demand will pick up
after the Lunar New Year but there is no certainty of prices picking up because
of the plenty of stocks sitting at ports.”
Leave a Reply