Thin Demand for Iron Ore, compelled The Major Miners cut Their spending

• The Iron ore market is portraying a down trend from past 2 days, which has washed all gains of last week. Market again loses USD 1/ MT. 

• Environmental regulation are killing buying interest of mills, hence demand remains thin as a result traders are not able to sell their high priced cargo. 

• After enjoying the boom market for a long time, looking at poor demands of Iron ore from China and other buyer countries, the major miners of the world like BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto and Vale have decided to cut down their spending.

1. BHP Billiton will cut its spending by USD 6.7 billion this year to USD 15 billion from last year’s USD 21.7 billion.
2. Whereas, Rio Tinto is looking forward to reduce its spending further, this year they cut their spending by USD 2 billion.
3. Vale projected to invest USD14.8 billion for 2014, and cut down its spending by USD 1.63 billion, which is lowest since 2010. 

• PB fines 61.5 price in spot RMB 910/MT (17% VAT included) at Port Qingdao. 

• Import prices of PB fines 61.5 were at USD 136/ MT down by USD 1/MT. 

• Tangshan mills could get advantage of the anticipation on production cut owing to power cut; the spot price of square billet was rising as people required buying before the apparent fall in output. The square billet prices up by RMB20/MT. Billet raised by RMB10/MT this morning, and is at RMB 3040/MT. 

• The CFR prices appear relatively firm, as rising freight rates makes up for decline in FOB prices. The Freight rates have increased because of congestion at ports and also because of foggy weather conditions in north China. 

• Ship of Fe 62 PB fines quoting USD139.2/MT could not find any buyer via globalORE. No deals were closed using platforms yesterday. 

• The most active Fe 62 Iron ore contract for May delivery closed at RMB930/MT. Down by RMB 6/MT.

Quantity sold by major miners were as follows: