Sea-borne iron ore prices continue to decline

28 may 2018

Spot iron ore prices in the sea-borne market continued to fall as the demand was waned due to selective buying by the Chinese steel mills of higher grade material. Also, the decline in futures impacted the sentiments.

Looking at the benchmark prices of sea-borne iron ore, Platts assessed the 62% Fe IODEX & TSI Iron Ore Fines at $63.75/dmt CFR North China on Friday. Meanwhile, TSI 58% Fe Fines, 1.5% Al, CFR Qingdao port closed the week at $51.25/dmt.

Chinese futures

Steel futures rose on Friday, with concerns over demand easing amid declining steel inventories of the material. The most-active construction rebar futures on the Shanghai Futures Exchange edged up 0.5 percent to 3,565 yuan ($558.14) a tonne.

Meanwhile, the Coking coal contract on the Dalian Commodity Exchange slipped 0.5 percent to 1,175.5 yuan a tonne. Coke contract for September delivery ended 0.2 percent higher at 1,979 yuan a tonne.

The Dalian iron ore contract for September delivery erased its early gains to fall 0.7 percent to 454.5 yuan a tonne, posting its worst weekly performance in nine weeks.