Iron ore plunge to $68/dmt mark

27-Nov-2018

Spot iron ore prices plunged as the demand continued to decline as the winter cuts in steel production kept the major Chinese buyers from building any sort of inventories. Instead some of the steel mills were reportedly offloading sintering inventories in the open market building more pressure on the prices.

Looking at the benchmark for seaborne spot iron ore prices, Platts assessed the 62% Fe IODEX & TSI Iron Ore Fines at $68.90/dmt CFR North China on Friday. Meanwhile, TSI 58% Fe Fines, 1.5% Al, CFR Qingdao port closed the week at $60.60/dmt.

Moreover, the benchmark rebar futures on the Shanghai Futures Exchange closed 2.6 percent lower at 3,623 yuan ($522.02) a tonne, and lost 5.6 percent so far this week, their worst performance since March, amid concerns of a glut.

At Dalian Commodity Exchange, the most-active iron ore contract for January delivery slumped 4.6 percent to 497 yuan a tonne, the lowest since early October. Dalian coking coal futures dropped 1.8 percent to 1,340.5 yuan a tonne, while coke prices fell 3.7 percent to 2,188 yuan.