Iron ore prices decline on subdued demand ahead of winters

5-Nov-2018

Seaborne iron ore prices which saw reaching $77/dmt mark on the first day of the week, were battered for the next four consecutive days as buyers stayed away from the markets due to the expectation  that the demand for key raw material in steelmaking will be subdued due to upcoming winters.

Onto the benchmark for seaborne spot iron ore prices, Platts assessed the 62% Fe IODEX & TSI Iron Ore Fines at $74.10/dmt CFR North China on Friday. Meanwhile, TSI 58% Fe Fines, 1.5% Al, CFR Qingdao port closed the week at $65.80/dmt.

At Shanghai Futures Exchange, the most active construction steel rebar contract slipped for a fifth day, closing down 0.9 percent at 4,064 yuan a tonne after hitting a three-week low of 4,025 yuan a tonne. However, the hot-rolled coil futures recovered from a more than 2 percent dip to close up 0.1 percent on 3,744 a tonne, snapping a four-day losing streak.

At Dalian Commodity Exchange, the most traded iron ore contract for January delivery, tumbled as much as 4.8 percent to a three-week low of 501.50 yuan ($72.76) a tonne in its biggest intra-day dip since June 19. The contract closed down 3.5 percent at 508.50 yuan, notching a 4 percent loss for the week, its biggest weekly drop since the week ended May 25.