Spot iron ore record gains on anticipated supply concerns

18-December-2018

Spot iron ore prices saw gains in the week but the market participants indicated that there will supply tightening from January onwards. The interest was mostly from traders who were looking to take position while the Chinese mills mostly stayed away from the sea borne market.

Onto the benchmark for seaborne spot iron ore prices, Platts assessed the 62% Fe IODEX & TSI Iron Ore Fines at $69.90/dmt CFR North China on Friday. Meanwhile, TSI 58% Fe Fines, 1.5% Al, CFR Qingdao port closed the week at $62.50/dmt.

On the Dalian Commodity Exchange May 2019 iron ore settled up CNY 5/t at CNY 481/t ($70.04/t), while on the Singapore Exchange January 62% Fe futures settled up $1.75/t at $68.19/t. In Tangshan, billet prices gained another CNY 20/t to CNY 3,350/t.