Iron ore make marginal gains on restocking

07-January-2019

Spot iron ore prices gained marginally in the week as the higher restocking activities by the Chinese in order to build the port stocks ahead of Lunar New Year holidays, gave some impetus to the sea borne market. Also, the iron ore gained back some lost ground as market sentiment improved following news that China and the United States will hold another round of trade talks next week as they look to end a dispute that is inflicting increasing pain on both economies.

Looking at the benchmark for seaborne spot iron ore prices, Platts assessed the 62% Fe IODEX & TSI Iron Ore Fines at $73.45/dmt CFR North China on Friday. Meanwhile, TSI 58% Fe Fines, 1.5% Al, CFR Qingdao port closed the week at $65.35/dmt.

On to the paper markets, most-traded iron ore contract on the Dalian Commodity Exchange ended up 3.3% at 511 yuan ($74.43) a tonne. Other steelmaking raw materials also saw upsides as coking coal contract climbed 1.9% to 1,185.5 yuan a tonne and coke moved up by 1.6% at 1,941 yuan. Furthermore, the most-active construction steel rebar contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange rose 1.9% to 3,486 yuan a tonne, posting its fourth weekly gain in five weeks.