Iron ore prices hold steady in the week

1-Sept-2018

Improved buying interest on the last day of the week saw iron ore recording some gains in the sea-borne market, while the market was broadly rangebound as the production limits imposed by Chinese cities including top producing Tangshan in line with the national government’s campaign to limit pollution has helped cap available supply.

Onto the benchmark for seaborne spot iron ore prices, Platts assessed the 62% Fe IODEX & TSI Iron Ore Fines at $66.15/dmt CFR North China on Friday. Meanwhile, TSI 58% Fe Fines, 1.5% Al, CFR Qingdao port closed the week at $56.15/dmt.

Futures Market

At Dalian Commodity Exchange, the most trade iron ore contract rose 0.8 percent to 485 yuan a tonne, after touching a nearly six-week low of 476 yuan on Thursday. Coking coal was steady at 1,248 yuan. However, Coke fell 3.1 percent to 2,426 yuan per tonne, adding to the previous session’s 5.3-percent slide that followed a rally earlier this month to a record 2,720.50 yuan.

Meanwhile, the most actively traded January rebar on the Shanghai Futures Exchange closed down 1.1 percent at 4,086 yuan ($598) a tonne. However, the construction steel product still gained 2.5 percent in August, having surged to a seven-year peak of 4,418 yuan last week.