Spot iron ore holds steady for the week

31-December-2018

In the physical market, the spot iron ore prices stayed around $72/dmt mark as the Chinese steel mills kept the inventory building exercise on ahead of the New Year holidays. Futures  though were weighed down by worries over the outlook for demand amid ongoing concerns about the global economy.

Onto the benchmark for seaborne spot iron ore prices, Platts assessed the 62% Fe IODEX & TSI Iron Ore Fines at $72.70/dmt CFR North China on Friday. Meanwhile, TSI 58% Fe Fines, 1.5% Al, CFR Qingdao port closed the week at $65.30/dmt.

Looking at the paper markets, the most-active steel rebar contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange ended the session down 0.5% at 3,404 yuan ($496.70) a tonne. Hot rolled coil was down 0.2% at 3,345 yuan. Meanwhile, Dalian iron ore futures climbed 0.6% to 494.5 yuan. The most traded coke futures on the Dalian Commodity Exchange fell 0.5% to 1,901 yuan a tonne. Coking coal futures edged down 0.2% to 1,179.5 yuan.