Chinese iron ore futures fell to their weakest level in a month on Monday as demand for the steelmaking commodity remain slow in the world’s top buyer, keeping stocks at its ports near a record high.
Arrivals in China were also sustained by a lack of weather interruptions to shipments from top iron ore suppliers Australia and Brazil, which can be common at this time of year.
“Exports from Australia and Brazil are usually impacted by weather related issues in the first couple of months of the year; however so far there has been little disruption,” ANZ analysts said in a note.
Iron ore for May delivery on the Dalian Commodity Exchange was down 0.9 percent at 517 yuan ($82) a tonne by 0159 GMT, after earlier hitting 512.50 yuan, the lowest since Dec. 28.
The volume of imported iron ore at China’s major ports dropped for the first time in 15 weeks, although the level was not far below a record high. SH-TOT-IRONINV
Port inventory fell 1.3 million tonnes to 153.13 million tonnes on Jan. 26, according to SteelHome consultancy. The week before, the stocks reached 154.43 million tonnes, the most since SteelHome began tracking it in 2004, and could produce steel for 107 million cars.
There are signs that the physical market in China is starting to soften, ANZ said.
Iron ore for delivery to China’s Qingdao port .IO62-CNO=MB dropped 0.9 percent to $74.40 a tonne on Friday, according to Metal Bulletin, with the spot benchmark losing 3 percent in the past week.
Fellow steelmaking raw material coking coal also eased on Monday, with Dalian futures down 1.5 percent at 1,291 yuan a tonne. Coke slipped 0.5 percent to 2,038.50 yuan.
The most-active rebar on the Shanghai Futures Exchange was little changed at 3,953 yuan per tonne.
Source: Reuters