Benchmark spot iron ore prices hovered below $80 a tonne as plentiful supply kept the commodity near five-year lows, with Chinese steel mills in no rush to replenish stockpiles.
Three cargoes of Australian Pilbara iron ore fines were sold on the globalORE platform on Friday at prices slightly lower than in deals done earlier in the week, even as iron ore futures in China and Singapore climbed.
Iron ore for immediate delivery to China eased 0.4 percent to $79.50 a tonne on Thursday, slipping for a second day in a row, according to data compiled by The Steel Index.
Iron ore bounced back to $80 during China’s Oct. 1-7 National Day break from a five-year low of $77.50 at the end of September.
“I think iron ore has more downside than upside. However, I don’t know why ShFE is climbing like crazy today,” said an iron ore trader in Shanghai, referring to rebar futures on the Shanghai Futures Exchange.
“There are a lot of cargoes around and mills are taking their time, buying mostly from the ports.”
The most-traded January rebar contract on ShFE closed up 1.6 percent at 2,575 yuan ($420) a tonne, after touching a record low of 2,507 yuan on Wednesday.
Iron ore futures in China and Singapore also rose. The January contract on the Dalian Commodity Exchange climbed 2.3 percent to end at 568 yuan a tonne and the January contract on the Singapore Exchange gained 1.4 percent to $79.47 per tonne.
On the globalORE platform in Singapore, three cargoes of Australian Pilbara fines with a total volume of 510,000 tonnes were sold between $79.80 and $80.10 a tonne, according to the platform’s website.
Those prices were slightly lower than the $80.70 per tonne sale of the same grade on the platform on Tuesday. A separate 100,000-tonne cargo of 62-percent grade Australian fines, however, was traded at $80.20 a tonne, up from Thursday’s $78.50.
With lower iron ore prices shutting down high-cost mines in China and elsewhere, the growth in supply may slow eventually, said Cao Bo, analyst at Jinrui Futures in Shenzhen.
“From this point of view, we can maybe see a 30-50 yuan rebound in the Dalian futures price in the next three months,” said Cao.
Source: Reuters
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