MMi Daily Iron Ore Report (March 10)

This week, Lecong's hot-rolled coil inventory stood at 1.0576 million mt, up 17,900 mt WoW, an increase of 1.72%; down 1.46% YoY on a calendar basis and up 2.64% YoY on a lunar calendar basis.

[SMM Stainless Steel Daily Review] SS Futures Were in the Doldrums, While Spot Stainless Steel Held Steady with Just-in-Time Procurement Dominating SMM News on March 11: SS futures showed a weak fluctuating trend. Since March, they had continued to move sideways in the 14,000-14,400 range. Affected by the continued escalation of geopolitical conflicts, SS futures extended their fluctuating trend, closing at 14,210 yuan/mt by the midday session. In the spot market, driven by the sideways movement in futures, spot traders' quotations generally held steady. Downstream end-users mainly made just-in-time procurement, while the earlier bullish sentiment had been fully exhausted, leaving insufficient willingness for advance purchases and stockpiling. However, as the traditional peak season gradually approaches, fundamental demand can still be maintained, and market participants expect stainless steel prices to remain strongly supported by costs within the month. The most-traded SS futures contract fluctuated downward. As of 10:15 a.m., SS2604 was quoted at 14,105 yuan/mt, down 190 yuan/mt from the previous trading day. Spot premiums for 304/2B in Wuxi stood in the 400-600 yuan/mt range. In the spot market, cold-rolled 201/2B coils in Wuxi all held steady; for cold-rolled burr-edge 304/2B coils, average prices in both Wuxi and Foshan held steady; cold-rolled 316L/2B coils in Wuxi held steady; for hot-rolled 316L/NO.1 coils, Wuxi quotations held steady; and cold-rolled 430/2B coils in both Wuxi and Foshan held steady. As the market entered the traditional peak consumption season of "Golden March and Silver April," the stainless steel market ushered in a window for demand recovery. The downstream demand side successively resumed work and production after the Chinese New Year holiday, and demand showed a gradual recovery trend. However, although transactions improved from the previous period, the market had yet to show the brisk activity typical of the peak season, ...

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