China March Finished Steel Exports down 1.3% MoM; Iron Ore Imports up

According to Hebei Daily, recently, Shanghai University and Changli County Dongwen Precise Machine Parts Co., Ltd. jointly completed the first development test of hydrogen-enriched smelting technology of blast furnace with pure hydrogen as blowing gas source in China.

Currently, the iron ore prices have been rising rapidly in contrary to the background that the supply and demand in the iron ore market has been stable and the port inventory has also been at a high level.

On February 18, the National Development and Reform Commission and other 11 central departments jointly issued a notice on a series of policies to promote stable growth of industrial economy.

The profits at steel mills increased, boosting the demand for iron ore. Besides, real estate credit policy may marginally loosen, boosting market sentiment and pushing up steel prices. Iron ore futures have risen for several days.  China's central bank, the People's Bank of China, will cut the reserve requirement ratio by 0.5 percentage point. Government also released the signal of “stabilising the real estate industry”. Iron ore prices surged 8.66% yesterday supported by multiple factors.

China exported 5.65 million mt of finished steel in March, up from 4.85 million mt in February, according to China Customs.

During the third quarter of this year, estimated iron ore shipment of Rio Tinto is expected to be higher than anticipation.

China’s export increases 9% compared with same period of last year (calculated by RMB). The anticipated figure is 10.9% and the previous figure is 6.9%.

Shougang Hierro Peru will put the $1.5 billion worth of iron mine brownfield project into production in H2 2018, which is located in Marcona.

Last week, prices of domestic ore held largely stable across China’s major markets, and what's the outlook for iron ore prices this week?

Inbound shipments of zinc concentrate fell to a 24-month low in May, Shanghai Metals Market reports.