Spot iron ore trading decline for the week

SHANGHAI, May 4 (SMM) – Iron ore inventories across 35 major Chinese ports rose 160,000 mt to stand at 146.62 million mt as of Friday May 4, up slightly from 146.46 million mt a week ago. This is the first increase after four consecutive weeks of decline.

Daily average volumes delivered from ports this week shrank 103,000 mt week on week to stand at 2.42 million mt.

Trade declined this week in Shandong due to the upcoming summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) in Qinghai in June, SMM learned. Iron ore delivered from ports in Jiangsu province also plunged as environmental inspections in the region deterred steel plants from purchasing. 

However, we expect prices of imported iron ore to receive support from high demand for steel in the short term. The high demand is likely to be bolstered as construction sites expedite construction activities in May, in response to the upcoming rainy season in east China and environmental restrictions due to the summit of SCO.

SMM's MMi Iron Ore Port Index stood at 477 yuan/wmt fot Qingdao on Friday for 62% Fe fines, down 4 yuan/wmt from Thursday May 3.  

The index for 58% Fe fines rose 3 yuan/wmt to 333 yuan/wmt while the index for 65% Fe fines fell 4 yuan/wmt to 571 yuan/wmt.

SMM and its new price index business Metals Market Index (MMi) launched the iron ore port indices on May 2 as port prices continued to gain importance in pricing iron ore.  

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