Iron ore port trading to rise further on steel profits

SHANGHAI, May 11 (SMM) – Offers of spot iron ore rose 5-10 yuan/mt in the afternoon of Friday May 11 as the futures prices soared. The most liquid contract on the Dalian Commodity Exchange gained nearly 2.8% to close at 482.5 yuan/mt.

Some traders were heard to withhold selling at lower prices. The cfr price is likely to hover at $65-70/mt next week, SMM expects. 

Iron ore inventories across 35 major Chinese ports shrank 1.35 million mt on the week to 145.27 million mt as of Friday May 11, SMM data showed.

Overall port inventories shrank as the upcoming Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit affected volumes arriving at Qingdao port. Significant deliveries from ports in east and north China also weighed on port inventories.

Daily average volumes delivered from ports this week rose 24,000 mt week on week to stand at 2.45 million mt. The figure is likely to gain further next week given steelmakers' improved sentiment to purchase on higher profits. 

SMM's MMi Iron Ore Port Index stood at 483 yuan/wmt fot Qingdao on Friday for 62% Fe fines, up 9 yuan/wmt from Thursday May 10.  

The index for 58% Fe fines was down 3 yuan/wmt to 323 yuan/wmt while the index for 65% Fe fines was up 9 yuan/wmt to 577 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. 

For editorial queries, please contact Daisy Tseng at daisy@smm.cn 
For more information on how to access our research reports, please email service.en@smm.cn