Maintenance at Anyang Steel to affect molten iron output till mid-Jul

Shanghai base metals were mostly lower on Tuesday morning as investors awaited the release of China's trade data for June. Meanwhile, their counterparts on the LME also fell for the most part.

China's automobile production and sales were 2.04 million units and 2.13 million units, down 8.7% and 5.5% month on month respectively, and falling 6.8% and 3.1% year on year.

A water inrush accident occurred at the Dahongcai iron ore mine in Daixian County, Shanxi Province on June 10, leaving 13 people trapped, according to preliminary estimate.

Operating rates of blast furnaces at steel mills fell 1.2 percentage points from a week ago and decreased 0.9 percentage point from a month ago to 85.7% as of May 27, SMM survey showed.

According to the SMM survey that covers 102 blast furnace steel mills, 42.2% of them are undertaking maintenance or have trimmed output (excluding mills that reduced output by adjusting rates of equipment utilisation and raw material ratios), down from a ratio of 50% last week, as some long steel mills have recovered production from maintenance.

Trades thinned on Wednesday Aug 22 as demand weakened after transactions from most long-term contracts ended

Purchasing price for its Sept tender settled at $2,509/mt cfr over the weekend, down some 11% from Aug

Aluminium fluoride prices in the Chinese market have been holding steady since the beginning of this month

Declining supplies of strip are likely to continue to lower the price spread, which began to narrow in mid-Jul

A blast furnace of 1,080 m³ at Zhuhai Yueyufeng Iron & Steel in south-east China will undergo maintenance during Jul 20-21