MMi Daily Iron Ore Report (January 22)

[ SMM Stainless Steel Daily Review ] Pre-Season Warm-Up Falls Short of Expectations, Stainless Steel Spot and Futures Prices Weaken According to SMM on August 21, SS futures further declined and pulled back, continuing the overall downward trend. Despite the stronger performance of SHFE nickel, SS continued its previous pullback. By the close, the most-traded SS contract settled at 14,330 yuan/mt. On the spot market side, dragged down by the further decline in SS futures, although the traditional September-October peak season is approaching, downstream demand has yet to recover. Bearish sentiment in the market continues to ferment, and under the pressure of shipments, stainless steel spot prices further followed the downtrend. SS futures most-traded contract. At 10:15 AM, SS2610 was reported at 14,205 yuan/mt, down 140 yuan/mt from the previous trading day. The spot premiums for 304/2B in Wuxi ranged from 375,415 to 665 yuan/mt. In the spot market, the average price of cold-rolled 201/2B coil in Wuxi fell by 50 yuan/mt; cold-rolled bare 304/2B coil in Wuxi fell by 50 yuan/mt on average, and in Foshan fell by 50 yuan/mt on average; the price of cold-rolled 316L/2B coil in Wuxi rose by 100 yuan/mt; hot-rolled 316L/NO.1 coil in Wuxi was flat; cold-rolled 430/2B coil in both Wuxi and Foshan was flat. This week, stainless steel futures overall consolidated at lows. Previously, impacted by news of an increase in Indonesia's RKAB nickel ore quota, SS futures fell sharply, and the overall market valuation pulled back to relatively low levels. This week, driven by the overall recovery in nonferrous metals, the futures market saw a staged rebound, but the previous...

According to reports, the Hyundai Motor Union (Metal Workers' Union Hyundai Motor Branch) launched a full strike on the 21st due to a deadlock in this year's wage and labor negotiations. This is the first time the union has taken such action since 2016. As a result, all production lines at the Ulsan, Jeonju, and Asan plants were shut down that day. Because both day-shift and night-shift workers went on strike for 8 hours each, the production lines were actually suspended for 16 hours that day. Currently, the labor and management sides are locked in a tug-of-war over three demands: raising bonuses, reinstating employees fired for union activities, and extending the retirement age. The negotiations remain deadlocked, with differences yet to be resolved.

HRC prices strengthened this week with recovering trading sentiment. In terms of supply, maintenance on rolling lines saw relatively small changes, and overall HRC production increased slightly. On the demand side, HRC apparent demand continued to deteriorate, with the off-season impact still evident. High temperatures and rainy weather remained the main bearish factors, and demand improvement awaits verification in early September. On inventory, SMM data showed social inventory of HRC across 86 national warehouses (large sample) stood at 4.4982 million mt this week, up 54,900 mt WoW, up 1.24% WoW. By region, markets in east China and north China saw inventory buildup, while markets in south China, central China and northeast China saw slight destocking. Looking ahead, the first round of coke price hikes is expected to be implemented next week, iron ore prices may consolidate with small fluctuations, and HRC cost support is expected to strengthen. However, the supply-demand imbalance is still accumulating, weighing on HRC prices with insufficient upward momentum. In summary, the most-traded HRC contract is expected to consolidate in the 3260-3360 range next week.