Global Shipments Increased Slightly, Iron Ore Prices Continued to Fluctuate Downward [SMM Brief Review]

Today, the iron ore futures continued to decline weakly. The most-traded contract I2505 finally closed at 773, with a daily drop of 1.47%. Traders' willingness to sell was poor; steel mills were mainly cautious and watchful, with a general purchase willingness; the market transaction atmosphere was relatively average. In Shandong, the mainstream transaction prices of PB fines were around 773-775 yuan/mt, down 10 yuan/mt WoW from last Friday; in Tangshan, the transaction prices of PB fines were around 780-785 yuan/mt, down 10 yuan/mt WoW from last Friday. SMM's global iron ore shipments totaled 33.51 million mt, up slightly by 4.4% MoM. Among them, shipments from Australia were 19.24 million mt, up slightly by 2.4% MoM; shipments from Brazil were 7.12 million mt, up significantly by 32.8% MoM; but shipments to China in this period all declined. SMM's total iron ore arrivals in China were 26.98 million mt, down slightly by 7.5% MoM, up 15.8% YoY. Shipments have returned to seasonal normal levels. Supply remains loose. In addition, today's news about steel exports has disturbed the futures prices, and the recent tariffs are expected to be implemented, increasing market watchfulness and risk aversion sentiment, which is bearish for the futures market. However, steel mills still have profits recently, and pig iron production still has room for growth, which supports ore prices and makes it difficult to form a large decline. It is expected that the market will continue to fluctuate downward tomorrow. 》Order to view SMM metal spot historical prices