The tug-of-war between longs and shorts intensifies, with frequent price fluctuations in iron ore [SMM Commentary]

Today, the Dalian Commodity Exchange iron ore futures market experienced heightened volatility, with prices rising in a fluctuating trend after the opening but pulling back again in the afternoon. The most-traded contract I2509 eventually closed at 794.5, down 0.06% for the day. Traders sold goods according to market conditions; recently, some steel mills have seen good sales of finished products, leading them to quote prices and purchase with a strong willingness to buy. The market transaction atmosphere was moderate. The mainstream transaction prices of PB fines in the Shandong region were around 775-778 yuan/mt, down 2-5 yuan/mt from yesterday's prices; the transaction price of PB fines in the Tangshan region was around 790 yuan/mt, down 5 yuan/mt from yesterday's prices.
According to the SMM survey, on August 6, the operating rate of blast furnaces at 242 steel mills surveyed by SMM was 86.89%, down 0.1 percentage point MoM. The daily average hot metal production of the sampled steel mills was 2.4166 million mt, down 3,500 mt MoM. It is expected that the overall hot metal production will continue to decline slightly next week. In addition, as the September 3 military parade approaches, market expectations for environmental protection-driven production restrictions in Hebei have intensified, further suppressing the upside room for ore prices. In the short term, bullish and bearish factors are intertwined in the iron ore market, and ore prices may maintain a fluctuating trend rangebound.