Spot transaction activity has decreased, and iron ore prices are fluctuating [SMM Brief Review].

Today, the iron ore futures fluctuated rangebound in the morning and rose in the afternoon before weakening again. The most-traded contract I2601 finally closed at 803.5, flat from the previous working day. Traders sold goods following the market; some steel mills completed restocking, and inquiries decreased compared with yesterday. The market transaction atmosphere was average. In Shandong, the mainstream transaction prices of old PB fines were around 795 yuan/mt, and those of new PB fines were around 785 yuan/mt, both flat from yesterday; in Tangshan, the transaction prices of PB fines were 795-805 yuan/mt, down 0-5 yuan/mt from yesterday.
According to an SMM survey, on September 24, the blast furnace operating rate at 242 steel mills surveyed by SMM was 87.05%, up 0.67 percentage points MoM. The daily average hot metal production at the sample steel mills was 2.4157 million mt, up 17,400 mt MoM. This week, one blast furnace in China underwent maintenance, and six resumed production. As of this week, the blast furnaces that had been shut down in Hebei basically resumed production. Later, attention will be paid to the impact of environmental protection-driven production restrictions at month-end on hot metal. Overall, high hot metal production supports ore prices; however, considering that most steel mills have completed pre-holiday stockpiling and the macro environment has entered a quiet period in the short term, the support for ore prices is marginally weakening, and prices may fluctuate at highs in the short term.