Bearish Market Sentiment, Iron Ore Prices Remain in the Doldrums [SMM Imported Ore Daily Brief]

This week, ferrous metals fluctuated downward, with raw materials declining significantly more than finished steel. Cost-side logic weakened further during the week. Mid-week, both the U.S. and Iran indicated they had entered the final stage of finalising negotiation details, causing overseas market crude oil to plunge and dragging down the coal sector. In the latter half of the week, rumors emerged that negotiations between China Mineral Resources and BHP would be announced next week, with iron ore leading the downward trend. On the finished steel side, inventories of the five major steel products continued to destock, maintaining a structure of both rising supply and demand. Spot market side, futures were weak, end-user purchasing enthusiasm was lukewarm, the spot-futures price spread widened somewhat, and some market arbitrageurs between spot and futures began to take profits...

[SMM Coking Coal and Coke Daily Brief] News: Leading coke enterprises initiated a coke price increase of 50-55 yuan/mt, effective from 00:00 on April 13. In terms of supply, coke enterprises suffered relatively small losses, and production enthusiasm was moderate. Current coke supply remained stable. Combined with good shipments from coke enterprises, coke inventory continued to stay at low levels, with some coke enterprises holding back from selling. Demand side, steel mills maintained strong production enthusiasm, hot metal production increased again, and daily coke consumption rose. Additionally, affected by maintenance on some railway sections, coke deliveries were disrupted, and coke inventory at some steel mills declined slightly. In summary, some coke enterprises still held bullish expectations for the market outlook, and the coke market is expected to be generally stable with slight rise in the short term.