Pre-Holiday Stockpiling Falls Short of Expectations, Iron Ore Prices Continue Weak Trend [SMM Commentary]

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Today, DCE iron ore futures continued to decline, but the decrease narrowed. The most-traded I2505 contract closed at 747.5 yuan/mt, down 0.73% throughout the day. Some traders were reluctant to sell, while others sold at market prices. Steel mills restocked at low levels. Today's market transactions were moderate. In Shandong, mainstream transaction prices for PB fines were around 750-753 yuan/mt, down 2-3 yuan/mt from yesterday; in Tangshan, PB fines transaction prices were 770 yuan/mt, unchanged from yesterday. Although today's SMM blast furnace operating rate increased by 0.26 percentage points to 85.33%, and daily pig iron production of 242 sample steel mills rose by 15,100 mt WoW to 2.346 million mt, the macro sentiment remained bearish. Iron ore futures continued to fluctuate downward under pressure. In the short term, there is no new market logic, and pre-holiday restocking is progressing slowly. It is expected that ore prices may continue to fluctuate downward in the near term.