Seaborne iron ore prices held their ground on Tuesday. Although steel futures regained some lost ground, iron ore markets were taking a breather to assess whether prices need to fall further.
The Kallanish KORE 62% Fe index inched $0.04/t higher to $165.39/dry metric tonne cfr Qingdao. The Kallanish KORE 65% Fe index gained $0.37/t to $196.14/dmt cfr, and the KORE 58% Fe index increased $0.06/t to $138.90/dmt cfr.
On the Dalian Commodity Exchange January 2022 iron ore settled down CNY 24/t at CNY 840.5/t ($129.69/t), while on the Singapore Exchange September 62% Fe futures settled down $0.67/t at $159.91/t. The same contract for 65% Fe and 58% Fe futures meanwhile settled down $1.31/t at $187.91/t, and down $4.43/t at $136.23/t respectively.
Scrap and billet prices were also mostly steady, apart from some scrap prices in Jiangsu. 6mm heavy scrap delivered to mills in the Yangtze River Delta dropped CNY 10/t to CNY 3,746/t. The decline was led by mills in Jiangsu which were cutting their purchasing prices. In Tangshan, billet prices were steady at CNY 5,080/t.
News of a new production restriction in Tangshan for the Winter Olympics in 2022 continued to fuel expectations of lower output through the rest of the year. As the policy will only ramp up in several months’ time, however, its immediate impact was only on sentiment.
