A total of 2.035 million mt of iron ore was exchanged hands for the week ended Aug 21, with Australian fines accounting most of the trades.
Australia’s Mac fines garnered most of the market share at 18.67%, followed by Jimblebar fines at 17.69%, while the Brazil’s Carajas fines coming in third at 14.50%.
During the week, the iron ore prices also reached a six-year high toward the $130/mt due to supply tightness of medium grade fines among Chinese port inventory.
More interests for low grade ores
Due to supply tightness of medium grade fines among dockside stocks, the iron ore prices hiked further to record-high level.
Thus, more end-users were interested in low grade fines, such as Super Special Fines (SSF) especially among Shandong-based steel mills, which use them to blend with high grade Carajas fines.
However, some market participants expected the supply tightness situation to ease with more cargoes arrivals as the port congestion is slated to improve by end of August.
Chinese mills’ stocks grow at slower rate
During the week, Chinese steelmakers’ stocks grew at a slower pace over the Aug 13-19 period, according to Mysteel.
During the week, the steel stocks of 184 Chinese steelmakers recorded 6.9 million mt by the end of Aug 19, up 1% on-week as compared to 3.7% hike seen last week. Despite the slower weekly growth, the steel mills’ stocks were still higher at 28.5% on yearly basis.
The slowdown was attributed to domestic mills’ maintenance that were scheduled over the past week that lowered the output of steel products like rebar, wire rod, hot-rolled coil, cold-rolled coil and medium plate.
