A total of 1.23 million mt of iron ores was traded for the week ended Apr 16, amid the ongoing output restriction and inspection safety checks in Tangshan.
Throughout the week, there was some market talks of easing the output curb in Tangshan that led to iron ore futures rally, though it did not receive any official endorsement.
During the week, the trades volume of PBF accounted the largest market share at 55%, then followed by BRBF at 14% and finally Carajas fines tied with Yandi fines at 9% for the third place.
Mainstream fines remain popular among Chinese mills
Chinese mills preferred mainstream fines like MNP, Mac fines and Newman fines and PBF, amid the high steel margins. Higher grade brands like Carajas fines were also popular as well but restrained by limited supply.
Thus, market participants expected more discounts to be given to low grade fines, due to mills’ preferences for higher grade materials, while lump premiums were supported by limited availability of seaborne spot cargoes.
Despite the popularity of mainstream fines, there was active reselling of medium grade cargoes in the secondary market, which limited speculative buying interests for seaborne cargoes.
Market talks of output curb relaxation
According to trade sources, there might be some loosening measures over production control measure implemented in Tangshan and surrounding regions.
As trade sources believed that the easing of the strict output restriction will be given to those non-compliant mills to revert to normal restrictions.
Meanwhile, the steel margins remained high as some trade sources cited margins at above RMB 1,000/mt especially for northern China-based mills which were replenishing stocks due to low iron ore inventory.
