Market Verdict on Iron Ore：
· Iron ore neutral.
Macro：
· U.S. Q1 GDP growth rate at 6.4%, higher than 6.1% expected.
Iron Ore Key Indicators:
· Platts62 $190.45, unch, MTD $179.29. Corex PBF yesterday traded with a $6 premium based on June Index, which was unchanged to the day before. However miner traded a fixed price PBF at $189.5, which obviously didn’t contribute to index or real market. Port PBF stable at 1300-1305 yuan/tonne this week. The speculation on restock ended.
· MySteel 45 ports iron ore inventories at 130.27 million tonnes, down 2.94 million tonnes w-o-w. Daily evacuation 3.03 million tonnes, up 190,400 tonnes w-o-w. Australia iron ore 66.39 million tonnes, down 815,800 tonnes w-o-w. Brazil iron ore 38.96 million tonnes, down 1.55 million tonnes w-o-w. 102 ships at ports, down 3.
SGX Iron Ore 62% Futures& Options Open Interest (Apr 29th)
· Futures 92,401,800 tonnes(Increase 790,200 tonnes)
· Options 72,254,000 tonnes(Increase 1,290,000 tonnes)
Steel Key Indicators
· SHFE rebar October contract once have over 200 yuan/tonne premium to physical rebar, which created arbitraging opportunities. However this divergence shouldn’t last as physical growth become very slow during the week, futures potentially fall back quickly to a discount to physical in following week.
· Mysteel researched 247 blast furnace operation rate at 80.08%, up 0.65% w-o-w. Utilisation rate 89.93%, up 1.18% w-o-w. Daily pig iron production 2.39 million tonnes, up 31,400 tonnes.
· China April Steel PMI 45.4, last 47.9. 