Market Verdict on Iron Ore：
• Neutral to bullish.
Macro：
• Many state banks in China announced to cut deposit rates in June 8th to bolster economy. ICBC, ABC and BOCC cut 15 bps on the three-year and five-year deposits respectively.
• OECD predicted that global economic growth rate slowed down to 2.7% in 2023, 2.9% in 2024.
Iron Ore Key Indicators:
• Platts62 $110.10, +1.20, MTD $108.59. The seaborne market saw a significant improvement in June as the stable pig iron demand and mills production. BHP sold Fe62.3% NHGF in $109.2/mt, market saw narrowing NHGF and PBF spread currently in both CNY or USD benchmark. In the secondary market, MACF and NHGF were both offered/traded at July Index + $1.5/mt, which potentially means an undervalue in NHGF relatively.
SGX Iron Ore 62% Futures& Options Open Interest (Jun 7th)
• Futures 91,669,600 tons(Increase 1,730,300 tons)
• Options 98,735,100 tons(Increase 4,017,500 tons)
Steel Key Indicators：
• Tangshan major steel mills average pig iron cost 2537 yuan/ton. Average billet cost 3352 yuan/ton, down 11 yuan/ton on the week. Steel production margin at 88 yuan/ton, reversed from the production loss last week.
Coal Indicators：
• China CFR coking coal price and FOB Australia price became inverted, because of the weakening pricing trend and demand in domestic Chinese market.
