Market Verdict on Iron Ore：
• Neutral to bearish.
Macro:
• The China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission issued a message that it should focus on expanding domestic demand and lead the banking and insurance industry to give priority to supporting recovery and expanding consumption, including issuing relevant financial products, supporting consumption in housing, automobiles and electric home appliances.
Iron Ore Key Indicators:
• Platts62 $120.75, -6.25, MTD $120.79. The market are preparing Brazil iron ores since the significant decreased deliveries in current weeks. IOCJ and IOC6 are both popular on seaborne market. Downstream market of China approaching an end before Chinese New Year in late January. The winter iron ore stock for Chinese mills entered a end with Chinese New Year looming, with most of stocks were purchased in portside, with flexible size and time. Steel mills suffered negative production margin because the uptick of raw materials and low steel sales. The market expected a correction on iron ore with lower marginal demand.
• Rio Tinto total produced 324.1 million tons of iron ore in 2022, up 1% on the year.
SGX Iron Ore 62% Futures& Options Open Interest (Jan 16th)
• Futures 107,180,200 tons(Increase 3,128,400 tons)
• Options 80,655,600 tons(Increase 2,290,500 tons)
Steel Key Indicators:
• CISA: 21 Chinese cities total steel social inventory at 8.46 million tons in early January, up 12.5% from late December, up 6.7% on the year.
Coal Indicators:
• The FOB Australia market improved to $309/mt, supported by an 80,000mt PMV Goonyella trade at $310. The current strong market was concerning on supply disruption caused by wet weather.