Market Verdict on Iron Ore：

• Neutral.
Macro
• BOE raised interest rate by 25 basis point to 0.75% as expected. The lending cost recovered to pre-pandemic level. Q2 inflation rate raise from 7.25% to 8%.
• China Ministry of Industry and Information Technology: promote more strategies to support stablised economy growth. Become prudent on contractionary policies.
• The Chinese Financial Stability and Development Commission of the State Council held a special meeting to study the current economic situation and capital market issues, mentioned that the relevant departments should respond to the hot issues concerned by the market in a timely manner. All policies that have a significant impact on the capital market should be coordinated with the financial management department in advance to maintain the stability and consistency of policy expectations. After the meeting, China onshore equities as well as Chinese linked equities global wise rebounded sharply, steel and industrial materials commodities also rose sharply.
Iron Ore Key Indicators:
• Platts62: $146.90, +1.45, MTD $150.85. China Shandong portside steel mills have transportation issues caused by Omicrown spread. Drivers need a 48 hours nucleic negative reports to enter the port areas. Lump demand is replaced by the active portside concentrates. Low grade and heavy discount fines such as SSF gathered more buying interests compared with mid-grade. MACF discount widened $1.2 to $8.5 because of inventory grew on ports.
• MySteel 45 ports iron ore inventories at 154.97 million tonnes, down 2.17 million tonnes w-o-w. Daily evacuation 2.72 million tonnes, down 38,100 tonnes w-o-w. Australia iron ore 74.67 million tonnes, up 1.44 million tonnes w-o-w. Brazil iron ore 51.08 million tonnes, down 1.01 million tonnes w-o-w. 121 ships at ports, up 14.

• Mysteel researched 247 blast furnace operation rate at 78.91%, up 8.06% w-o-w. Utilisation rate 81.88%, up 2.1% w-o-w. Daily pig iron production 2.21 million tonnes, up 56,400 tonnes.

SGX Iron Ore 62% Futures& Options Open Interest (Mar17th)
• Futures 90,244,200 tonnes(Increase1,265,600 tonnes)
• Options 86,876,300 tonnes(Increase 1,047,500 tonnes)
Steel Key Indicators
• Mysteel researched 316 downstream projects in Shanghai. 78 out 316 projects are stopped from 2-14 days. 44% of the normal operated projects need to provide negative nucleic acid test results in every 48 hours.
Coal Indicators
• Australia premium low coking coal FOB price keep refreshing historical highs, because the big spike on the steel price in European market which support the demand of coking coals. However CFR China was decreasing because the new round of pandemic expected to hurt the demand market in current few weeks.