Market Verdict on Iron Ore：
· Iron ore short-run neutral.
Macro
· From January to June, the cumulative growth rates of domestic sales of large, medium and small excavators were 9.8%, 45.5% and 18.7% respectively. Although they still maintained the growth trend, but were 7.2%, 9.7% and 6.6% slower than previous five months. The growth rate of domestic cumulative sales of large, medium and small excavators slowed down for three consecutive months.
· The 2% symmetrical inflation target adopted by the European central bank means that it will maintain monetary easing for a longer time, but this dovish attitude failed to recover the correction of European stocks.
Iron Ore Key Indicators:
· Platts62 $218.2, -4.65, MTD $220.09.
· MySteel 45 ports iron ore inventories at 124.58 million tonnes, up 2.23 million tonnes w-o-w. Daily evacuation 2.85 million tonnes, up 271,500 tonnes w-o-w. Australia iron ore 64.94 million tonnes, up 1.54 million tonnes w-o-w. Brazil iron ore 34.19 million tonnes, down 512,800 tonnes w-o-w. 138 ships at ports, down 5.
SGX Iron Ore 62% Futures& Options Open Interest (Jul 8th)
· Futures 77,446,100 tonnes(Increase 1,177,800 tonnes)
· Options 78,419,900 tonnes(Increase 805,000 tonnes)
Steel Key Indicators
· Tangshan 64 out of 126 blast furnace in maintenance, weekly impact 10.6 million tones of steel making capacity. Tangshan utilization rate 54.01%, up 9.86% w-o-w.
· The UK Department of international trade recently announced that it would extend the implementation period of global safeguard measures for 15 major categories of iron and steel products by imposing a 25% tariff on imports exceeding the quota.
