Iron ore futures opened high before sliding toward the afternoon session, despite a late rally to recover some loss grounds at the close.
The most-traded May iron ore contract on China’s Dalian Commodity Exchange (DCE) then dropped by 1.69% on-day or RMB 18 to RMB 1,046/mt on Monday.
The steel rebar contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange also went down by 2.79% or RMB 125 day on-day to RMB 4,348/mt.
Easing of long steel prices amid cold winter seasons
China’s long steel products are likely to ease over the Jan 11-15 period, due to slow restocking activities amid cold winter periods.
According to Mysteel, the traders were more cautious in restocking for long steel products like billets due to the colder winter that hindered construction operations, despite in the traditional pre-Lunar New Year restocking period.
Thus, the rebar prices were rangebound at around RMB 4,400 per mt, as of Jan 8, only spotting a slight increase of RMB 10/mt in the recent three-day trading period, while Tangshan billets inched up slightly by RMB 10 on-day to RMB 3,810 per mt on Monday.
Additional shipping fee for iron ore shipment from Port Hedland
New shipping fees were imposed to operators for moving iron ore cargoes from Western Australia’s Pilbara region to fund green initiatives in the region.
According to the Pilbara Ports Authority, a levy of $13,450 will be imposed on every major ship load of iron ore from Port Hedland.
The fee collection will then be used to compensate residents in up to 400 nearby dust-affected homes under a $200 million voluntary property buyback scheme negotiated with the industry.