Ferrous Market
– Russia Miner Metalloinvest Q4 production 10.07 million tonnes, down 1% from Q3. Year 2020 total production 40.43 million tonnes, up 0.5% y-o-y. Q4 iron ore delivery 2.14 million tonnes, down 8.1% from Q3.
– Steelbank construction steels inventory 6.19 million tonnes, up 28.68% w-o-w. HRC inventories 2.257 million tonnes, up 15.01% w-o-w.
– Iron ore major port traded 786,000 tonnes/day, down 53.8% from January.
– MySteel researched major mills maintained at 42 days of useable days for iron ore, potentially increase to 45- 50 days during Chinese New Year when some laycans arrived. Most of mills indicated they wouldn’t purchase iron ores before Chinese New Year.
SGX Iron Ore 62% Futures& Options Open Interest(Feb 5th)
– Futures 75,544,400 tonnes(increase 1,103,800 tonnes)
– Options 46,958,500 tonnes(increase 2,101,000 tonnes)
Verdict
– Short-term neutral.
