PBF and Mac fines, most popular among buyers
Australian medium grade fines remained the firm favorite for Chinese buyers for the week ended 19 Jun 2020.
Among the total purchases of over 1.9 million mt, the Pilbara Blend fines (PBF) and Mac fines remained at the top spots accounting 17% respectively, followed by FMG SSF at the second place at 15.6%.
Easing of Brazilian supply
Brazilian ores, like the Carajas fines came in third place, perhaps due to the high transaction prices as there were market concerns over supply tightness from the closure of Itabira mine.
The shutdown of the mine was lifted this week, which provided some easing to the supply shortfall as Vale maintained its annual guidance unchanged at 310-330 million mt for 2020.
The uncertainty of Brazil supply did spur the paper market earlier in the week, but the easing of supply tightness soon dragged the DCE down.
Bad weathers and hints of stimulus
Later, the paper market rallied again, in reaction to China’s vice premier, Liu He whom hinted introduction of more flexible monetary policies to improve the economy on Thursday.
However, there was still some market concerns over bad weather in China, as FIS senior researcher Hao Pei, pointed out that the southern China flood might cause landslides and affected construction activities.
