It was typical week which Australian iron ores accounted most of the trade transactions that totaled to 2.5 million mt, up 18.86% week-on-week.
Over half or 57.09% of iron ore transaction belonged to the Australian Pilbara Blend Fines (PBF) at 1.43 million mt, then followed by Jimblebar fines at 8.20% or 205,000 mt.
Finally, the high grade Brazilian Carajas fines came in third, accounting 7.60% of the total transaction with 190,000 m for the week ended July 24.
Renewed interest for low alumina Brazilian ores
Last week, the Brazilian ores seemed to miss out most of the transaction activities, but there was renewed interest in low alumina Brazilian ores among the Chinese buyers recently.
This was due to price hike on domestic concentrates, which made them more expensive and less of a cost-effective low alumina option to substitute the Brazilian fines.
However, there was some market concerns over tighter supply of Brazilian ores over the near term, due to rising coronavirus cases in Brazil and scheduled port maintenance in July.
Lesser discounts for BHP’s products
There was also growing popularity for Jimblebar fines recently, given the improvement in the ferrous content of the grade and hefty discount on the iron ore products in previous month.
However, BHP had cut the August discount for Jimblebar fines to 3.25% from previous 4.5% in July. Besides Jimblebar fines, other BHP’s product like Yandi fines also faced similar cut at 3% discount in August from previous 3.5% in July.
BHP had yet to comment on the discounts in August, but the improvement in quality and supply tightness of mid-grade ores are likely to be the reasons for the narrowing discounts.