Ferrous Market
– Mysteel researched 247 blast furnace operation rate at 88.41%, down 0.78% w-o-w. Utilisation rate 92.91%, down 0.30% w-o-w. Daily pig iron production 2.47 million tonnes, up 8,000 tonnes.
– MySteel 45 ports iron ore inventories at 122.39 million tonnes, up 1.78 million tonnes w-o-w. Daily evacuation 3.12 million tonnes, down 58,500 tonnes w-o-w. Australia iron ore 58.53 million tonnes, down 483,600 tonnes w-o-w. Brazil iron ore 35.2 million tonnes, up 1.87 million tonnes w-o-w. 165 ships at ports, up 3.
– Transnet Freight Rail to conduct a 10-day shutdown on the iron-ore route from Oct. 16, work on rail link from Sishen to Saldanha expected to be completed on Oct. 25th. Shut down is part of the rail utility’s annual scheduled maintenance window.
– During Oct 9 -15th, 23 blast furnace out of 126 furnaces in Tangshan maintenance, weekly production decrease 412,800 tonnes.
– Rio Tinto’s third quarter iron ore production improved to 1% lower below same period last year. The miner produced 86.4 million tonnes of iron ore from the Western Australia’s Pilbara region. Iron ore shipments for the quarter of 82.1 million tonnes were down 5%, due to maintenance work at the Pilbara port.
– Canadian iron ore company IOC pelletized ores Q3 production at 2.34 million tonnes, down 15% from Q2, down 21% y-o-y.
SGX Iron Ore 62% Futures& Options Open Interest(Oct 15th)
– Futures 71,850,600 tonnes(increase 506,100 tonnes)
– Options 93,089,300 tonnes(increase 235,000 tonnes)
Verdict
– Short-term bearish.