新建网页 1
SteelHome comment: In our last weekly report, we
mentioned that steel mills located in Hebei are asked to cut down or stop
production for about 15 days for the sake of better air quality during APEC
conference next month (November 07-12), and for this reason, Platts’s lump
premium climbed for three weeks in a row to $0.1775/dry mt unit by this Friday.
Mill sources have reported being unable to find supplies and Platts said BHP
Billiton had already sold all its lump for that month. SteelHome analyst Chen
Yan expects lump price to fall off after the end of the conference.
Spot prices of seaborne iron ore lump rose to the
highest in seven months, driven by a scramble for material arriving in November.
Mills continued to buy lump anticipating the need to reduce sintering during the
winter months.
Platts assessed the weekly spot lump premium at $0.205/dry mt unit, up $0.0275/dmtu
week on week. The premium is normalized to a CFR basis and expressed over the
IODEX fines assessment.
The premium reached the $0.20/dmtu mark on an FOB basis last Thursday, when a
transaction involving 63.2% Fe Newman Blend lump took place at that level for an
80,000 mt cargo loading November 3-12.
This normalizes to $0.191/dmtu on a CFR basis, based on a calculation using the
October 23 IODEX value of $79.75/dmt and Capesize freight of $8.80/wet mt. "The
lump premium has risen the last few weeks because the northern mills have not
been able to take on that much fines for sintering, so they have to buy more
lump," a source at a steelmaker in the eastern province of Anhui said. "They
have no choice."
On Wednesday, Rio Tinto sought to sell 62%-Fe Pilbara Blend lump at $94/dmt CFR
China on the Chinese COREX platform, sources monitoring it said.
A bid for the 70,000 mt cargo loading November 14-23 was made at $92/mt.
Rio had offered the same cargo Tuesday at $93/dmt, without having found buyers.
Still, mill sources in Hebei and eastern China said while lump demand has picked
up, they wouldn't buy lump at $0.20/dmtu on a CFR basis because they had enough
through term contracts.
One trader noted that demand has been focused mainly on cargoes arriving in
November.
"No one's trading December yet, as they're not confident of where price levels
would be, either on a fixed price or premium basis," he said.
Source: Platts
Related links:
Seaborne Iron Ore Lump Spot Prices Ride for Third Week on
Tight November Supply (2014-10-22)
Vale Develops Green Iron Ore To Reduce China Emissions (2014-03-03)
|