Research

Forecasts and market analysis based on price assessments from Fastmarkets MB and Fastmarkets AMM

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February 2010 | Steel Raw Materials


Prices soften slightly in early February: Iron Ore Highlights


Rebar futures prices dropped to their lowest level so far this year, as rumours intensified that the Chinese government would step up its activity to curb investment in the property sector, which is obviously of key importance for steel demand.

The Chinese iron ore market is quieting down ahead of this month’s Chinese New Year holiday. Nonetheless, prices of imported iron ore fines have found support around the $125/tonne cfr level for 63-63.5% Fe-content material. MBR understands that miners are still trying to achieve prices of around $127-128/tonne cfr China for this quality of fines, although transactions have settled, as mentioned, slightly below this price. Meanwhile, the latest transaction prices for imports of Brazilian fines are around $129-130/tonne cfr for 64% Fe-content material.

After unloading and handling charges are taken into consideration, free-on-truck prices for imported Indian-origin fines (63.5% Fe-content) are around Rmb960/tonne ($140/tonne) on the Chinese domestic market. Average prices for Chinese-origin concentrate have softened slightly...

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