Research

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

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July 2013 | Steel Raw Materials


The guardians of credit roil the market: Iron Ore Highlights


Chinese import fines (Fe 63.5%) decreased by 2.5% week-on-week.

As buyers came to increasingly realise last week, the Chinese liquidity squeeze that erupted in early June is having a detrimental effect on the country's credit facilities. Several commercial banks took action by suspending credit extensions to market participants after interest rates for short-term funds spiked to extraordinary levels. As such, consumers turned reluctant about replenishing inventories and pulled to the side-lines.

Week-on-week prices for Chinese import fines (Fe 63.5%) decreased by 2.5% to $117/tonnes CFR and then made a turnaround. However, tight supply in the pellet market propelled prices marginally higher by 1.4% to $150.50/tonne CFR (Fe 65-66%), while in the domestic market iron ore prices tracked mainly sideways. Those for concentrate slipped marginally by 0.1% to $153.69/tonne, with...

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