Iron ore prices for July 30, 2018:

Spot Qingdao prices were up slightly – $0.16 per tonne to $67.65 while rebar steel futures went to a five year plus high, as concerns mounted on production curbs viz. pollution controls.

More from Reuters:

All sintering machines and shaft furnaces at steel mills in Tangshan, the country’s top steelmaking city in Hebei province, have been ordered to shut down from July 27 to July 31, to check pollution, according to reports from industry websites.

The latest curbs come on top of a government order cutting production from sintering and blast furnaces for six weeks during the summer season.

The weekly utilization rate at blast furnaces at steel mills across China fell 3.59 percentage points to 67.4 percent in the week to July.27, the lowest level since late April, according to data compiled by Mysteel consultancy.

According to industry websites, the city of Changzhou in Jiangsu, China’s No.2 largest steelmaking province, is planning to cut emissions at industrial plants in steel, non-ferrous and cement sectors by 50-100 percent. No timeframe was given for the production curbs.

Daily iron ore price update (steel high on pollution)