Spot and paper stable. Steel up a bit. Port inventories down to 127.35mt. This does not say anything good for steel mill margins nor outlook. No change to outlook. Bearish into Q2.

Iron ore prices for January 17. 2020: Spot up. Paper up. Steel the same. This is the last week before Chinese New Year which should mark short terms price peaks. However, I do not expect more serious weakness before heading into Q2.

Iron pre price charts for January 16, 2020: More Vale ructions: Brazil miner Vale SA VALE3.SA has halted the tailings operations at the Esperança mine, which it acquired from Ferrous Group last year, according to a statement on Thursday. Vale cited the need to do a technical evaluation and potentially carry out work to improve safety at

Iron ore price charts for January 15, 2019: Spot fell. Paper is firm. Steel treading water. Chinese port inventories of ore fell to 127.9mt last week. This is marginally bullish given it has heppened during price strength. The excitement raised by Tropical Cyclone Claudia is over: Prices are very high. Barring another storm they will

Iron ore price charts for January 15, 2019: Spot is strong. Paper following. Steel is is OK. This is perfectly normal for this time of year: Iron ore imports in December boomed on seasonal restocking, hitting 101.3mt the thrid highest ever and enough to finally flop into the positive on the rolling annual for a

Iron ore price charts for December 23, 2019: Spot held on. Paper is soft. Steel is beenfiting from pollution controls. Coking coal is weak. Spot price were hovering around $130 a week ago. Futures are now pricing that out for a year. Thermal coal is soft in the low $60s. Combined, these are roughly 20%

Iron ore price charts for December 20, 2019: Spot was hit. Paper rallied. Steel has not updated. World Steel is out for November: World crude steel production for the 64 countries reporting to the World Steel Association (worldsteel) was 147.8 million tonnes (Mt) in November 2019, a 1.0% decrease compared to November 2018. China’s crude

Iron roe charts for December 19, 2019: Nothing much to add but I still think the best days are behind the restock as the BDI falls out of bed: No change to outlook.

Iron ore charts for December 18, 2019: Spot is down. Paper stable. Steel has not updated. It’s worth nothing that the BDI is strongly suggesting that the restock is past its peak: Another sign of a topping market is spreads, via Argus: Australian iron ore mining company BHP has widened January-March discounts for some of

Texture from Reuters: Meanwhile, official data on Monday showed China’s real estate investment grew at a slower pace in November at 8.4% year-on-year, while new construction starts contracted last month after a surge in October. month’s property data is significantly lower than expected,” Huatai Futures said in a note, adding that ferrous prices plunged following

Iron ore price charts for December 16, 2019: Spot fell. Paper more. Steel is easing. I wouldn’t be at all surpised if this is high as we get. It’s way higher than prices need to be, supported exclusively by year end restocking. Even that has its limits. That said, I do not expect much price

Iron ore price charts for Decemeber 13, 2019: Spot firm. Paper too. Steel plodding along. No change, firm pricing for the next few months then down. Under the bonnet, things are already weakening as the 58% spread widens: Those piling into FMG appear not to have noticed.

Via Reuters: The world’s top steel producer is expected to churn 981 million tonnes of crude steel in 2020 and 988 million tonnes in 2019, according to Li Xinchuang, president of the China Metallurgical Industry Planning and Research Institute. Steel demand in China is expected to fall 0.6% year-on-year to 881 million tonnes in 2020,

Iron ore charts for December 12, 2019: Texture from Bloomie: If anything, the rally in mainland steel prices might suggest an even more bullish interpretation. Prices for hot-rolled coil, which has mostly been sold at a discount to steel reinforcement bar over the past year, leaped to a 212 yuan-per-ton ($30.15/ton) premium in Shanghai on Thursday.

Iron ore charts for December 11, 2019: Spot up. Paper down. Steel has not updated. Westpac has a nice summry for 2020: Iron ore pushed higher through the first half of the year hitting a peak of US$126/t in July due to the Vale Brumadinho mine disaster. From August a recovery in supply, and softer

Headlines today for iron ore are for less next year courtesy of Anglo: Anglo American has trimmed its production forecasts for iron ore, diamonds and coal for the next two years, the mining company said in an update for investors on Tuesday. Anglo American lowered its forecast for its Kumba Iron Ore business from 42-43

Texture from Reuters: “The surge in iron ore prices was mainly driven by supply concerns from foreign miners in the first quarter next year,” said Tang Bingqing, an analyst with Founder CIFCO Futures, referring to Brazilian miner Vale SA lowering production outlook and the upcoming expiry of mining leases in India. Meanwhile, demand prospects for

Iron ore price charts for December 9, 2019: Everything went off to the races after a good US jobs report. It’s not clear why. There are tarrifs in place. In truth, this is still pretty typical seasonal action as mills restock, aided at the margin by the Vale Brucutu news. It’ss flame out when ready.

Iroin ore charts for December 6, 2019: Spot up. Paper up more after US jobs. Steel has recovered some. The great untold story of this year’s iron ore boom continues with the release of Chinese import data over the weekend. Iron ore imports at 90.65mt, still down on a rolling annual basis: Reuters notes: The

Iron ore price charts for December 5, 2019: Spot down. Paper down more. No change. Firm pricing for a few months on the year end restock.

Iron ore price charts for December 4, 2019: Spot up. Paper down as the contact rolled forward. Steel down. No change. Firm pricing through to Q2, 2020. A little enhanced now by Vale’s problems.

Texture from Reuters: “As (China’s) winter production control is less severe than last year and steel demand remains solid due to government’s support policies, we expect the steel prices to rise further, underpinning further recovery in iron ore and coking coal prices,” said Helen Lau, metals and mining analyst at Argonaut Securities. Meh. This is

Via the FT comes the Australian doomsday clock via Simandou: Fadi Wazni, the chairman of SMB-Winning, the consortium, said it was already “advancing” discussions with partners interested in backing its ambitious plan to build a 110m-tonne-a-year iron ore mine in the west African country at an estimated cost of $15bn. These include China Railway Construction

Texture via Reuters: China’s official Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) released on Saturday pointed to an unexpected improvement in its manufacturing sector in November, as demand picked up on Beijing’s stimulus measures. Another private business survey released on Monday also showed total new orders and factory production remained at buoyant levels last month, expanding at the

Iron ore charts for November 29, 2019: Spot fell. Paper fell more. CISA output remains strong. Not much to report and no chnge to outlook.