Iron ore price

Mac Bank today weighs into the great Chinese iron ore port stocks debate today with a bullish explanation: The apparent destock reported by Mysteel certainly explains the recent price weakness but it contrasts with widely publicised data showing a strong rise in the volume of iron ore inventory being held at ports in China.

Here is the updated Chinese steel mill iron ore inventory data we’ve been sweating on and the news is good for iron ore producers in the short term.

Here are the iron ore charts for February 20,2014: Nothing all that bad here.

From the SMH: It’s not only the region’s sharemarkets and the Australian dollar that are down on the weak Chinese manufacturing numbers, China’s steel futures fell the most in about a month and Dalian-traded iron ore also dropped.

From Mac Bank today: Iron ore inventory held by smaller mills in China has declined sharply over the last month, according to data from Mysteel.

Charts for February 19, 2014 below:   In news the FMG bulls were out yesterday: …That a serious bank of supply is about to hit the market cannot be contested.

From Credit Suisse:   FMG announced in-line underlying 1H’14 NPAT of $1.72 vs consensus $1.72bn (CS: $1.65bn). Strong EBITDA at $3.22bn versus $3.11bn consensus (CS: $3.15bn). ■      Consolidation of FMG Iron Bridge: Sale of 31% to Formosa added $108mn income and $123mn cash. ■      Surprise dividend doubling: 10¢ps vs consensus 6.5¢ps (CS: 5¢ps), equal to full-year FY13 dividend.

The MSM spruik machine turns its eye to iron ore today and likes what it sees.

Clive Palmer has backed off his attempt to have Sino Iron declared bankrupt: Mr Palmer claimed last week that Citic’s subsidiary Sino Iron, which is building a magnetite iron ore project on tenements owned by Mr Palmer, had ceased paying him ‘‘normal administrative costs’’ that had been paid without issue to date.

From CIMB this morning on the BHP result: Tax of US$3.7b versus US$4.7b implied by consensus and CIMB of US$4.5b.

I haven’t caught up coking coal for a while but it’s worth reminding ourselves of what a commodity market can do once the balance of supply shifts.

Find below the iron ore charts for February 17, 2014:   All good in iron ore land with Chinese credit widely and wrongly seen as super!

From Mac bank today: In Rio Tinto’s 2013 financial results on Thursday, perhaps the biggest surprise was the lower than expected iron ore guidance for 2014 of 295mt (100% basis, including contribution from IOC).

From The Australian: There are 1700 workers on site in Western Australia’s Pilbara region, working on the port, rail and mine.

Find below the iron ore charts for February 14, 2014: Some more post holiday demand has appeared as the early year steel build is underway.

Find below the iron ore price charts for February 13, 2014: A little reprieve for iron ore but not steel.

Bloomie has a story today that suggests the recent big spike in Chinese iron ore inventories is the result of financing deals: Companies seeking funding amid government efforts to rein in lending and shadow banking are shipping more ore to use as collateral, said Xu Xiangchun, chief analyst at researcher Mysteel.com.

Earlier this week I wrote an article for Crikey explaining how iron ore markets work and why they are so important for Australia.

Here are the iron ore charts for February 12, 2014:     A little reprieve for ore but not steel.

Find below the iron ore price charts for February 11, 2014: Rebar futures plumbed new lows as well.

Find below the iron ore price tables for February 10, 2013: First up, no cyclone appears imminent in the Pilbara: Recent satellite and radar imagery shows tropical system 09U is still well organized.

Peter Ker of the AFR has written a couple of excellent pieces in recent days on Clive Palmer-CITIC stoush.

Here are the iron ore price charts for February 7, 2014: First things first, from the BOM: A well-structured tropical low (09U) lies over the Kimberley, about 95 kilometres east of derby at 11am Sunday and moving towards the west southwest at 14 kilometres per hour.