SteelOrbis Shanghai
Iron ore prices keep stable in Chinese
iron ore market with unfavorable business activity and the drop in the speed of port inventories' increase. Though neither steelmakers nor miners are willing to make concession in prices, the minors may win the stalemate and
iron ore prices may sharply go up as steelmakers may have to raise their purchasing price due to their decreasing inventories and increase in finished steel prices.
Influenced by the weather condition in northeastern markets, exploration works at some small mines slowed down. Therefore, the crude ore
production is not sufficient. Besides, the quantity of recently imported ore is small. Many mines in northern
China have not yet resumed their
production, leaving small quantity of products in the market. This in turn leads to minor increase in selling prices in some markets.
After having experienced a peak purchasing period, while the recent quantity of newly arrived
iron ore declined to very low levels, the inventory increase at ports also slowed down considerably. By the end of February 17, data shows that the
iron ore inventories at
China's major ports are slightly up 400,000 metric tons weekly to 37.33 million metric tons, which is much lower compared to the 2.47 million metric tons increase in the prior week.