During the week ending October 16, prices of imported iron ore in China have indicated a slight uptrend, while transaction activity for imported iron ore has been been better than in the previous week. At the same time, traders' offers of domestic production iron ore in Tangshan have remained stable, while offers of domestic production iron ore in Liaoning Province have continued to edge down, with transaction activity for domestic iron ore generally being slack.
At present, Indian fine ores of 63.5 percent grade are offered at $97.9/mt at Qingdao port. Meanwhile, quotations of 66 percent iron ore concentrate in Tangshan stand at $101.1/mt and prices of the same material are at $83.2/mt in Beipiao, Liaoning, both excluding VAT. Prices of domestic production and imported iron ore in China can be viewed in the SteelOrbis price reports section.
During the given week, in order to replenish their inventories, domestic steelmakers have increased their purchases of imported iron ore. Meanwhile, imported iron ore futures prices have indicated a rebound, exerting a positive impact on imported iron ore prices in the spot market. Since steelmakers have not been interested in purchasing domestic production iron ore, prices of ore in Tangshan have failed to move up further and sales prices of iron ore in Liaoning have even softened. Currently, supplies of domestic iron ore are still on the plentiful side, negatively affecting domestic ore prices. It is expected that iron ore prices in the Chinese market will move sideways in the coming week.