Global iron ore prices have kept sliding on Monday, August 5, even taking into account that tags had already lost more than an aggregate of $10/mt last Thursday and Friday. Australian iron ore fines with 62 percent Fe content dropped by $7.2/mt on Monday, coming to $100.3/mt CFR, SteelOrbis learned. Brazilian iron ore fines with 65 percent Fe content lost $7.5/mt on the same day, dropping to $111/mt CFR.
Growing supply volumes and falling futures, which reflect weak sentiments after the escalation of the trade tensions between the US and China, have been the main reasons behind the further sharp iron ore price drop. Futures at the Dalian Commodity Exchange dropped by 3.3 percent on Monday to RMB 709/mt ($102/mt). Moreover, futures in September contacts at the Singapore Exchange fell below $100/mt - to $95.84/mt (-7.1 percent since last Friday).
At the same time, in the physical market Chinese buyers have been reluctant to purchase seeing such sharp decreases, which is why sales volumes have decreased and why no contacts were concluded at GlobalOre or COREX on Monday. Iron ore import prices at Chinese ports have lost RMB 10-20/mt, with demand at the ports also moderate.
Market participants are bearish about the further price trend as stockpiles at Chinese ports keep rising and as the local steel market is not giving enough support. Iron ore inventories at the Chinese ports gained 1.5 percent to 121 million mt last week, according to SteelHome agency.