Today, November 26, iron ore prices have decreased for the first time since November 11 as the steel segment has showed some signs of weakness and expectations have worsened. Prices for iron ore fines with 62 percent Fe content have lost $2/mt compared to Monday, November 25, coming to $88.6/mt CFR, while Brazilian iron ore prices with 65 percent Fe have dropped by $2.5/mt to $100.3/mt CFR.
Only one deal has been registered today at the Corex trading platform for a mixed cargo of fines and lumps (170,000 mt in total) with the price based on the December 62 percent index plus $1.4/mt.
The main reason for lower iron ore prices has been the rebar futures slump. Prices at Shanghai Future Exchange have lost RMB 72/mt ($10.2/mt) today, closing at RMB 3,611/mt ($513/mt). Though overall demand in the long steel segment in China has been good, it has started to slow down and the situation will only worsen in the coming weeks. One iron ore trader said that, if the downtrend starts in the steel market, iron ore prices will lose their main support.
Demand has been supporting iron ore prices during the last two weeks. There has been no information about lower iron ore supply so far. According to the latest statistics, China imported 24 million mt of iron ore from Brazil in October, up 1.82 percent month on month and up 9.46 percent year on year, though previously the shortage of Brazilian fines has mostly been the major issue. As SteelOrbis reported earlier, total imports in China decreased by 6.5 percent month on month to 92.864 million mt in October. Shipments from Australia showed the most visible decline, decreasing by 9.4 percent month on month and by 1.25 percent year on year to 53.99 million mt last month.
