Chinese Spot Iron Ore Prices Weaken After Holidays

Chinese spot iron ore fines prices this week have dropped yesterday by USD 4/MT to USD 90.2/MT, CFR China against USD 94.20/MT, CFR China towards last weekend. The prices have softened amidst low buying interest from Chinese mills post mills reopened on Monday after week long New Year holidays. The Chinese mills also seem to have enough stocks to fulfill demand in upcoming days.

Active Iron Ore futures on Singapore Exchange drop to USD 86 (-USD 2) for March and Dalian Commodity Exchange at RMB 645 (-RMB 6) in todays early trading sessions.

The Vale dam tragedy had resulted in surge in iron ore prices. The spot iron ore prices shot up sharply from end Jan'19 at around USD 75/MT, CFR China to USD 87/MT, CFR China towards early Feb and to USD 94/MT, CFR China last weekend. However, the iron ore prices depict a downward trend this week amid awaited clarity on amount of supply disruption.

World's largest iron ore miner- Vale declared “Force Majeure” on some of its iron ore and pellet sales contracts on 5th Feb'19. This means company had suspended several iron ore and pellet contracts with buyers after the dam disaster of 25th Jan hit its production. As per reports, the force majeure seems not affecting any of Chinese sales contracts.

As per previous reports, amidst force majeure declared by Vale, the iron ore and pellet market is expected to suffer a setback due to material shortage in global market. The closure at vale is expected to cut down 40 MnT iron ore and pellet availability along with additional 30 MnT of raw material shortage due to operation hault at Brucutu mines.