The most-traded iron ore on China's Dalian Commodity Exchange (DCE) dropped 1.38% on the day to 1,000 yuan ($139.56) per tonne. It ended the week up close to 3%.
February index benchmark iron ore on the Singapore Exchange fell 0.2% to $138.5 a tonne during the week.
The average daily hot metal production between mills fell 1.4% to 2.18 million tons on Friday. As a result, this represents a 1.2% decline compared to the same period a year earlier.
Relatively high ore prices are causing some plants to take a cautious posture and tend not to place orders at the moment in anticipation of lower prices in January and February, according to analysis.
Port iron ore stocks increased by 2.1% on the week to 122.45 million tons as of January 5, the highest level since August 2023.
The other steelmaking components also decreased, with coking coal down 4.15% and coke down 3.52%.
Steel indicators on the Shanghai Futures Exchange also dropped. Rebar was down 1.39%, hot rolled coil 1.71%, wire rod 1.76% and stainless steel 2.19%.
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