DCE iron ore futures began to get warm after continuously falling price, main contract increased by around 6.2% in a day. The spot quotation has kept almost stable over yesterday in the morning, but with gradually increasing futures, traders tend to upside their quotation. While steel mills tend to buy during this kind of increasing market, the deal atmosphere was taken a turn for the better. PBF at Shandong port dealt 1005-1035yuan/mt, up 5-35yuan/mt; PBF at Tangshan port dealt 998-1015yuan/mt, up 0-17yuan/mt. PBF at Jiangnei port dealt 1060-1095yuan/mt, ups and downs over yesterday. According to data tracked by SMM, 81 ships arrived at domestic main ports from August 16-22. Arrivals of cargoes are estimated to stand at 13.26 million mt, up 770,000 mt from the previous week, but down 1.27 million mt year on year. Shipments that departed Australian ports increased 2.37 million mt week on week to 16.61 million mt, and that from Brazilian ports increased 1.11 million mt to 7.12 million mt on a weekly basis, but down 80,000 mt on the year. Supply trended higher as shipments from Australia continued to increase amid the end of port maintenance and port stocks were accumulating in China. Iron ore prices are likely to rise after the continuous plunge. Some steel mills increased restocking volume at low prices due to lower inventories, supporting iron ore prices, to some extent.

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Source: Metals Market Index (MMi)