DCE iron ore futures continued to fluctuate in a day, main contract closed 710. The spot quotation in the morning almost kept steady. Some steel mills tended to be wait-and-see，and procurement more cautious；and purchased quite cautiously. While some traders gave narrow bargain space, which resulted in the general deal atmosphere today. PBF at Shandong port dealt 865 yuan/mt, the same as yesterday; PBF at Tangshan port dealt 870-890 yuan/ mt, the same as yesterday..According to SMM research, SMM’s blast furnace operating rate was 78% on Oct. 20, down 1.3% month-on-week and up 1.4% month-on-month. In the second half of October, the production limit policy has been tightened compared with the first half, and the winter heating season production limit is coming. It is expected that the blast furnace operation rate will continue to decline next week. In addition, SMM tracks the import ore port inventory is still accumulating, iron ore prices are still weak volatility. In addition, according to some market participants, because coke prices began to fall, steel profit support strength increased, so as to produce short-term support for the mine price.

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Source: Metals Market Index (MMi)