DCE iron ore futures continued to fluctuate in a day, main contract closed689.5. a decrease of 1.5% throughout the day. The spot quotation in morning almost kept steady.Most traders tended to be wait-and-see，and the purchasing number is small。PBF at Shandong port dealt 840 yuan/mt, increased 22 yuan/mt over yesterday; PBF at Tangshan port dealt 850 yuan/mt,；The iron ore inventories across 35 ports tracked by SMM totalled 138.77 million mt as of October 22, an increase of 950,000 mt from the previous week and 11.58 million mt on the year. The increase of port inventory slowed as the arrivals of iron ore at ports declined. The daily deliveries from the ports rose 78,000 mt to 2.67 million mt. The steel mills ramped up their restocking of iron ore as the power rationing policy has loosened recently, driving the daily deliveries from main ports to increase. The two main ports in Tangshan have been banned from making deliveries since October 19. The daily deliveries at these main ports fell 86,000 mt MoM to 174,000 mt.The inventory in Tangshan rose sharply. The port inventories of imported iron ore are expected to increase further as north China is likely to be subject to power rationing.

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Source: Metals Market Index (MMi)