Iron ore price rises on firmer steel outlook, but trade tensions cap gains
Lower Chinese steel product inventory driven by robust exports also supported iron ore prices above $100/t.
The import price of 62% Fe content ore at the port of Tianjin surged 7.4% to $79.70 per dry metric tonne on Thursday as Donald Trump’s victory in the US presidential elections add fuel to the fire of iron ore’s almost a month of unbroken gains.
According to The Steel Index an unnamed Australian miner sold 62% Fe Newman fines on the globalORE platform for $80.65.
Lower grade fines at the port of Qingdao shot up a whopping 12.4% on Friday to trade at $68.20 a tonne. 58% Fe content iron ore has risen 36% over the last four weeks while 65% Fe at the same Chinese port jumped to $91.70 a tonne.
On the Dalian Commodities Exchange in China iron ore futures again reached it’s daily price change limit of 6% to trade at over $90 a tonne.
This week’s iron ore gains came on the back of hopes that Trump would succeed in pushing through a spending program of $500 billion when he takes office next year with the president elect promising as much as $1 trillion over ten years to rebuild roads, bridges, airports, hospitals and schools.
ABC in Australia quotes Daniel Hynes senior commodity strategist at ANZ, as saying “there is a fair bit of speculation in the movement, the acceleration in futures shows traders are undeniably in a bullish mood”.
“The market view is there will be better fundamentals over three-to-six months where those contracts trade,” he said.
Friday’s price is the highest level for the Chinese benchmark since November 2014 with gains since the eve of the election now topping 17.5%. Year to date the price of the steelmaking raw material is up 86% following near-decade lows in December last year.
Iron ore reached an all-time high of $191.90 a tonne in February 2011.
