China's iron ore futures fall after supply worries
Dalian iron ore has fallen as much as 4.4 % to 3-week lows, as Brazil’s February daily exports outpaced shipments
Chinese iron ore futures have hit their lowest in more than three weeks on Tuesday, after news that Brazil’s average daily exports in February 2018 outpaced shipments.
Brazil’s daily exports reached 1.4 million tonnes of iron ore per business day, despite last month’s mine disaster.
According to Secex data, Brazil’s amount exceeded the average daily shipments of the mineral by almost 8%.
Brazil’s exports paced slower compared with January, with an average of 1.5 million tones of iron ore per day being shipped.
The most-traded iron ore contract on the Dalian Commodity Exchange fell as much as 4.4% in early trade on Tuesday, falling an average of 11 % since it’s the highest trade in February.
Hot rolled coil edged 0.1 % higher while coking coal was down 0.4% and spot iron ore for delivery to China inched up.
Construction steel rebar futures were also lower, with the most-active rebar contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange falling as much as 1.4 %.
Vale mining burst tragedy
The Vale mining tragedy saw a tailings dam burst at a Vale iron ore mining facility last month, killing 300 people. Due to the incident, Vale halted all facilities using similar upstream tailings, putting 10% of its output offline.
The incident attracted growing concerns of a major global disruption in production and supply.
Earlier in the month, Chinese traders had led to the exchange hitting its daily limit, seeing the commodity trade as high as the exchange would allow, with the price not able to go higher.
This information has been prepared by IG, a trading name of IG Markets Ltd and IG Markets South Africa Limited. In addition to the disclaimer below, the material on this page does not contain a record of our trading prices, or an offer of, or solicitation for, a transaction in any financial instrument. IG accepts no responsibility for any use that may be made of these comments and for any consequences that result. No representation or warranty is given as to the accuracy or completeness of this information. Consequently any person acting on it does so entirely at their own risk. Any research provided does not have regard to the specific investment objectives, financial situation and needs of any specific person who may receive it. It has not been prepared in accordance with legal requirements designed to promote the independence of investment research and as such is considered to be a marketing communication. Although we are not specifically constrained from dealing ahead of our recommendations we do not seek to take advantage of them before they are provided to our clients. See full non-independent research disclaimer and quarterly summary.
Speculate on commodities
Trade commodity futures, as well as 27 commodity markets with no fixed expiries.1
- Wide range of popular and niche metals, energies and softs
- Spreads from 0.3 pts on Spot Gold, 2 pts on Spot Silver and 2.8 pts on Oil
- View continuous charting, backdated for up to five years
1In the case of all DFBs, there is a fixed expiry at some point in the future.
Live prices on most popular markets
- Forex
- Shares
- Indices
Prices above are subject to our website terms and agreements. Prices are indicative only
