Heavy rainfall in southeastern Brazil has prompted miners including Vale SA to suspend some operations, they said on Monday, after downpours caused deadly floods in the northeast and threatened to delay harvests in the midwest
Rainfall is expected to remain heavy this week in most of top mining state Minas Gerais, after runoff closed roads and railways
Iron ore prices fell about 3% on Friday, as the market is on the lookout for Chinese government policy towards steel output controls
“It will be interesting to see if China will ease its steel curtailment policy after the Winter Olympics,” CreditSights said in a report“While that seems unlikely given the country’s longer-term decarbonization targets, it remains to be seen how strictly the local steelmakers will follow the policy given the lucrative margins across all major steel products”
“Our view for iron ore price remains unchanged for 2022, at an average $100 tonne – lower than in 2021, but still at historically elevated levels. Producers face lower steel output in China amid environmental controls, weakening property construction market and energy pressures in manufacturing,” Moody’s said in a note
Benchmark iron ore futures on the Dalian Commodity Exchange slipped 2.3% to 722 yuan per tonne, while spot iron ore inched up $0.5 to $132.5 on Thursday, according to SteelHome consultancy
According to Fastmarkets MB, benchmark 62% Fe fines imported into Northern China were changing hands for $128.01 a tonne during morning trading, down 1.4% compared to Monday’s closing
China’s December iron ore imports slumped 18% month-on-month to 86.07 million tonnes, sending its annual purchase to 1.12 billion tonnes in 2021, down from the record high a year earlier, customs data showed