As the year is approaching, iron ore has made new highs in the market of “having no price”. The “Economic Information Daily” reporter learned on the 24th that the quotation for iron ore in the port has been increased from US$170/ton at the beginning of the month to nearly US$190/ton, setting a record high; the first quarter with Rio Tinto and the Chinese steel mills was confirmed. The contract price is about US$142/tonne (CIF), which is nearly 50 US dollars/ton higher.

“According to the current port spot price calculation, plus other fees, iron ore is equivalent to about 1,500 yuan/ton, equivalent to 250 to 260 yuan per ton of steel cost. Under the current steel prices, steel mills will have large profits. Shrinkage, even a loss.” A person in North China Steel Plant told the “Economic Information Daily” reporter.

However, at the same time when prices are hitting high prices, the actual turnover of iron ore is not satisfactory. A port trader stated that at present, traders have reduced resources in their hands and are reluctant to sell their goods. They are not willing to cut prices easily. On the other hand, it is difficult for steel mills to accept the current ore prices, and the buyers and sellers have stagnated. According to the latest data, the price of external disks on the 24th is firm, with 63.5 external disks being quoted at US$187-189/dmt; imported iron ore spot market, Tianjin Port (8.15, 0.04, 0.49%) 63.5 The price of powder is 1340 yuan/ Wet tons.

This reporter learned that the Spring Festival approaching, most steel mills basically completed pre-holiday stocking, has no procurement in the port, steel market transactions are relatively light. The total number of iron ore inventories at 19 ports was counted on United Metals Week, which totaled 83.86 million tons, an increase of 1.57 million tons from the previous week.

For the current round of higher iron ore prices, Liu Danyang, channel analyst of United Metals and Ores said to the reporter of the “Economic Information Daily” that on the one hand, the news of restricting the export of iron ore in Orissa, India, will permeate the market. At the same time, there is another news that India's iron ore export tariffs may be uniformly raised from 5% to 15% to 20%. On the other hand, floods in Australia affect iron ore production and Brazilian rainstorms affect shipments, resulting in an increase in the market. The judgment of the shortage of iron ore supply in the later period. Because of this, traders’ enthusiasm for picking up goods has increased, and the bullish attitude has been strong. Imported iron ore prices have been pushed up all the way.

“The artificially driven factors of rising iron ore prices are very large.” Xu Xiangchun, the information director of “My Steel Network”, said in an interview with reporters that in the event of weather disasters and tariff policies affecting supply, the three largest mines that have monopolized the situation are also You can take this opportunity to find a "reasonable" argument that delays delivery time and push up ore prices by controlling shipments. "Economic Information Daily" reporter learned that a domestic trader said that the domestic side has received a notice from Australia, iron ore to delay delivery.

While prices continue to rise, the shipping market, which is a barometer of iron ore market demand, is unusually “downturned”. It is understood that BDI closed at 1370 points last weekend and fell to its lowest level in nearly two years. In terms of freight, Western Australia-Qingdao freight was $6.729/ton on the 24th, and Tubalang-Qingdao freight in Brazil was $18.104/ton on the 24th. "This reflects to some extent that ore demand is not strong, and the current price increase lacks reason." Xu Xiangchun said.

“At present, the spot market prices continue to rise, and the three major mines will also increase the iron ore quotation in the second quarter. The temporary cost advantage of implementing the quarterly pricing steel mills will also disappear and the steel industry will face great challenges,” Xu Xiangchun said.

Xu Xiangchun told reporters that it will take some time for raw material prices to reflect on the cost of the steel mills. It is expected that it will gradually show up in March after the holiday. For the steel mills, the cost pressure will inevitably shift downstream, causing the price of steel to rise. However, from the current situation, it is still impossible to judge the trend of steel prices in the later period. It is worth noting that the overall “oversupply” pressure on steel production this year is still under pressure, and the downstream steel price acceptance capacity is very limited. With the limited room for steel price rise, the “bitter bitter” of accelerating costs may require more steel mills. Take it yourself.

It is understood that as the price of iron ore is pushed up, the cost control of steel enterprises becomes more and more difficult, and steel end users are increasingly dissatisfied with the changing steel prices. At present, Germany's ThyssenKrupp has started to add raw material surcharges to steel sold in Europe.