Today, Dalian iron ore futures held up well during the session but dived at the close. The most-traded contract I2601 eventually closed at 795, unchanged from yesterday. Traders’ willingness to sell was moderate; steel mills restocked on demand. The market transaction sentiment was average. In the Shandong region, the mainstream transaction prices of PB fines were around 785-788 yuan/mt, unchanged from yesterday’s prices; in the Tangshan region, the transaction prices of PB fines were around 795-800 yuan/mt, unchanged from yesterday’s prices. On August 13, the operating rate of blast furnaces at 242 steel mills, as surveyed by SMM, was 86.49%, down 0.4 percentage points MoM. The daily average hot metal production of the sampled steel mills was 2.4123 million mt, down 4,300 mt MoM. Hot metal production slightly decreased but remained at a high level. Despite ongoing rumors about production restrictions in the north, the current oral notifications received by steel mills mainly focused on production restrictions for sintering machines, which may have a limited impact on hot metal.

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Source: Metals Market Index (MMI)