Today, Dalian iron ore futures pulled back from highs, with the most-traded contract I2509 closing at 812, down 0.61% for the day. Traders’ willingness to sell was average. Steel mills purchased as needed. The market transaction sentiment weakened. In the Shandong region, the mainstream transaction prices of PB fines were around 788 yuan/mt, down 10 yuan/mt from yesterday’s prices. In the Tangshan region, the transaction prices of PB fines were around 800-805 yuan/mt, down 5-10 yuan/mt from yesterday’s prices. According to the SMM survey, on July 23, the operating rate of blast furnaces at 242 steel mills surveyed by SMM was 86.90%, down 0.11 percentage point MoM. The daily average hot metal production of the sampled steel mills was 2.4211 million mt, down 2,100 mt MoM. In the short term, hot metal production is expected to fluctuate rangebound, providing some support for ore prices. However, macro sentiment has cooled somewhat, leading to a decline in ore prices today. Aftention should be paid to the impact of tomorrow’s industrial data and the content.

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Source: Metals Market Index (MMI)