Today the most-traded iron ore contract I2605 con nued to fluctuate upward, closing at 768 yuan/mt, up 1.25% from the previous working day. Traders ac vely sold goods, while steel mills cau ously waited and purchased as needed. Transac ons were mainly driven by steel mill procurement, and the trading atmosphere was sluggish. In Shandong, the transac on price of PB fines was 783-790 yuan/mt, up 3-5 yuan/mt from the previous day; in Hebei, the transac on price of PB fines was 795-803 yuan/mt, up 3-5 yuan/mt from the previous day. According to the SMM survey, on December 17, the blast furnace opera ng rate at the 242 steel mills surveyed by SMM was 84.64%, down 0.59 percentage points MoM. The daily average hot metal produc on at the sample steel mills was 2.3477 Mt, down 14,200 mt MoM. Recently, affected by environmental protec on-driven produc on restric ons in the north, some steel mills halted blast furnaces for maintenance or idling, leading to a con nued decline in hot metal produc on. The fundamental supply-demand picture for iron ore remains weak. However, considering the short-term produc on decline, which benefits steel prices, and the current recovery in steel mill profits, market pessimism has eased somewhat, driving a slight rebound in ore prices.

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Source: Metals Market Index (MMI)