Today, DCE iron ore futures continued to fluctuate rangebound in a relatively strong trend, with the most-traded contract I2509 closing at 736.5, up 0.68% for the day. Traders’ willingness to sell was moderate. Steel mills mainly purchased as needed, and inquiries were moderate. The market transaction atmosphere was good. In the Shandong region, the mainstream transaction prices of PB fines were around 726 yuan/ mt, up 2-3 yuan/mt from the previous day. In the Tangshan region, the transaction prices of PB fines were around 735-740 yuan/mt, up 2-5 yuan/mt from the previous day. On July 9, the operating rate of blast furnaces at 242 steel mills, as surveyed by SMM, was 87.28%, down 0.26 percentage point MoM. The daily average pig iron production of the sampled steel mills was 2.4118 million mt, down 0.19 million mt MoM. Although pig iron production has declined slightly, supported by high profits at steel mills, the extent of production cuts is limited, and there are expectations for production increase next week, keeping iron ore demand at a high level. Additionally, as overseas mines enter the mainte- nance period in July, shipments have pulled back, further tightening the supply and demand structure of iron ore. The fundamentals continue

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Source: Metals Market Index (MMI)