Raw material prices to keep dropping

摘要

Prices for coking coal and iron ore moved in different directions in January. Prices for Australian coal dropped by $80/t to $175-185/t FOB Australia, while quotes of Australian concentrate (61.5% Fe) were within $77-84/t ($81/t CFR China as of mid-January), up $1/t month-on-month.Iron ore pricing is still depending on finished steel quotes on the Shang?hai Futures Exchange instead of market factors. Meanwhile, iron ore inventories at Chinese ports hit new high of 119.5 million t in January, with oversupply building up in the Chinese market. We believe that the surplus will cause global iron ore price trend to reverse in the near future.