Prices for seaborne iron ore concentrate and pellets fell in the week ended Friday January 29 amid a downtrend for the fines segment in the same week.
Fastmarkets iron ore indices
66% Fe concentrate, cfr Qingdao: $185.25 per tonne, down $9.44 per tonne.
65% Fe blast furnace pellet, cfr Qingdao: $225.49 per tonne, down $3.77 per tonne
Key drivers
Seaborne prices for iron ore fines fell steeply last week amid narrowing mill margins, weak steel demand and rising steel inventory levels.
Prices for 62% Fe iron ore ended last week about $11 per tonne lower, and
fell as low as $157.42 per tonne last Thursday.
The weakened sentiment in the spot market also affected derivatives, resulted in losses for both the iron ore futures on China's Dalian Commodity Exchange and swaps on the Singapore Exchange.
High-grade iron ore such as concentrate and pellets were not spared the downtrend, market sources said.
But a trading source in southern China said he felt that the demand for seaborne iron ore concentrate remained...