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Thursday, January 27, 2011

Chinese iron ore market in holiday mood

Thursday, 27 Jan 2011

Reuters reported that offers to sell iron ore to China remained unchanged on Wednesday as steel mills stopped buying in the final week before the Lunar New Year holiday although key indexes continued to hover near record highs on Tuesday.

China iron ore market has gradually ground to a halt this week as the February 2 to 8 Lunar New Year holiday approaches, and offers of Indian ore with 63.5% iron content selling to China stood little changed at about USD 190 per tonne.

An iron ore trader in Shanghai said "Our steel mill customers have already stopped buying raw materials this week; there is no market at all right now."
Another Shanghai based trader said "There is not much time left to open letters of credit if you buy forward bookings now, and steel mills have stocked up already."

However, a few larger steel mills continue to buy the raw material from ports. Prices are cheaper than forward bookings and buyers are also concerned that costs will rise further after the holiday.(Sourced from Reuters)

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