NGLOY - Big miners tumble as iron ore sinks to four-month lows

2023-04-21 09:17:32 ET

Iron ore futures fell for a third straight session Friday to their lowest since December, as weaker than expected buying interest from steel mills and rising port inventories weighed on spot prices and pressured futures markets.

According to Reuters, the most-traded September iron ore ( SCO:COM ) on the Dalian Commodity Exchange ended daytime trading -4.8% to 730.5 yuan/metric ton ($105.96), and the benchmark May iron ore on the Singapore Exchange -5.8% to $108.65/ton, both at their lowest in nearly four months.

Global miners Rio Tinto ( NYSE: RIO ), BHP ( NYSE: BHP ) and Vale ( NYSE: VALE ) are indicated lower in the pre-market, -3.5% , -3.1% and -2% respectively; other relevant tickers include ( OTCQX:FSUMF ), ( OTCPK:GLCNF ), ( OTCPK:GLNCY ), ( OTCQX:AAUKF ), ( OTCQX:NGLOY )

Iron ore inventories at 45 major Chinese ports surveyed by Mysteel increased by 1.2M metric tons on the week to 130.3M tons as of April 21.

A worse than expected 19% Y/Y drop in new China housing starts in the past quarter suggests weak demand for raw materials, according to analysts at international brokerage firm FIS.

Morgan Stanley recently warned iron ore prices could tumble to $90/ton by year-end .

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