SMM

SHANGHAI, Apr 28 (SMM) – Since the beginning of this week, steel mills in some areas have seen their finished product inventory accumulate severely due to slack demand. To cope with this situation, steel mills in Shaanxi, Shanxi and Sichuan have started a new round of intensive maintenance on their blast furnaces. In particular, blast furnaces under maintenance in Shanxi outnumbered other regions. As a consequence, the demand for iron ore dropped sharply early this week, so did its prices. However, pig iron production remained high compared with the same period last year. This, combined with stocking ahead of the Labour Day holiday, drove iron ore prices to rebound later in the week. The spot prices of PB fines at ports in Shandong lost 60-70 yuan/mt on a weekly basis.