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Iron ore prices trade lower Thursday with signs of stronger supply, as iron ore shipments from Port Hedland, Australia’s largest bulk export terminal, swelled to a record in June.
Exports from Port Hedland rose to 54.6M last month, exceeding a peak set a year ago, and YTD cargoes increased to ~288M tons, edging past the previous half-year record of 286.9M tons set last year, according to Pilbara Ports Authority data.
The Port Hedland complex in Western Australia handles cargoes for producers including BHP (NYSE:BHP) and Fortescue (OTCQX:FSUMF), which reported record annual iron ore shipments of 198.4M tons in the 12 months through June, up 4% Y/Y.
On Thursday, Fortescue (OTCQX:FSUMF) also said it will not proceed with green hydrogen projects in Arizona and Gladstone, Australia.
Analysts at Jarden praised the strong performance of Fortescue’s (OTCQX:FSUMF) iron ore operations, as “the standout performance for us was in cost control,” as the miner’s production expenses declined by 1% in its first annual reduction in costs since FY 2020.
Vale (NYSE:VALE) said earlier this week it produced 83.6M tons of iron ore in Q2, the company’s highest Q2 output since 2021.
Sentiment in the iron ore market nevertheless remains broadly positive following the Chinese government’s announcement that it will proceed with a 1.2T yuan hydropower project, which could provide a massive boost to the steel and concrete sectors, ANZ Research analysts wrote.
The most actively traded September iron ore contract (SCO:COM) on the Dalian Commodity Exchange recently traded -0.7% at 809.5 yuan/ton.