Friday, April 2, 2010

TSI iron ore index finishes March at new high

The Steel Index (TSI) daily iron ore spot reference price for 62% Fe content fines finished March at a new high yesterday, reaching US$155.0 per dry metric tonne CFR Tianjin port in China. This price is 162% higher than a year ago, when the spot price dropped to US$59.1/dmt in the last week of March 2009.

The average monthly price for TSI’s 62% Fe reference product in March was $139.77/dmt. This is up 9.5% from the February average of $126.62/dmt and up 125% from the March 2009 average of $61.85/dmt.

This monthly price is the value used for settling the cleared swap contracts offered on the Singapore Exchange (SGX), LCH.Clearnet in London as well as other Over-The-Counter (OTC) forward contracts. SGX and LCH.Clearnet both use exclusively TSI’s iron ore index.

Significantly, the current spot price is 130% higher than the annual fixed-price ‘benchmark’ level agreed last year between the Australian miners and Japanese steel mills, on an FOB Australia basis.  This benchmark agreement officially expired yesterday.

Agreements for this year look set to use a new pricing system, based on index prices such as those published by The Steel Index, adjusted on a quarterly basis.

TSI’s average price for its 62% Fe reference product in the first 3 months of 2010 was $131.62/dmt, up just over 35% on the average price for the 4th quarter of 2009 and up 87% on the same quarter in 2009.
TSI’s daily iron ore reference price for 58% Fe content fines also achieved a record level yesterday, reaching US$128.9 per dry metric tonne CFR Tianjin port in China.

For further information:
Please contact:  Virginia Mainwaring +44 20 7645 9413 marketing@thesteelindex.com

Note to Editors:
The Steel Index (TSI) is the premier source of independent, reliable, iron ore and steel price information based on actual transactions.  Iron ore prices are published daily at 12:00 GMT.  Steel prices are published weekly on Mondays.
 
TSI provides a highly rigorous price discovery service for steel and iron ore prices in major regions around the world.  Price data is submitted confidentially on-line by companies for a range of steel and iron ore products they buy or sell.  Reference prices are then calculated using transparent and verifiable procedures.

TSI provides the mining, trading and steel industries with the frequent and reliable iron ore price information they need for conducting their business in this volatile market, as well as supplying the financial community and clearing houses with the data required for a highly liquid swaps market.  TSI’s iron ore index is also widely used for settling Over-the-Counter (OTC) swap contracts world-wide. 

Singapore Exchange (SGX) and LCH.Clearnet both use exclusively TSI’s iron ore index for settling their monthly cleared iron ore swaps contracts. Their settlement prices are the monthly average of TSI’s daily 62% Fe iron ore reference prices published in the expiring month.

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