Seaborne iron ore prices jumped on Friday as confidence grew steel markets would remain steady and mills would continue to buy ore. FMG meanwhile saw only minimal disruption from a bush fire which approached close to its Solomon Hub.

The Kallanish KORE 62% Fe index jumped $2.18/tonne to $69.58dry metric ton cfr Qingdao. On COREX, 170,000 tonnes of PB fines sold at $69.4/t. On the Dalian Commodity Exchange May 2019 iron ore settled up CNY 5/t at CNY 481/t ($70.04/t), while on the Singapore Exchange January 62% Fe futures settled up $1.75/t at $68.19/t. In Tangshan, billet prices gained another CNY 20/t to CNY 3,350/t.

Although there was initially concern of a disruption to production at FMG, a more direct support for iron ore prices were continued moves to control production. While winter restrictions have proved limited, mills are announcing more maintenance and market inventories have remained low. That has helped give the market confidence in sustained steel margins and ongoing demand for ore when the market goes into its Spring Festival seasonal upturn next year. Seaborne cargoes bought now are for January delivery and soon booking will be for the post-Chinese New Year period.

FMG says it saw only a minimal stoppage as a result of a bush fire which threatened its Solomon mining hub. The fire has been raging since Tuesday but on Friday morning the Department of Fire and Emergency Services issued an alert that the fire was threatening to reach the mining area.

The emergency services carried out controlled burns around FMG facilities and the threat is now reported to have been lifted. FMG ceo Elizabeth Gaines said stoppage had been minimal and operations had returned to normal with no damage to FMG’s site or infrastructure.