Today’s snapshot — 2026-08-03
Top mover: Iron ore KORE 61% Fe CFR Qingdao +$2.98 (+3.13%) to $98.27 — retracing most of the record −$3.82 fall in one session, on Port Hedland supply uncertainty (Kallanish). All prints are 31 Jul data.
Notable prices:
- Black Sea billet export (MB-STE-0558) = $474/t (+$10, +2.16%) — reverses the untested 28 Jul −$6 cut
- Pakistan shredded CFR Qasim (MB-STE-0887) = $416.64/t (+$3.16, +0.76%) — fifth straight gain, still above Turkey
- India shredded CFR Nhava Sheva (MB-STE-0421) = $385.35/t (+$5.91, +1.56%) — fourth gain, supply-driven
- Turkey US-origin HMS (MB-STE-0417) = $377.76/t (0.00%) — frozen a fifth session; shredded $393.21 (0.00%)
- Italy E40 shredded delivered (MB-STE-0849) = €320–335 (−€15, −4.38%) — first fresh print in ~75 issues; German E40 fell an identical −€15
Headline driver: The desk brief leads on de-escalation — a paused US strike on Iran, Brent −5%, added OPEC+ supply — though Hormuz traffic stayed reduced. ⚠️ It also calls the Turkey forward curve “firm”; physical is frozen a fifth session and the curve’s own level sits $10–15 below late-July, so that claim is unconfirmed.
Action signal: No actionable ferrous signal — re-request freight quotes on the lower-oil pause, but do not mark freight down until a carrier writes it, and avoid long-validity fixed offers.